Branding and Website Design- Bringing it all Together
When it comes to designing a website for a business or individual, there are many factors involved. A website can be a very important part of the branding process and to fully understand this, we need to understand what a brand is.
First, a brand is a symbol. It represents something else. In this case, it represents a company or corporation and its employees and owners. In branding, you want all visual imagery of a brand to match and to give the same impression- and to ensure that impression is congruent with the message the brand wants to give. Consistent imagery, sounds and visuals of the brand are important.
So when building branding within a website, you need to look at more than just creating a nice website. You also want to ensure the website design you create fits with the overall brand and sends the same message to the customers and potential customers as other parts of their branding.
There are several factors to consider when bringing it all together with proper branding. Let’s take a look at some of them.
Color: The color scheme is one of the first things that people think about when it comes to branding design. Most everyone knows that Coke is red and Pepsi is blue. These are signature colors that are now an integral part of the brand’s image. To build the Coca-Cola website with a blue theme would mix that message. There is a lot that goes into choosing the colors that you will use in branding. You need to consider the brand and what they do, the culture that they are marketing to as well as have a solid understanding of what different colors mean.
Consistency: Next, you need to remember consistency and this is more important than many realize. Consistency is what helps make your brand memorable. When you repeat your theme, it makes it easier to remember, thus creating memories in the viewer. When you have a consistent web design and brand, they will see your visuals, colors and other representations of the brand and know that it is you each time. This builds familiarity, which has been proven to be a large factor in consumer purchase habits.
Logo: There is much more to branding than a logo and a lot of people misunderstand the importance of this. The logo needs to be consistent with the rest of the brand and not just a pretty image. The size and position of the logo is also important. In web design, it’s generally accepted to link the logo to the website’s home page and also to place it in the top left corner of the site. This is where the visitor is used to viewing the logo and it helps maintain consistency.
Tone: Another important factor in branding the website is tone. This is the voice or the impression that you give from the website graphics and copy. Again, it should be consistent. You will throw the reader off if you have serious, professional graphics but copy that is funny and silly- or vice versa. The tone should match throughout all the different pages and sections of the website, too.
Some other factors that come into bringing it all together in branding website design are emotion, the uniqueness of the brand and the design and the character that you bring to the brand. It’s a fairly complicated process and just not as simple as slapping some images together with some functions on the website. It’s the total package.
Branding and website design truly bring it all together to help you client maximize their potential and build solid brand awareness.
Leave a Reply