Picking a brand graphic style is one of the most creative and stimulating phases of the brand building process. This is where you’ll make some bold upfront decisions about the personality of your brand and the market you want to appeal to. Your brand will begin to glow with its own particular energy.
The bull’s eye we’re aiming for here lies right in between the expected and the unexpected.
Creating an instant first impression of what your brand is all about means using certain conventions that viewers are familiar with. At the same time, you want to avoid the trap of sameness to ensure that your brand is distinct in its category. Here are three goals to think about as you consider your options:
- Pick a broad brand graphic style. Go with a category that feels most suited to your brand. This could include something that doesn’t just look cool, but also helps to establish the right context and industry.
- Use aesthetic guard-rails to narrow down decisions. Be selective when it comes to choosing the graphics, colors, and fonts that will add up to your unique brand identity. Careful consideration at this stage will ultimately make your design process faster and easier. Slow down at the start to speed up at the end.
Striking The Right Balance Between Strategy And Creativity
This task isn’t always easy, but we’re here to show you how to hit the right note with your brand graphic style and identity. For example, we might associate a real estate brand with a corporate style:
But a savvy new agency with a playful aesthetic might seem more approachable. They’re more likely to be in touch with the younger generation, if that’s who they’re targeting.
On the flipside, you’ll need to consider your brand’s style. If it’s too bold and playful it could create an impression of being wild and reckless. Some people might hesitate in making their life’s largest financial investment with you.
Why It’s Important To Be Consistent
Being consistent is not only about making your life easier, but also about developing consistency with your brand’s visual identity. If you’re switching up your graphics every two weeks, customers have to constantly rewire their associations with your style.
By keeping things consistent, people will become familiar with your brand on sight. Over time, they’ll feel like they know you. Consistency and reliability are traits that define trustworthy people – and the same is true for your brand.
This definitely doesn’t mean locking yourself into a very specific aesthetic. We’re setting up guidelines for your brand, not laws.
Your brand graphic style should be able to expand, evolve, and adapt to different situations.
But these will be variations of a consistent theme. Try to avoid knee-jerking departures from the brand identity you’re building over time.
You should absolutely keep an eye out for new trends that you can incorporate into your designs. This will help you keep things fresh and relevant. At the same time, make sure they work within your world. Don’t get distracted by every shiny new thing on your Instagram feed.
Building a brand identity is a process. You need to commit to it and see it through to ultimately reap the benefits.
Defining A Brand Graphic Style
Labels can be problematic, but they’re useful when considering big aesthetic categories for your brand’s style. You might ultimately describe your unique style as “Neo-Glitchwave-Industrial” or “Maximalist-Tropical-Psychedelia,” but we need to start with broad strokes at first.
Style is of course subjective, but there are some categories that are universally agreed upon. If nothing else, these categories help designers and clients communicate better with each other. We typically refer to ten key design themes, or brand graphic styles, from which almost any variation or combination is possible:
- Bold
- Organic
- Modern
- Minimal
- Playful
- Street
- Elegant
- Corporate
- Classic
- Luxury
As we take take a closer look at each one, consider the following ideas:
- The characteristics of each style
- Typography usage
- Industries they suit best
While there’s definitely logic involved in making these decisions, your eye will almost certainly gravitate towards the brand graphic style that feels right for your brand. Trust these instincts.
Bold
This style is completely unmissable in contemporary design and is easy on the eye. Let’s take a look at what makes this design style so unique.
Key Characteristics
As the name implies, the foundation of this aesthetic includes big chunky shapes, graphics, and colors. Bold is also a kind of personality too. Think of it as an individual (or a brand) with confidence, charisma, and vision. It’s key characteristics are:
- High impact
- High contrast
- Clean
- Geometric
- Super-sized
Although this brand graphic style isn’t very complex, words and shapes can be super-sized to dominate the composition. Its aesthetic is striking, typically quite geometric, with very deliberate composition. You’ll also notice that impactful photographic imagery is often part of the package.
Typography Style
Typography plays a big role here. It frequently steals the show altogether with text as design. Bold fonts tend to be from the Sans-Serif family and include styles that are:
- Fat
- Wide
- Bold Condensed
- Display fonts that sometimes have design detail (think inlaid textures or patterns)
As such, bold styling often revolves around unmissable messaging.
Avoid literal objects, detailed illustrations, and textures if possible.
Unlike street style, which has a big overlap with similar industries, bold keeps things:
- Clean
- Refined
- Hard-edged
Texture, fading, and imperfection aren’t big features of this brand graphic style. These are better explored through flat or high contrast color expression. There’s also no sense of nostalgia, since bold is of the here and now.
Industries Best Suited For
Anyone can be bold, but these are the industries most likely to adopt a brave and striking aesthetic, reflective of their progressive attitude:
- Urban lifestyle brands
- Urban fashion brands
- Art & design sectors
- Music industry
- Product retail industry
- Tech industry
Organic
Classical brand graphic styles typically revolve around:
- Grids
- Margins
- Baselines
Geometry is the framework that holds everything together in a precisely measured way. Fluid, organic design rebels against this formalism with a more intuitive approach.
Key Characteristics
Organic design often evokes a feeling of harmony and flow, which is more natural than mechanical. Key style characteristics include choices that are:
- Fluid
- Flowing
- Harmonious
- Natural
- Handmade
If you’re seeking out a very expressive brand graphic style – more spontaneous than rational – then you’ve arrived at the right chapter in our story.
The organic brand style can draw on a very handmade aesthetic. It often calls to mind the texture and curvaceousness of the living world (think pebbles, leaves, and rivers). For brands moving in this direction, your color palette will inevitably reference nature. You should draw from the tones of:
- Sand
- Rock
- Forests
- Ocean
Typography Style
Anything that resembles imperfection is a hallmark of this visual brand graphic style. It’s not a bad idea to pick an expressive organic font for headlines. You can even pair this with a simple and legible sans-serif for copy in your designs. Fonts in this dimension would typically be:
- Loose
- Flowing
- Handwritten
Other types of fonts that make sense here could include:
- Brush scripts
- Handmade lettering
- Textured fonts
The organic style can also be applied in a more vibrant “pop” mode. It should present as fluid and overlap shapes in flat or bright colors. In this more clean-cut approach, your fonts should be drawn from the same collections as a bold or modern aesthetic.
Industries Best Suited For
Industries that you’re most likely to see playing in the world of organic brand graphic style, include:
- Beauty
- Skincare
- Lifestyle
- Retail – crafted, product
- Bloggers
- Fashion
- Art
- Alternative health & wellness
- Health Food
- Wellness professionals: physio, nutritionist etc.
Modern
Modern doesn’t necessarily mean contemporary or the opposite of old-fashioned. In the aesthetic sense of the word, this brand style references a specific time period between the 1940s and the 1960s. This is when a clean-cut, restrained, and functional brand graphic style rose to popularity.
Key Characteristics
Today, modern design is constantly evolving. But some of its central characteristics remain rooted in the new ideas of this era. Some of these key style characteristics include:
- Contemporary
- Clean
- Structured
- Strong
- Minimalist
More contemporary interpretations use a clean or crisp layout as the foundation of a design. They also layer the following brand graphic styles on top of this as a point of contrast:
- Shapes
- Vivid colors
- Synthetic textures
Typography Style
Modern brand graphic style uses blocking of color and strong imagery, with highly legible text. The typefaces can be structured Display Sans Serifs or Serifs, but they should always be legible and strategically placed. The white space is less than that seen on minimal aesthetics, thus steering them apart.
Colors tend to be neutral and mixed with contrasted tones like charcoal, black, or a stronger hue. You’ll normally see one color as the accent, mixed in with white or neutral tones.
Industries Best Suited For
Industries that would typically lean towards a modern style include:
- High end product/retail
- Architecture/Interiors
- Fashion
- High-end Real Estate
- Lifestyle brands
- Hospitality (eg. Hotels)
- Business (Finance, Legal)
Minimal
Less is more is the minimalist mantra. It’s often said that the best design is invisible. This is especially true when working with this brand graphic style.
Key Characteristics
This design doesn’t try to steal the show – it’s chiefly about showcasing the content. A minimal brand style graphic sets up a subtle, but highly efficient framework for this. Its key style characteristics include:
- Precision
- Balance
- Grids
- Space
- Restraint
The overriding look and feel is:
- Clean
- Crisp
- Timeless
Most minimal brand graphic styles include a large amount of empty space in the composition. It attempts to focus the eye rather than allowing it to explore the page. This is a no-frills attitude that suggests confidence in your offering. It shows that you value quality over quantity and that your brand is focused, with clarity of vision.
Typography Style
The heart of every minimalist design is a typeface that’s clean and easy to read. A contemporary take on minimalism would usually rely on simple Sans-Serif fonts or one of the on-trend Delicate Serifs. Classical Roman serifs would also feel right at home in a more elegant or luxurious brand graphic style.
Color palettes are very limited and subdued in this design expression. It falls in line with maintaining focus on the core message and transmits a feeling of visual tranquility. Hues tend to be natural or pastel, with subtle contrast created through darker and lighter tones of the same color.
Industries Best Suited For
The minimal aesthetic is for brands that want something simple, but memorable. The content is more of the hero than the design style here. Categories where you’re likely to see this style dominate include:
- Fashion
- Beauty & Skincare
- Health and Wellness
- Consulting
- Graphic Design
- Home Decor
- Design
On a minimalist canvas, graphics ought to be used sparingly and with great consideration. Clutter is a big no-no, so you’re likely to only use one or two simple shapes, lines, or markings as an accent in a spacious design. Repeating patterns are generally a bit overwhelming in this style. If you’re looking for illustrations, think thin, hand-drawn sketches, and doodles.
Playful
You’ll probably know your brand graphic style is destined to be playful at the very sight of the word. If you have a playful brand, this is likely already woven into the DNA of your product, your company, and your view of the world.
Key Characteristics
Brands aimed at kids are obvious candidates here, but a playful aesthetic in design has universal appeal. It typically conjures up a sense of being:
- Fun
- Loose
- Energetic
- Child-like
- Humorous
- Spontaneous
Whether it’s cryptocurrency or frozen yoghurt, this brand graphic style is for those that want to be seen as friendly and approachable. It puts people at ease and can make dreaded adulting necessities (like insurance, finance, travel, real estate etc.) less daunting and even appealing.
Don’t be fooled into thinking playful is synonymous with silly. Some of the world’s biggest brands opt for this approach in their brand identity or multi-million dollar campaigns. Childlike expression has been a surging trend in both art and fashion for a while now. It often overrides structured designs and represents unbridled creative energy with:
- Spontaneous patterns
- Marks
- Doodles
Typography Style
This visual brand graphic style is synonymous with handwritten and rounded typefaces. It rejects machine-made typography in favor of a more handmade look and the feel is indicative of the underlying spirit that celebrates:
- Humanity
- Authenticity
- Simplicity
It’s an emotive approach that focuses more on feeling rather than logic. Beyond communicating a message, it ought to be fun to look at and ignite a teeny spark of joy.
There aren’t too many hard rules in the color department here, but it goes without saying that bright and vivid hues would be the order of the day. There’s also more license to pick out a wider color palette than with other brand graphic styles. In fact, it’s often the experimentation of unusual color combinations that adds the playfulness to this design.
Industries Best Suited For
Again, don’t think too literally here. A playful visual style is broadly applicable. Some of the most obvious industries that might consider this colorful and energetic approach would be:
- Babies & kids
- Food & drinks
- Restaurants
- Clothing apparel
- Arts, DIY and crafts
- Designers
Street
The culture of rebellion has many guises that range from punk to hip-hop to vaporwave. These examples form the foundation of the street aesthetic and have a broad style that caters to a huge range of brands in the music, fashion, and lifestyle domains.
Key Characteristics
This brand graphic style is highly susceptible to trend cycles and often hard to pin down because of its constant evolution. However, the following key characteristics offer a more general overview:
- Raw
- Real
- Rough
- Gritty
- Grunge
Of course, there are some overarching characteristics that tend to orbit around what the street style is rebelling against. Pixel-perfect precision and classical graphic design ideals have little place in the street style playbook. Designers who work in this visual brand graphic style often strive to distort, fade, warp, or deconstruct their imagery.
A street style design aims to move away from perfection and not towards it.
Wilder variations of street style might even go so far as to be considered anti-design and the goal can be considered a beautiful chaos. It has compositions that intrigue viewers because of its unconventional complexity.
Color palettes are defined by a willingness to experiment and stand out with striking or unexpected combinations. This is where you’re most likely to see neon or synthetic hues, often swirling with energy.
Typography Style
You’ll want to pick out a couple of unique Display fonts to hero your collection. Typography in this domain doesn’t whisper – it shouts. Some adjectives to look out for here, include:
- Bold
- Chunky
- Warped
- Textured
You could even consider something as dramatic as an 18th century blackletter font.
Industries Best Suited For
Unsurprisingly, this brand graphic style is popular with the vanguards of street culture. This could include:
- Artists
- Musicians
- Magazines
- Bars
- It’s also a great option for any brand with a rock ‘n roll edge, including but not limited to:
- Urban/streetwear fashion brands
- Culture/lifestyle blogs
- Footwear brands
- Music industry
- Bars & clubs
- Automotive/motor industry
Elegant
They say elegance is something you either have or you don’t have. But they also say that perception is reality.
Key Characteristics
Borrowing traits from other categories, elegant design finds middle ground between classicism and modernity. It’s timeless, but very much in tune with the here and now. You can also consider it to be luxurious, but try to avoid any excess.
Although it is similar to minimalism, you don’t have to be afraid of adding some flair. Other adjectives to describe its key characteristics include:
- Graceful
- Stylish
- Refined
- Delicate
- Premium
- Quality
- Sophistication
Restraint is important in this brand graphic style. Well balanced compositions reflect a brand or an individual in control. It also signifies a clear vision and attention to detail.
Try not to include anything that doesn’t need to be on the page. Every letter, image, and color should be absolutely gorgeous and well thought-out.
Your color palette should be similar to minimalism, but your hues could be a little richer or deeper. There’s no need to stick to the nearly invisible and delicate tones of the minimalist approach.
Subtle textures wouldn’t be out of place either. You don’t want to go with anything too dramatic, but you could allude to quality materials like:
- Handmade paper
- Marble
- Gold leaf
- Crystal
Anything monochrome (black and white) also works best in an elegant mode.
Typography Style
An elegant font collection would almost certainly revolve around Serif fonts. This probably won’t include the classical Roman variety, but something with an expressive twist. You can consider going with Delicate Serifs or Didones, since they both are wildly on-trend right now. A slender script font could also be a useful addition.
Industries Best Suited For
Industries that might be best suited for an elegant brand graphic style, include:
- Finance
- Real Estate
- Consultancy
- Legal
- Construction
Corporate
Corporate is synonymous with professionalism. We tend to use the word when we’re referencing:
- Big businesses
- Companies
- Firms
It’s best used for institutions where trust, rationality and expertise are paramount.
Key Characteristics
With this brand graphic style, you’ll want to go with a clear and direct design approach – without much visual flamboyance. Think of these adjectives when envisioning your brand style:
- Professional
- Formal
- Cassical
- Structured
- Trustworthy
This kind of brand identity isn’t only for banks and law firms though. Corporate styling is equally useful for the little guy who wants to create a professional first impression.
It signifies trustworthiness, regardless of the industry.
Although you may not be on the cover of Forbes magazine just yet, remember that your identity is all about how you want to be perceived. So why not dress the part?
Typography Style
A corporate brand graphic style tends to lean on tradition, alluding to the idea of continuity. It’s unsurprising then that variations on classical Serif typefaces dating back to the Roman era, remain the most popular in this style.
As restrained as it is, subtlety is key when it comes to colors, patterns, and graphics. It’s often the tiniest little textural or color nuance that pops subtly from a neutral design. To use corporate technology, you can think of it as the design that separates middle-management from the top executives. It also communicates a sense of attention to detail that adds to the perception of professionalism.
Industries Best Suited For
Industries that you’re most likely to see adopt a corporate brand graphic style include:
- Finance
- Real estate
- Consultancy
- Legal
- Construction
- News blogging/broadcast
Classic
If trends are like waves on the shore, coming in and going out, then classic design is the ocean. Essential graphic design principles have remained steadfast for centuries, simply because they work so well.
Key Characteristics
This brand graphic style captivates viewers, effortlessly. It is as though our brains are hardwired to decode it automatically. You can think of this style as:
- Timeless
- Functional
- Crafted
- Traditional
- Refined
This design does have a gold standard and its persistence over time is the proof. Modern or elegant designs don’t stray very far from it, whereas the street aesthetic is defined by its reaction to it. Classic design should be executed with a:
- Clear purpose
- Learned discipline
- Masterful craft
While some might think classic is a safe option, we’d argue that going timeless is a bold move that asserts prestige in your category. Your brand isn’t just a passing fad. It’s here to stay and your impeccable visual identity makes that apparent.
Any color can be incorporated into this brand graphic style, but harmony and balance should prevail over expressionism. Pick out a limited palette of natural hues that complement each other, along with the photographs in your designs. You can use our Color Picker tool to select specific colors in your image. Grounded tones are particularly on trend right now and work beautifully in a classic brand graphic style.
Typography Style
Timeless fonts tick only two boxes: precision, and legibility. You’ll more than likely be drawn towards the broader serif font family, but there are countless nuances that give each typeface its own personality. Didones and delicate serifs are on the rise and are both quintessentially timeless.
Industries Best Suited For
Timeless brand styling is considered agnostic and can be used for almost any brand with a design-forward persona. You’re likely to encounter it in industries such as:
- Beauty
- Skincare
- Health
- Fashion
- Lifestyle
- Interior decor/design
- Architecture
- Retail
- Wellness
There’s nothing more timeless than nature. For this reason, it’s likely that botanical and organic patterns or illustrations work so effortlessly in this brand graphic style. Flowers have been used as decorative elements throughout history – from Samurai armor to Dutch still-life painting – and persist as iconic graphics to this day. But you’ll need to narrow it down way more than that when selecting your brand’s graphics.
Luxury
If you’ve got it, flaunt it. Design can be an invisible backdrop to your product or your service, but it can also strongly reinforce a desired association. In the case of luxury brand graphic styles, you can associate any of the following words with its design:
- Sophisticated
- Opulent
- Expensive
- Detailed
- Premium
A brand identity flecked with gold or carved in marble will make it instantly apparent that your offering is only for a select few. In short, it’s easy enough to make your brand look super-duper high end.
Bear in mind that a luxury brand graphic style doesn’t need to feel exclusive to the point of being alienating. It can also project a sense of:
- Warmth
- Comfort
- Sanctuary
Think of it as curling up under very expensive linen on a very luxurious and comfortable mattress. You also don’t want to confuse luxury with excess. This can end up coming off as garish, so you’ll have to be careful here.
Restraint and very careful attention to detail is the true hallmark of a luxury design style.
Building upon a classical, even minimalist framework, ornate motifs don’t scream for attention. But when you notice them, the intricacy and consideration is unmistakable. A luxury design color palette is often based on physical substance. More specifically, it draws from the appearance and texture of the world’s rarest materials:
- Gold
- Silver
- Sapphire
- Emerald
- Pearl
- Onyx
- Marble
- Red wine
- Velvet
Typography Style
Very classical typefaces work well in a luxury visual style, since there’s an inherent association with antiquity and tradition. Fonts that are most often associated with the luxury design, include:
- Ornate scripts
- Calligraphy
- Cursive fonts
Keep in mind that these fonts ought to feel very delicate and precise, rather than spontaneously handwritten.
Industries Best Suited For
Almost every sector will have premium players. A luxury brand graphic style could help bolster their reputation for sophistication. We’ve seen brilliant examples of luxury branding in all of these industries:
- Fashion
- Home decor
- Event planning
- Restaurants
- Bars
- Real estate
- Legal
- Architecture
- Beauty
- Hospitality
originally posted on godaddy.com by Dylan Culhane
About Author: Dylan Culhane is the Content Strategist for GoDaddy Studio and a big believer in the new frontier of self-determination.
