What is a company's corporate identity? Why is corporate design so important? And how do you show the true character of your offering? In our blog, we explain the importance of visual brand experiences and give you tips for working with an agency.
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How about taking a longer look in the mirror when you get the chance? Take some time and imagine you are your company. What do you see? Your face and your entire appearance become your corporate design. And everything behind it - your values, your actions, your character, your entire identity - becomes your corporate identity. You are unmistakable. And so is your company. Or is it? If not, you should change that as soon as possible - and sharpen your entire corporate identity alongside your corporate design.
Corporate what?
Let's take a closer look at the terms: corporate design is the visual appearance of your company. It includes your logo, the colors, the design grid, the corporate fonts and their typographic style as well as the entire visual language. All of these elements are visible in your external communication - whether in digital or print media, on your packaging or your advertising materials.
Corporate identity, on the other hand, is the identity of your company , i.e. the brand that is perceived in its entirety. It is more than just the appearance. It also encompasses the values and actions of your company. It is reflected externally in the way you present yourself to your target group. And it is shaped internally by the behavior of your employees.
Love at first sight or no second click?
We all know from our daily interactions how important visual impressions are in everyday life. Why should it be any different for companies? That's why corporate design is an essential component of your brand. It can significantly influence your customers' purchasing decisions and their brand experience.
Your corporate design should always run through all design elements. If you are negligent here, customers risk - consciously or unconsciously - questioning the quality of the products or services. People are quick to form an unfavorable opinion if they feel irritated.
When defining your corporate design, it is of course crucial who you want to address with your offer. What are your customers' needs? Are they more likely to be price-conscious bargain hunters or stylish status lovers? Show it in your presentation.
Example: Lovetoys - see how different the perception of a brand can be:
Amorelie.de comes across as authentic, natural and fun-loving. The brand is comparable in character to the fashion store aboutyou.de. Amorelie.de has succeeded in taking love toys out of the dirty corner and selling them as a matter of course without looking to the left or right.
In contrast, its competitor eis.de targets a price-sensitive customer group. The brand experience is somewhat reminiscent of browsing in an online drugstore:
The corporate identity should correspond to the mission, vision and values of the company , address the needs of the target group and be carefully integrated into all design elements of the company. People tend to prejudge and quickly label companies if they are irritated, even if only unconsciously. This is why it is so important for companies to find out exactly where they stand before a (re)launch and to complete the steps for positioning and brand development either internally or with outside help. This gives all parties clarity about what is wanted and the agency has a comprehensive basis for the conception of the corporate design.
Corporate design in cooperation
Before you and your team launch a new brand or relaunch an existing one, you should get your heads around the optimal positioning. It usually makes sense to bring the expertise of an experienced agency on board.
A little tip: Make sure you keep an eye on the small print. Important for you: You must be allowed to use and edit the results to their full extent. A corresponding passage in the contract must assure you that you may use the design exclusively, for an unlimited time and space and that no further license fees are due.
It always makes sense to make such agreements before signing a contract with an agency. As a company, you still have the advantages on your side. Once the corporate design has been developed and rolled out digitally and in print, it becomes more difficult to obtain such full licenses without additional remuneration.
Everything in the legal green zone? Then you can get started with the creation - which will hopefully lead to the perfect result. But how do you make sure that your team and your external partners use the corporate design correctly and don't just add a new color or font? The solution is a style guide.
Stay stylistically confident with a style guide
A style guide is the bible for your corporate design, so to speak. It contains all the design guidelines and ensures that they are implemented in exactly the same way. Of course, this only works if it is always to hand and the content is taken to heart by everyone involved.
If you are launching your new corporate design with an agency, agree in advance that you will receive the corresponding style guide with the final work results. Most large companies have one, which can also be found via Google search. This will give you a good overview.
Let the style guide grow with you
For us as an agency, it has proven to be extremely practical if a style guide can be expanded and supplemented. If it is not a public document but is used internally, you and your team can also store the parameters of the most important print products in it, for example. If, for example, the agency or print shop changes, employees leave or new ones join, such important information is quickly lost and no one knows which parameters applied where.
You can also store the download links for the logo, the fonts, the path to the photo archives and the icon collection and much more in the style guide. As an agency, we often have clients call us and ask us to send them the logo quickly because they can't find the file at the moment. If you can find the link in the style guide, you and the agency save a lot of time.
Make your brand stand out
A corporate design that fits your brand perfectly and runs cleanly through all design elements gives your company an extremely high recognition value. By reflecting the vision, mission and values of your company, your target group can identify with it and thus remain loyal to it.
You can already use our professional corporate design templates to download. Adjust colors, choose your fonts, edit the texts! You have already saved many hours and expensive agency costs.