From vision to visuals: How to use your brand strategy to design your brand identity

As artists and makers, you know how to design something that looks good but when it comes to crafting your brand identity, how do you create something that not only looks amazing but also communicates the right message, attracts the right people and aligns with your overall vision?

How can you translate abstract concepts like philosophy, purpose, or personality into concrete visual elements? I get it—it can be tough to go from big ideas to specific design choices, such as fonts and colours.

In this post, I’m going to share my best tips and walk you through my entire process to help make that transition easier. So, grab your sketchbook or open up your design software, and let’s get started.

Let me preface this by saying that today we’re tackling a topic that is crucial for any artist or maker looking to grow their brand: how to use your brand strategy to design a brand identity that not only looks amazing but also attracts the right customers and reflects your style and your business goals. 

The Importance of Brand Strategy

First things first—and if you’ve heard me talk about anything before, you’ll know this—you need a brand strategy. 

One common mistake that people always make is jumping straight into designing and skipping any strategy.

But this is going to make it hard to make decisions and you’ll likely end up changing your design multiple times or feeling unsure about your choices. You might be picking colours because they look cool, or simply getting bored with what you currently have, without understanding the reason behind those choices.

This is why you need a strategy to guide you. It’ll give you the confidence to make design decisions that align with your brand’s purpose and goals.

Understanding the Six P's of Brand Strategy

Let’s look at the Six P's of brand strategy. These are your Purpose, Philosophy, Personality, People, Positioning, and Presentation.

I’ve even created a free email course called the Brand Magic Blueprint that walks you through each of these steps, one per day, over six or seven days (because, spoiler alert, there’s a secret seventh one). This course will help you uncover each part of your strategy.

So if you haven’t already developed a brand strategy or need help doing so, check out this email course. You can find it at bit.ly/brandmagicblueprint.

But once you have that brand strategy, how do you use it to design your brand identity?

Well… Before we dive in, I need you to remember that everything in design has meaning. 

So when you look at the colour red, you might subconsciously feel emotions like anger, alertness, passion, or even hunger. A cursive font might give off a sense of elegance or expense, while a sparkle icon might now evoke thoughts of AI rather than something cute or magical. 

We’re telling a story with every decision that we make – the energy with the colours and the tone with the typeface, the scene with the images, making subconscious links within our logo – all to create a picture in our audience's mind of who we are in the milliseconds it takes for them to make their first impression of us.

Now, let’s dive into the 8 steps to using your brand strategy to design your brand identity, shall we?

Step 1: Define Your Brand Concept

Step number one is defining a concept. So before you start, use your vision, mission and positioning to define a concept (aka an overarching idea for your brand!)

For example, I recently worked with a brand that was focused on careers. During our strategy session, we uncovered that their vision was about helping their audience build careers that would allow them to build their lives, which is a much bigger picture than just landing a better job.

This concept of ‘building something bigger, better and impactful’ became the concept behind everything, including the entire visual language, leading to design elements like building blocks in the logo and patterns.

Another example is a brand I recently worked with that teaches a particular piece of software, but what’s unique about them is that they make complex, confusing, overwhelming things easy.

So the whole brand idea became ‘concepts made clear’, and this inspired the entire visual language, from the logo to patterns and illustrations.

If you look at your vision, your mission, your positioning, the impact you want to have on the world. If you look back on your brand strategy and look at it, what is it that I'm trying to communicate? What is it that underpins everything I'm trying to do? What is the story that I'm trying to tell?

And that can create an overarching concept for your brand.

To create an overarching concept for your brand, reflect on your vision, mission, positioning, and the impact you want to have on the world. What is the story you’re trying to tell?

This concept will then guide your design decisions.

Step Two: Create a Mood Board

Step two is all about finding inspiration by using your brand concept and any keywords that reflect your personality. For example, you could search for things like ‘bold typography’, ‘calm photography’, or ‘brick patterns’. 

One mistake people often make is only looking for branding examples. Instead, broaden your search to include things like paintings, sculptures, or signage (feel free to check out my Pinterest boards where you’ll find a wealth of inspiration from various sources!)

Step Three: Set Up Your Design Workspace

Once you’ve found your inspiration, set up your design workspace so you can start putting everything together. Then put your keywords (along with any words that you don't want your brand to be) where you can see them while you work.

By doing this, as you’re working and designing, you can check that your brand is always aligning with your strategy.

Step Four: Choose a Colour Palette

How do you use your brand strategy to choose a colour palette, you ask? 

Well, you can start with colour theory and think about what colours traditionally communicate the keywords you’ve identified for your brand’s personality. For example, blue often represents trustworthiness, so you might begin there as a starting point.

One mistake people always make here is not searching without their keywords. This means yes, search for colour palette inspiration using your keywords, but also browse more broadly too. You might be surprised and find something unexpected that still fits your brand personality perfectly! 

Once you’ve gathered your inspiration, refine your palette using tools like Coolors.co or Adobe Color.

Aim for a succinct palette of five to seven colours and check its accessibility, as well as your list of keywords, making sure that it aligns with your brand personality and your ideal audience and whether you think it will appeal to them.

Don’t lock in your palette just yet. You’ll want to test it first by using it in social media graphics or on your website for example just to make sure that the colours work well together in context.

Step Five: Find the Right Fonts

Finding the right fonts follows a similar process. Start by understanding font classifications and how they generally align with the personality you want to communicate. For example, a cursive font might feel elegant and expensive, while a sans-serif font might feel simple and modern.

Search for typography inspiration using your keywords, but again, don’t limit yourself to just those tags and make sure you also look outside of those keywords by doing a general browse to see what comes up. 

After that, drop all of your inspiration into your design space and use font foundries or marketplace websites like Google Fonts or Creative Market to find typefaces that match your inspiration.

Create a font suite of two to three typefaces: a primary typeface for headings, a secondary one for body copy, and possibly a third for subheadings or decorative elements. 

• Your main/primary typeface will be for headings and will probably going to have a lot more going on. 
• Your secondary typeface will be for your body copy and big paragraphs, so it’ll likely be a little bit simpler.
• And then you might have a third typeface as well for subheadings or decorative parts of your typography. 

Again, check your list of keywords, think about your ideal audience, and make sure that the fonts you choose align with your brand personality and will appeal to your ideal audience.

Step Six: Design Your Logo

Okay, now let's talk about logos. First things first, you want to take a look at the seven unique types of logos and see which ones you think are right for you based on the style that you're going for, the personality you're trying to communicate, and the audience that you want to attract.

Then you can search for logo design inspiration, looking up your keywords to find logos that fit with your brand personality. 

Be careful when searching for inspiration that you are just looking for inspiration, not looking for something to duplicate or copy.

From there, it’s a very similar process to the fonts and colours. You find your inspiration, drop it into your design space, and then start designing your logos and refining them until you get a suite of cohesive logos that communicate your brand personality.

An important note: You're going to want two to three versions of your logo.‍

For example, you might want a horizontal version, a vertical version, and then maybe just an icon that would go in your profile photo or smaller spaces. This helps you stay consistent in your brand no matter where your logo is displayed.

You’ll also want to keep in mind that your logo needs to be versatile so make sure it works well in black and white, at small sizes, and on various backgrounds.

Once you’re happy with the design, create a final version and export it in various formats (e.g., PNG, SVG, EPS) for different uses.

Step Seven: Add Other Brand Elements

With your logo, colour palette, and fonts in place, it’s time to think about other brand elements. These could include patterns, textures, icons, or illustrations that support your brand’s overall look and feel.

For example, if your brand concept is about ‘connection’, you might develop a series of interlocking shapes or hand-drawn lines. If your brand is focused on nature and sustainability, you could create organic patterns or use natural textures like wood or stone.

Same process as earlier: Find your inspiration, drop it into your design workspace, and get designing with your keywords and ideal audience in mind (and in front of you!)

Step Eight: Assemble Your Brand Guidelines

Now it’s time to start putting things together. Bring your logo, colours, fonts, and additional brand elements together, and create some mock-ups too. Think Instagram posts, website layouts, t-shirts, or Reels covers.

It’s not just about looking good; everything should communicate the right brand message to your audience. Your logo and colours might be spot on individually, but together, they need to tell the same story. So test it out visually, and make sure it feels right.

If you're struggling to do this alone, get feedback from others. If you’re unsure, get feedback. Ask a friend, a creative peer, or even your audience. See what words they’d use to describe your brand and who they think it would attract.

Psst. You can also check out this episode on DIY branding which is packed with tips to help you feel confident as you build your brand!

And that’s the process! 

Use your brand strategy throughout the entire brand identity process, and you’ll create a brand that not only attracts your ideal customers but accurately represents your brand personality and business goals.

PS. Go through the Brand Magic Blueprint, create a mood board and then decide if you want to DIY your brand identity or hire a designer. 

If you’re going the DIY route, keep listening to my podcast, Brand Your Passion, for more tips. And remember, the brand identity process is all about experimenting, refining and having fun with it!