Welcome to Part 2 of of the Bootstrap Branding series. If you missed part one of this series, we welcome you to catch up on it here and download our complimentary Big Book of Branding Resources – it’s an awesome resource not to be missed!

Today we’re focusing on the visual identity of your brand. Your visual identity includes your logo, color palette, illustrations, typeface and any other graphic elements that represent your brand. These can all be summarized in a useful tool called a brand board.

A brand board is a snapshot or master guide that captures your brand’s visual identity. It’s a useful tool to refer back to when building your brand across multiple platforms to create a collective of cohesive, well-coordinated visuals. In your wholesale business, your visual identity weaves through everything, including your packaging, marketing materials, website, even social media. Utilizing a master visual guide to work from builds continuity in your brand through ever facet of your business. A brand board is also useful when working with outside agencies + freelancers + selecting companies like 99designs vs Fiverr, to ensure that everyone is working from the same graphic elements and your visual identity stays clear + consistent.

For fun, I created the above mockup brand board for a gourmet food + beverage company named after the lady of the house, Lela. Note the various elements I included in my board: palette, logo, spot illustrations, patterns, fonts, etc. These are some common elements included in brand boards, but boards can vary depending on your business + graphic needs. For loads of inspiration and to see a variety of brand boards for creative businesses, check out the Lucky Break brand board page on Pinterest.

Now that you know why a brand board is important, let’s dive into how to create one! A seasoned graphic designer can help you create the visual identity + brand board of your dreams with everything from custom typography to hand drawn illustrations. Bringing years worth of design experience, tools + talents to the table, hiring a graphic designer to create custom, unique graphic elements for your business is worth its weight in branding gold. However, for those diehard DIYer’s or startups for whom hiring outside help just isn’t in the budget, I’m going to walk you through the essential steps of creating your own.

Let’s take a look at parts of a brand board + how each element was created:

1. Your visual identity should include at least a primary logo. Your primary logo is your main logo and the one you will use most often. To create a basic logo, you’ll need to start with a typeface that appropriately represents your brand’s personality. One of my go-to spots for high-quality fonts is Myfonts.com. There’s also a plethora of free font resources available online (sources included in our brand book). Scroll through the font databases with the objective of finding a match that helps tell your story + capture your brand’s personality. In my example above, I wanted my logo to represent handmade, artisan and high-quality with an old-fashioned, feminine feel. When reviewing fonts, also consider things like: scalability (how does the font look in small print vs. large print), will you love the font 2 years from now (is the font heavily styled in a way that might inhibit future growth?), and whether or not it can be easily adapted into current + future marketing materials, packaging, etc.

In addition to including a primary logo in your brand board, also include any secondary logos (like watermarks or other supporting visual marks) and one or two additional coordinating fonts that might be utilized across other platforms, such as your website, collateral, newsletters, etc. If you need tips on selecting or combining multiple fonts, check out this great article by Smashing Magazine for best practices.

2. Next, start to think about your brand’s color palette. Typically 3 to 5 colors make up a standard palette. If you’re having trouble deciding on a color palette, read through our color series and visit the color resources shared. In my example brand board, I chose a pink color theme to represent the artisan desserts + gourmet beverages marketed to women. I used varying shades of pink to create my colors and included two neutral colors to add some contrast to my palette.

3. Your brand board can also include a tagline to help capture the personality of your brand along side the graphic elements. This can help demonstrate the tone of your brand and can serve as a useful guide in future graphic work.

4. Include any supporting graphics, such as illustrations and patterns, that will represent your brand and help tell the story. In my example, I included a few feminine, romantic elements like the pink swan and roses. I also created two coordinating repeat patterns to weave throughout my branding. Patterns are useful in a variety of ways, such as social media + ecommerce backgrounds, advertisements, blog graphics and packaging.

If you’re not up to designing your own graphics or patterns, there are a few great resources in our big book of branding as well as some great commercial clip art + graphic resources on Etsy to get you started. A few things to note if you purchase or download free clip art, ready-made graphics + fonts: be sure to read the licensing + use terms. Not all graphics + fonts are sold for commercial use and most have limited commercial uses. Accordingly, if you decide to work with a graphic designer, be sure to get their policy on licensing or copyrights to the graphics they create for you.

Once you have your visual identity + brand board created, it’s exciting to see the elements come to life in your business. To demonstrate how branded pieces spring to life, I created a few mock products using my brand board as inspiration. From treat bags to marketing collateral, my pretend brand used the graphic elements, fonts and pink + kraft color palette throughout each piece to pull together a cohesive look + feel. What do you think? Could Lela have a new business in her future?

Now you’re armed with the tools + resources to create a lovely visual identity + brand board for your business. If you have a brand board you’d like to share, please post a comment below so we can all “ooh” + “aah” together! If you’re looking for additional branding resources, graphic design help, fonts, packaging or more – grab a copy of our Big Book of Branding Resources for the best of the best for makers.