Brand Appearance
The brand appearance is one of the most powerful ways to show what your business stands for. Once you’ve defined your brand’s mission, values, and ideal audience, you’re in a great position to design a look that stays true to those foundations. A thoughtful visual style helps express your brand personality and meets the expectations of the people you’re trying to reach.
Market Research
It’s always a good idea to explore what others in your space are doing. Unless your business is truly one-of-a-kind (and that’s rare!), you’ll be joining a busy marketplace.
Try browsing social media to see what influencers and businesses in your niche are posting. You can pick up a lot—language, style, and visual cues your audience might already be familiar with and expecting.
That said, this isn’t about copying. That’s never a good idea, for legal reasons and for your own success. You won’t stand out by looking just like everyone else. But being aware of the landscape can help you decide how and where you might want to be different.
If your values support a bold, individual look, go for it!
QUICK MEMO: While you’re exploring, it’s helpful to keep a running “Ideas Library.” Save fonts you love, eye-catching images, smart quotes, inspiring layouts—anything that sparks an idea. It’ll be a go-to resource and a real time-saver later.
- Take note of colors. If you haven’t picked your brand colors yet, you might want to read up on color psychology. (You can download my free PDF file that explains what different colors tend to represent.)
- Take note of different fonts. Notice which ones feel stylish, readable, or overused. And pay attention to how many different fonts show up in brands that look polished and professional.
If you’re planning to use photos, consider starting with your own. Stock images can be convenient, but they often make brands blend. Even simple photos of your team, space, or product can help tell your story in a way that feels real and original.
Elements of Brand Appearance
FROM VALUES TO VISUALS
There are several elements of visual brand appearance, and they should work together smoothly. A cohesive visual style is like glue—it holds everything in place and helps people recognize and trust your brand over time.
Here are some key elements to think about:
1. Company Logo
Your logo might include shapes, fonts, or both. Each element sends a message—colors and shapes create emotional cues, and fonts add their personality. Simple logos are usually easier to remember and cheaper to reproduce across materials.
Think Apple©, Nike©, or Amazon Prime©.
2. Color Palette
Colors have a powerful effect on how people feel. They create atmosphere, capture attention, and reflect personality. If you already have a primary color, try exploring what other shades complement it nicely. Most successful brands stick to a small, coordinated set of colors.
3. Fonts
Fonts aren’t just letters—they also carry personality. You can go for elegant, fun, serious, or quirky. The key is to pick fonts that match your brand vibe, work well together, and are easy to read across different platforms.
4. Photography and Illustration Style
The style of your images should match your brand’s personality and stay consistent across channels. Whether you’re showcasing products, people, or services, go for a look that feels intentional and easy to recognize.
If you’re using illustrations or icons, it’s helpful to treat them like a set, matching in tone, color, and style to support your overall visual identity.
5. Patterns and Texture
Textures and patterns can help add depth and consistency. For instance, woodgrain might give a natural, earthy feel; marble could hint at luxury; brushed metal might suggest precision or cleanliness.
You can use textures as subtle backgrounds or overlays—even if you don’t have physical products to photograph.
6. Layouts
Even small businesses deal with documents—business cards, emails, invoices, thank-you notes, labels, and more. Creating templates with a consistent layout and style can save time and help everything feel polished.
7. Sound and Tone of Voice
Yes, there is such a thing as a “tone of voice” even in writing. Tools like Grammarly and ChatGPT can help you see if your tone comes across as friendly, formal, casual, or something else.
Just like visuals, your voice should be consistent and true to your brand. Whether you’re writing a social media caption, a product description, or a blog post like this one, your tone plays a big role in how people connect with your brand.
Tools for the Brand Appearance Research
Although searching online is almost synonymous with “Google it,” there are many other platforms to check. There might be specific, specialized programs for a particular niche, and you may be more familiar with them than me. But for general research and collecting ideas for the appearance of your brand, I would recommend Pinterest, Canva, and ChatGPT.
Often considered to be one of the social media platforms, it is also a visual search engine. How to use it:
- Establish in Pinterest your brand profile and start your work by following “pinners” that post content related to your niche.
- Create “secret” boards to pin and sort the ideas and designs that inspire you.
- Finally, when you are ready to create your pins, make some of the boards “public” and use them to present and promote your brand.
So, from research and collecting ideas through sharing your brand promos when ready, Pinterest can be your Best Friend Forever.
An easy-to-use and popular online design platform, Canva is loaded with thousands of images, fonts, and templates. Many of them can be used even in the free Canva account.
Since you are not yet working on specific designs, just collecting the elements, check the Canva feature called a “Whiteboard”. It is an infinite space where you can gather and organize all the elements that will catch your eye. You can mix and match, and check what will work for your brand and look good together.
Later, Canva may be useful for creating and sharing your brand templates, so it is a good tool to learn. Just beware of copyrights: you could use many pre-designed elements from Canva for personal projects. For business and resale purposes, it is restricted by their licence.
QUICK TIP: Your search results on Pinterest and Canva can become part of your Ideas Library. Note that since they live online, you can easily share them with anyone who may work now or later on your brand project.
ChatGPT is a conversational-search-creative AI tool you can also ask to help you with any research, and also design your brand’s aesthetics. Just log in, create a free account, and start the conversation.
As with any other Artificial Intelligence, to get the best results here, it’s essential to prepare detailed, specific, and thoughtful prompts. A good prompt ensures that AI understands your command, your brand’s identity, and can align its suggestions with your goals.
It is easier than you may think. Since your input controls the output, and you already prepared most of the input (the mission, values, and story), I suggest you try it. In the next chapter, I’ll share some of my experience with it.
Excellent overview of branding. These elements are easy to take for granted when viewing a website. Distilling it down to these elements was very helpful. Thanks Margaret!
Thank you, Rick! I am writing more on this topic as we speak. Watching a customer who lost existing brand esthetics after outsourcing social media marketing to a random designer I realized again that the company’s MISSION should always precede all the visual designs. Otherwise, you are becoming one of the many.