Creating and maintaining a strong brand identity design is an important goal for any competitive company. Achieving this can improve brand awareness and the overall performance of your marketing campaigns.
To stay relevant, modern brands must have an effective motion brand identity system – this is essential as companies increasingly rely on digital platforms and screens for their marketing campaigns.
How to approach motion branding can differ from brand to brand, but there are a few steps you can take to ensure a good return on investment. Before delving into the specifics, let’s take a moment to reflect on what defines it.
What is a motion brand identity?
A motion brand identity is your brand identity brought to life. This can be designed from the ground up or developed from your existing visual identities – such as the logos, brand colour palette, images, and typography you use every day.
Transforming your brand identity from static to dynamic breathes life into your brand and makes it more noticeable on digital platforms.
It can come in different forms, but the most common example is animated logos that can be used on a website or in any video content.
Tips for creating a strong motion brand identity design
1. Design a consistent brand identity
First, you need to start by creating a brand identity that is consistent throughout all your channels. Without it, you will invest time and budget into moving elements that won’t reflect your actual brand image, which can do more harm than good.
This step goes beyond deciding on a colour palette and logo design. It needs to withstand the test of time and be able to grow with you over the years.
You will want to avoid re-designing it too often or creating too many different variations of your branding so you can remain consistent in the eyes of your target audience. This also includes your brand messaging, which plays an important role in this as well.
Some elements of strong brand identity include:
- Memorable: Your brand should be very memorable in the eyes of your target audience. There are several global brands that are instantly recognizable with a simple design, such as the swooping checkmark of Nike or the red and white of Coca-Cola. This is what we are aiming for when we design brand elements.
Pro tip: there is an added benefit to being memorable, which is building trust. This is important, as around 81% of consumers said that they need to be able to trust the brand in order to buy from them.
- Relevant to your product or service: Have you ever seen a logo that didn’t suit a company’s product or service? This is what you want to avoid, as you should get a sense of what a company promotes just from their branding. For example, a finance orientated company may choose green as the primary colour of their logo to symbolize growth and prosperity.
Pro tip: Test branding options before you commit. Run research groups with people who are unfamiliar with the brand to discover what they think the company does just from their logo. They likely won’t be able to identify your exact product or service, but it will give you a sense if you are on the right track.
- Adaptable: Since you will need to apply your brand design across multiple platforms and media, it should be easily adaptable to enable consistency. For example, if you create a highly detailed logo for your website, it may not easily translate to a smaller icon to use for social media.
Pro tip: build a document outlining your brand guidelines, including all the different elements of your brand identity. It’s useful for new hires or when you are working with third parties, such as graphic designers.
2. Analyse your competition
You won’t want to start on motion branding without first analysing your competition. This is to avoid any similarities and identify ways to differentiate yourself from them. This can be as simple as analysing their website and video content for any sign of motion branding assets.
This is especially important if you are spending time and resources on a full-motion brand identity package. You don’t want to get to the other side of your project and realise that your target audience may become confused between you and your competition.
3. Bring your branding to life
Once you have a firm grasp of your brand image, it is time to look at how it can be brought to life with animation.
This step can be not as straightforward, as most people are used to the static elements in building a brand identity. This is where working with a creative agency can help.
They will start by looking at how your logo animation should move. The pace, direction, transitions that occur to build your logo in animation will say something about the kind of business or brand you are. In all likelihood, this will be simple but motion defined in the logo resolve will inform every other aspect of your motion brand identity – such as name straps, titles cards, animated infographics, type animation style and so on.
Creating an effective motion brand identity system is key to any business or brand that wants to market digitally in the future. Whether you plan explainer videos for your website, short social media content for LinkedIn, Instagram or Twitter, or digital billboards or event screens. In all these spaces, a brand needs consistency that only motion branding can bring.
Want to keep learning?
As a creative agency, we are passionate about using our expertise to bring brands to life. We have a wealth of content for you to explore. Here are some articles that might be of interest:
- The Ultimate Guide to Video Marketing
- How to Overcome Video Marketing Strategy Challenges
- How to Boost Social Media Video Marketing with Animation
Book A Consultation
If you are considering a motion brand identity package, we’d love to hear from you.
Get in touch with our team today to organise a free consultation. Additionally, you can have a look at a project we carried out for Hayfin, one of Europe’s leading alternative asset management firms.