What is branding?

Branding is the process of creating a strong, positive perception of a company, its products or services in the customer’s mind by combining such elements as a logo, design, slogan, mission statement, colour palette and a consistent theme throughout all marketing channels. It is not just the physical features (e.g. “the shoe is light-weight”) that create a brand but also the feelings (e.g. “the shoe makes me feel powerful”) that companies or consumers develop towards the company or its product. The brand identifies and distinguishes a product, service or company from its competitors.

The importance of consistent website branding

Consistent website branding is important for several reasons:

„Personality“ of your brand

Brand identity design essentially sets the tone of your brand and it can be used to evoke specific feelings in your audience. A brand’s personality stands out in brand messaging, images and marketing campaigns. If your brand’s personality differs on your company website compared to your social channels, it will be more difficult for consumers to learn who your brand is and what it stands for. Your brand identity should be designed to communicate your company’s overall message and promote your business goals.

Establishing trust and credibility

A consistent brand identity across your website creates a sense of trust and greater credibility with your audience. When your website has a cohesive look and feel, it communicates that your business is organised, professional and trustworthy. This is especially important for small businesses that may not have same level of brand recognition as larger competitors. A strong, unique brand image is an essential part of building a good relationship with customers. If they feel that you both share the same values, they will be attracted to your brand and will likely feel comfortable choosing you over the competition.

Stand out from the competition

No matter what you sell, there is someone else out there selling the exact same thing or something similar. The truth is no matter how unique your products or services are, you will have stiff competition. Key to success in the market is to differentiate your brand from others. It will help people notice you and give them reasons to choose your business over others.

Creating memorable experience

Consistent branding makes it easier for customers to remember your business. When your website branding has a consistent colour palette, typography and other visual elements, it creates a strong visual identity that is easy to recall. This can help your business stand out from competitors and improve brand recognition.

Increasing conversions

Consistent website branding can also help to improve conversions. When customers visit your website, they should immediately recognise your brand and understand what your business offers. This can help to build trust and encourage visitors to take action, such as making a purchase or filling out a contact form.

How to achieve consistent website branding

To achieve consistent website branding requires attention to detail and clear understanding of your brand identity. Here are some tips for small businesses looking to create a consistent brand across their website:

Define your brand identity

Before you can create a consistent brand identity across your website, you need to define what that identity is. This involves creating a brand style guide that outlines your brand’s visual and messaging elements, such as your logo, colour palette, typography, voice and tone.

Use your logo and colour palette consistently

Your logo and colour palette are two of the most important elements of your brand identity and they should be used consistently across your website. Your logo should be prominently displayed on your website and your colour palette should be used consistently throughout your site. Your logo is often the first thing that your customers will see and make an opinion on. Always keep things simple. Simplicity is key. Nike, McDonalds and Apple are all great examples of branding and how a simple logo design can be so powerful.
Tip – always ensure the logo is prominent when tested in black and white, grayscale and with a limited colour palette.

Maintain consistent typography

Typography is another important aspect of your brand identity. Choose a font or set of fonts that aligns with your brand identity and use them consistently across your website. This includes headings, body text and any other text elements on your site. In general, limit the number of font families to a minimum (two is plenty, one is often sufficient) and stick to the same ones through the entire website. If you do use more than one font, ensure the font families complement each other based on their character width.

Use consistent imagery

Consistent imagery can also help to establish a cohesive brand identity. Use images that align with your brand’s style and tone and avoid using images that clash with your brand identity. Some of the most successful companies will include headshots of the team and photos of customers interacting with your brand. Tip – creating your own photos will allow you to choose colours that harmonise with your brand.

Maintain a consistent voice and tone

Your brand’s voice and tone are important for creating a consistent brand identity. Develop a style guide that outlines the tone and voice you want to use across your website and ensure that all content on your site adheres to these guidelines.

In conclusion, consistent branding is an important part of creating a strong brand identity for your small business. By maintaining a consistent look and feel across all your marketing channels, including your website, you can build brand recognition, establish trust and credibility with customers and differentiate your business from competitors. Follow these tips to ensure that your website reflects your brand identity and appeals to your target audience.

Reactive Graphics have years of experience designing and developing websites, so whether you’re a new business looking to create your first website or have an existing business that needs a new look, you’re in the right hands. Why not get in touch with us. We are more than happy to help.

We are delighted to announce that Visual Objects have ranked Reactive Graphics the 4^th best web design company in the UK.

Visual Objects is dedicated towards finding the top creative agencies for web design, brand design, SEO and more.

Need a website designed? You can get in touch with Reactive Graphics at https://www.web-designlondon.co.uk/contact/.

We are delighted to announce that Reactive Graphics has won:

Best UI Design

Best UX design

Best Innovation

at the CSS Design Awards!

These awards were voted for by the public and so we are very thankful for everybody who put us forward.

If you want to build a brand for your business then Reactive Graphics can help.
Get in touch with us today to see how we can get your project off the ground!
To take a look at how Reactive Graphics have transformed clients brand intensities,  please take a look at our our portfolio of work here.

The 2020 UEFA European Championship takes the stage this summer as Europe’s premier international football competition, a year after the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the Euros’ postponement.

Football is highly interesting from a design perspective – the Euros only takes place every four years, which means big changes in cultures and trends can occur in between tournaments.

As fans from all over the continent flock to Euro 2020’s host cities – London, Amsterdam and Rome to name just a few – it is always fun to take a look back at Euros history, and how its logos and brand designs have changed since the inaugural tournament took place in 1960.

1960-1992

For the first nine Euros tournaments, the logo was kept consistent in design. The UEFA logo is laid out under five coloured stripes, which distort to take the shape of a waving flag.

It is a fairly simple design, but highly effective at communicating the key elements of the tournament – its governing body, and the time and location it takes place at. Its use of bold, blocky text brings a retro feel to the logo, a style that has grown in popularity over the past decade.

The classic logo will appeal to the nostalgia of those who grew up watching football during this time period, as well as a younger demographic who have taken an interest in the vintage styles from decades gone by.

1996

England fans will remember this one fondly – Gazza’s goal versus Scotland, beating Spain on penalties at Wembley, “Three Lions” in the charts, and inevitable exit at the hands of the Germans.

The 1996 logo is a strange one, for sure. Moving away from the geometric, rigid shapes that emblazoned the logo from 1968-92, the football-shaped crest takes inspiration from hand-painted artwork.

Brush stroke effects are maximised to create a flurry of movement within the logo, and four starkly differing fonts make up the typeface. It conveys the vibrant chaos that can ensue at a fast-paced sporting spectacle, but still keeps it classy.

2000

Belgium and Netherlands were the joint hosts of Euro 2000, and that is the focal point of the crest – both countries’ colours blended together into the distorted shape of a footballer. A simple black serif typeface replaces the mish-mash of fonts used for the previous tournament, heralding the end of the colourful 90s era.

In the writer’s opinion, this is the weakest logo of the lot – the crest comes across as confusing and doesn’t seem to convey a lot of information to viewers. French fans won’t care though, as they took home the trophy after defeating Italy 2-1 in the final.

2004

We were off to sunny Portugal for 2004’s tournament, and its logo does a great job at conveying the climate, with bright tropical oranges and greens putting fans in the mood for a summer bonanza. On the crest, a brush-stroke heart around a beautiful spiral-like football encapsulated millions of peoples’ love for the beautiful game.

The informal strokes on the ‘Euro 2004’ text bring a down-to-earth comfort to the typeface, and when coupled with the sans-serif subtitle there is a really effective contrast to round off an excellent logo.

Euro 2004 provided one of the biggest footballing shocks of the 21^st century, as 23^rd-ranked minnows Greece defeated hosts Portugal in the final to lift the trophy.

2008

Two Alpine nations, Austria and Switzerland, joined up to host 2008’s Euros – so it seemed a no-brainer to incorporate the mountainous terrains into its logo! Red and white is used primarily to represent the hosts’ colours and a green football nestles itself amongst the mountains as a nod to the Alps’ beautiful natural vegetation.

The white glimmer on the red mountain lines is a classic example of the ‘shiny’ design trend present throughout much of the 2000s. A sans-serif font is used consistently as the typeface with varying weight, which sets an early precedent of ‘flat design’ for the Euros logos going into the 2010s.

Spain were the eventual victors in the Alps, kicking off a four-year dynasty that saw them win the 2008 Euros, 2010 World Cup and 2012 Euros consecutively.

2012

2012’s logo delves further into symbolism, with two blooming flowers representing joint hosts Poland and Ukraine and a large flower-like football taking centre stage.

The floral artwork is inspired by ‘wycinanka’, a traditional form of paper-cutting popular in Eastern Europe, and the human-shaped stigmas within each flower conveys a feeling of community and togetherness for football fans around the world.

UEFA appear to have finally settled on a consistent typeface for their logos going forward, with the rounded sans-serif font used here featuring in every logo up until the time of writing. It is certainly easy on the eyes, with the linking ‘R’ and ‘O’ providing a nice bit of flair.

2016

A more straightforward approach was taken in designing the logo for France’s tournament in 2016. For the first time in history, the Euros trophy itself is used for the crest, with the French colours overlapping it to create a cool modern effect.

Simple lines and shapes are scattered around to give this logo a fun ‘party’ atmosphere synonymous with the nature of the tournament. However, there isn’t much more to this logo – it seems a bit more generic than those gone by, with less symbolism and meaning behind it.

Despite France hosting this year’s tournament, they lost out on the trophy to Portugal, who held on in extra time to win the final 1-0.

2020

The first ever Euros to take place across the whole of Europe embraces community as a key facet of its logo. Following up on the previous tournament with a very similar design, the gleaming trophy surrounded by cheering spectators symbolises a celebration of the beautiful game as the tournament moves across Europe’s finest footballing cities.

The logo is more stripped back than its predecessor, with only big shapes making up the crest and no smaller strokes or emblems. This simpler approach works well for this year’s tournament, and we can expect many more great moments from the event as we approach the finals at Wembley.

If you want to build a brand for your business then Reactive Graphics can help.
Get in touch with us today to see how we can get your project off the ground!
To take a look at how Reactive Graphics have transformed clients brand intensities,  please take a look at our our portfolio of work here.

Burger King has unveiled a new logo and brand identity, making it the first complete rebrand in over 20 years. The company is seeking a more natural, old-fashioned look, with minimal noise and colours like red, brown, and green that customers already associate with food.

The announcement also signals a commitment to the recent improvements to taste and food quality by the removal of colours, flavours, and preservatives from artificial sources from their menu. The fast-food chain’s redesign brings back a 60s logo and introduces a brand font inspired by the shape of its burgers, with a rich new colour palette, to create a more digital-friendly identity.

If you are looking for a more digital-friendly design for your own logo, visit our services page to see how we can help. We have been designing logos and creating strong brand identity’s for 16 years. We can help strengthen your company’s image by creating a brand identity that encompasses your core values.

The New Logo

As part of its first rebranding exercise in over two decades, Burger King will be rolling out a new brand logo, packaging, restaurant merchandise, menu boards, crew uniforms, restaurant signage and décor, social media, and digital and marketing assets.

At the heart of the rebrand is a reimagined version of its existing logo, the source of inspiration of this new logo was burger King’s logo from 1996 to 1999. The new logo brings back a classic look with an emphasis on the whopper, putting the restaurant name between the two buns.

It also includes a brand-new typeface called ‘Flame’, designed to mimic the shapes of Burger King food: round, bold, yummy, playful. Which makes people want to take a bite out of it.

Brand Colours

While the colour in the new scheme have necessarily changed from the previous one, the blue from the logo have been completely remove, along with any other appearances. The red and yellow have always belonged to the fast-food industry and the Burger King brand identity operates almost entirely within that spectrum, with a hint of the darker pastels from the same range.

Brown is heavily featured, including in the new uniforms that promote its crew members to masters of the flame grill. The new photography is textures and brings out the sensorial aspect of the food, primarily featuring quirky, saturated illustrations.

Why the new brand identity?

There are two key factors that prompted Burger King to seek a flashy new look and do a significant rebrand: changing marketing trends and changing customer tastes. The elements of this new visual design will be present throughout all touchpoints of the customers experience including the packing, menu, staff uniform, the restaurant itself and their digital presence.

Flat Design Trend

Burger King’s rebrand fully embraces a recent design trend called flat design. Flat design priorities two-dimension illustrations and bright colour and limits the noise created by too many visual details and textures. BK has joined the flat design party, but unlike some other brands, has pulled it off in a celebratory, personality filled way that we just love.

The Burger King redesign serves up a visual style that replicates the shapes of the company’s menus with simple, two-dimensional imagery that has truly little detailing or distraction. It is streamlined, simple, and exciting to look at, which is crucial when fighting for every second of attention from potential customers.

Flat design is so commonplace now that you probably did not notice it because the new branding is already live there. For example, in-store technology like self-service checkout screens and on our phones in the form of mobile apps. By moving towards strong colours and launching a bold, curvy, custom typeface… Burger King’s flat rebrand has resulted in eye-catching marketing materials that stand out in a crowded online market.

Customers’ changing tastes

The second reason for Burger King’s facelift is to reflect its customer’s ever-evolving tastes. When customers’ habits change, companies need to move to reflect them in their product offering and overall brand. Over the past decade, there has been a big shift in demand toward healthier foods and less artificial ingredients, and companies have pivoted to include healthier products in their line-up as a result.

That is when Burger King recently announced that its flagship burger, the Whopper, is free of artificial colours, flavours and preservatives, and the new changes are said to signal the company’s commitment to food quality.

The company also claims to be changing from the ground up, making a big push to move away from artificial ingredients like flavourings and colourings and making some lofty promises regarding sustainability in its food, plants, and communities.

Considering all these changes, the company knew their current visual identity wasn’t reflecting their brand anymore. They needed a new visual expression that could reflect the taste and quality of the food through design.

Strong digital presence

As with most major brands, Burger King has a strong digital presence and the rebrand was designed to work across multiple digital platforms.

Back in 1969, Burger King didn’t have to worry about internet eyeballs. It was focused on drawing customers from the street and catching their attention on TV and radio commercials. Even in its 1999 rebrand, the design team didn’t have to consider how the brand would translate into an ad on Instagram. But in 2021, even fast-food customers are increasingly found in the digital environment.

A huge benefit of flat design is that it translates better in a world of mobile phones. Because it’s simpler, its design is flexible, easily resized, and adaptable to all types of screens.

Should you follow in BK’s footsteps?

Burger King’s redesign really shows their dedication to their customers and the experience they want to bring through their products. As their business evolves so does their brand personality and attributes.

If your business is also evolving over time it is good to stay up to date with the latest design trends, and keep an online social media presence. Improving your digital presence will keep your business relevant and designed for the future.

One thing we love about Burger King’s redesign is that the new logo pays homage to the brand’s heritage and their brand identity shows confidence in their future, while remaining true to what their customers love about them.

When rebranding your business it is important for it to still be recognisable to your existing, local customers. However it doesn’t hurt to try out some new design trends and see what suites your brand identity.

If you want to build a brand for your business then Reactive Graphics can help.
Get in touch with us today to see how we can get your project off the ground!
To take a look at how Reactive Graphics have transformed clients brand intensities,  please take a look at our our portfolio of work here.

Your brand strategy is how, what, where, when and to whom you plan on communicating and delivering on your brand messages. It will map out how you are different, trustworthy, memorable and likeable by your ideal customer. It will convey your purpose, promises and how you solve problems for people.

Research is arguably one of the most important steps in developing your brand. Don’t begin the creation of your brand until you have finalised all required research for the basis of your brand.

When developing a brand strategy, identify three core components of your business to use as a blueprint for marketing tactics; purpose, consistency and emotional impact.

Purpose: This explains why you are in business and the specific customer needs you fulfil. “People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.” – Simon Sinek

You can use the 3 parts to The Golden Circle to find your purpose for your business:
What – the products or services you offer to your customers
How – the things that differentiate you from the competition
Why – the reason you are passionate and why you exist

Consistency: Be able to define what allows you to provide your services day in and day out.

Emotional Impact: This is what helps form a bond or a connection between you and your customers. A brand strategy should develop this impact and build upon it.

By identifying the key components of your business and the focus of your marketing plan, you have the basis for crafting your brand strategy.

Brand identity is the way you convey this to the public with visuals, messaging and experience. Your brand strategy will influence how you present your identity and align it with your purpose for the most impact.

Even though brand identity is often confused to be the same as brand image, both are very different. Brand identity is how the brand wants its customer to perceive it. Brand image, on the other hand, is the customers’ perspective of the brand. Brands are perception – the audience’s perception, not yours. Consider the words and associations you want people to think of when they think of your business.

The elements of brand identity are both visual and non-visual. Brand design is more than just logo design. It is important to have consistent typefaces, weights and colours throughout all of the material within your business. You need to be certain of your chosen themes for your brand as you will inevitably be seeing a lot of it throughout the brands lifetime. A brand has a personality and a style, and is expressed through emotional attributes.

Brand design is more than just logo design. It is important to have consistent typefaces, weights and colours throughout all of the material within your business. You need to be certain of your chosen themes for your brand as you will inevitably be seeing a lot of it throughout the brands lifetime.

Brand design is more than just logo design. It is important to have consistent typefaces, weights and colours throughout all of the material within your business. You need to be certain of your chosen themes for your brand as you will inevitably be seeing a lot of it throughout the brands lifetime.

Brand marketing is the way that businesses or organizations highlight and bring awareness to products or services by connecting values and voice to the right audience through strategic communication. From the beginning of your business adventure, it is crucial to define your values and goals for the brand.

Effective branding is the result of understanding the audience’s needs first, and then defining the communication strategy. A successful brand does not attempt to be everything to everyone. It knows who its audience is, and appeals directly to them. Narrow down, and focus.

Most businesses tend to include branding as a marketing strategy and leave out brand marketing. The two terms may seem the same but they are different. Brand marketing seeks to work more on customer retention and satisfaction. Ideally, branding brings in the customers as brand marketing makes them satisfied and loyal to the product.

1. A brand is more than a name, a logo or an advertising campaign. A brand is a promise
2. A brand has a personality and a style, and is expressed through emotional attributes.
3. Modern consumers feel loyalty toward brands that share their value system.
4. Brands are perception – the audience’s perception, not yours.
5. Effective branding is the result of understanding the audience’s needs first, and then defining the communication strategy.
6. A successful brand does not attempt to be everything to everyone. It knows who its audience is, and appeals directly to them.

If you require a brand identity for your business then Reactive Graphics can help your company to correctly position itself in the marketplace.
Get in touch with us today to see how we can get your project off the ground!
Or you can view our portfolio of work here.

Proud to be ‘a young, independent brand, driven by progressive and innovative thinking’, Crosstown Doughnuts places on our list of brands celebrating the October holidays in their Halloween web design. Introducing new flavour combinations and collaborations with various brands and food and drink establishments, Crosstown’s ability to stamp it’s X mark around London is an impressive achievement. From regular city-goers, notably the vegan consumer market to large-scale office spaces, Crosstown is becoming a household name, which calls for a web design to be attractive, professional and maintaining the quirky charm of their products. We really like the almost gothic nature of their Halloween web design, featuring a flexible monochrome design and yet also using large imagery to present a selection of mouth-watering seasonal doughnuts. With a website which is regularly featuring new products, we were impressed by both their minimal web design layout and their recent Halloween-inspired social media content they’re putting out this month already.

Have you seen Crosstown Doughnuts in our recent Soho brand identity ranking? Check it out here!

Located at the very heart of Leicester Square, is the bright and colourful M&M World. With a Halloween web design which is heavily focused on presenting large visual imagery to advertise new products, we think that they have created something fun, innovative and exciting with their web design during the Halloween period. With vibrant colours being at the centre of the M&M brand, the Halloween season enables this chocolate company to make the most out of the ghoulish green and vibrant orange autumnal aesthetic in their online content. One unique aspect of the M&M brand is its ability to constantly shift its web design layout with the ever-changing products or colour patterns that they are promoting throughout the year.

Famously, their use of marketing surrounding the colours red, white and blue have allowed them to tailor products to accommodate tourists visiting the UK and with the additional use of black and orange – Halloween is something m&m world has down to a tee. Or I guess you could say an ‘m’ in this case..With large visual images dominating their home page, the brand is able to promote a simple product, which allows for a great deal or personalisation for their chocolate-loving clients.

Is it really October until you’ve seen the first pumpkin-spice-latte post appear on your social media feed? There are few brands out there that have adopted the same level of enthusiasm in celebrating the holiday season as Starbucks UK. Adding their new ‘Phantom frappuccino’ onto their beverage list, the coffee company has been able to take their emerald green brand identity logo and accommodate those who enjoy the American holiday, which is becoming more familiar to us as flat-white British enthusiasts.

Their web design is exciting and dramatic. Distancing themselves from the typical pumpkin-filled, orange and maple leaf aesthetic which they share on their social media pages, Starbucks has been able to establish a more haunting, Halloween-inspired product which stands out amongst other coffee chains.

But like many brands, sticking with what you know is able to attract users and clients who support and are attracted to the familiar nature of the brand. Facing certain criticisms in the past that the brand was thinking less about coffee, and more about the seasonal and contemporary flavoursome creations they could make – they proudly promote their social media in a way that hails the pumpkin spice latte many coffee connoisseurs and experts in the industry tend to find disinteresting. Starbucks UK gave us the inspiration to think about how to excite and attract users via a creative and surprising web design, whilst also thinking about how social media can be used to promote a sense of familiarity and using the holiday season as an additional method of establishing brand identity.

What are your thoughts on the Halloween web designs? Leave a comment below!

If you have found this article interesting we recommend you to also check out: “Discovering Soho: Exploring The Coolest Local Brand Identities“.

If you want us to help you design your website for Halloween or other type of holiday, reach out to us at 020 7018 0909 or visit our contact page. We are happy to hear from you!