Should Branding Be The Driving Power Behind Web Design? [Answered]

What is the one major mistake made by almost everyone when it comes to brand identity development?

It is letting the website design drive branding practices. It is true that the design is going to enforce the brand message among the consumers. But it is ultimately a mistake to think that it is the key to all branding design ideas. But what encourages business owners to make this mistake?

The Root Of The Problem: Not Knowing Yourself

If someone asks you and the stakeholders about the brand, will the answers be the same? Or different?

If the answers are the same, then great. But if answers happen to be different, it will be problematic. The brand is the identity, and it needs to be expressed smoothly through the branding and design of the site. But oftentimes when the design or redesign process begins, business owners let the design compromise the brand. And needless to say, that’s going to be quite harmful to the future of the business.

So what to do? How to make sure that it is the brand that drives the design and not the other way around? Let’s see how the ideal branding design process looks like.

A Perfect Brand Driven Design Process: What It Entails?

There’s a lot to say when it comes to branding through web design. But ultimately when it comes to brand-driven web design, the operation is pretty simple.

1. It Starts With A Look Inside

The branding and design process should start with self-examination and recognition. Before starting the whole design iteration process for web pages, sit down with the design partner, and sort out what the brand is going to be. The brand is something that tells the story of the organization, its mission and vision, and how it helps the customers. Without a closer look at the business and its goals, you can’t express all this with design.

Once you have a comprehensive idea of what the brand should be and set the brand design principles, it is time to approach the audience. The voice of the brand is going to be decided by them, and them only.

2. Be Who They Want You To Be

You can’t impress all kinds of target audiences with the same kind of brand character. To create your brand for a specific target audience, you need to take a different approach. Detailed research about the target audience and their preferences is necessary to make the branding practice a success.

Are they looking for a friendly voice they can relate to? Or an expert voice who can give them all the facts? All this and more needs to be answered to determine what kind of approach one needs when reaching out to the target audience. In such a situation, the right web design partner, specifically in a major city like New York will help you to understand the target audience better and what kind of voice they want to hear from the brand.

3. Design Elements: Let’s Not Get Carried Away

Designing a site is like being alone in an amusement park without any restrictions. There are just so much to do, so many elements to integrate, and so many options to choose from. And all this ‘so many…’ can encourage you to get carried away very easily.

This is where most of the time the design part takes over the brand part. Business owners forget about the crucial matter of branding and get lost in the trendy world of design. However, most successful brands out there practice perfect branding by restricting themselves in choosing design elements for the website. So it is going to be a wiser decision if you do the same. Don’t get too dazzled by the design elements during branding and design. Choose the ones the brand needs and leave the rest behind.

4. Send The Right Message With The Right Content

One can not ignore the importance of content when it comes to product branding design. Site owners have to find exactly the right kind of content, both text and visual, that will express the brand message as well as entice the site visitor enough to convert into being a customer.

In such a case, knowing both the requirements of the brand and the customer will help to figure out the kind of content needed on the site. Whether it should be a text-heavy site or more visual, it all depends on the purpose of the website. However, one rule of thumb business owners should adhere to at all times is to keep the content short, and easy to consume. Having easy to understand the content that explains the brand perfectly is the peak branding and design goals everyone should aim for.

The Final Thought

It is a basic and fatal mistake to let the design process drive branding, rather than the other way around. To really make an impact with the site on the market and leave a mark among the clients, business owners have to follow a branding design process that helps the design emphasize and express the brand.