Your brand identity is more than just a logo – it’s the entire face of your business. It’s an accumulation of the visual and content aspects of your brand, from your colour palette to your core values and brand voice. A strong brand identity helps you to create an easily recognisable presence, so you can build trust and foster an emotional connection with your target audience.

This Adobe Express guide will detail how to create a brand identity, why it’s so important and provide real brand identity examples for inspiration.

What is brand identity?

Brand identity differs from brand image and brand strategy; it’s an all-encompassing term that describes the face of your brand. Where brand image describes the way your brand is perceived by customers, brand strategy is all about how you intend to showcase your brand.

Brand identity explores the way your business looks, sounds and feels at every point of communication. A strong brand identity can make the difference between someone recognising your brand and not.

Here are some of the key components:

• Brand visuals. This may include colours, logo, font, typography and other visual or brand assets like photography.
• Brand voice. This can include a slogan or tagline, as well as social media, email and marketing campaign copy.
• Brand values. Brand values make up the essence of your brand and what you stand for. It gives meaning behind brand actions.
• Brand personality. This covers your brand’s characteristics and traits.
• Brand name. Your name uniquely identifies your business. As you build customer trust, your brand name will start to represent that trust.

Why does brand identity matter?

Designing a brand identity is much more than just selecting a colour scheme – it’s crucial to making a powerful first impression. Every touchpoint is an opportunity to reinforce your presence, whether digital or offline, and build a distinct, emotional connection with your audience. It provides consistency, recognition, and long-term brand equity.

Brand identity helps you to stand out from the competition – particularly important in crowded marketplaces. A strong brand is one that customers remember. It encourages customer loyalty and trust.

Creating a brand identity even goes beyond attracting customers. An impressive brand identity helps brands attract top talent to foster internal growth.

10 brand identity examples to inspire your own.

It’s important to do your research before building your own brand identity. Consider what already exists in the market, and how you can differentiate your brand from it. Here are some great examples of strong visual brand identities in the UK:

1. Spotify.

Spotify screams youth-driven with its personalised and dynamic content. It’s energetic and modern, plus the bold black and green colourway is instantly recognisable among music lovers. The iconic green circle and sound wave logo also leans into Spotify’s originality and matches the brand’s playful tone of voice.

2. Glossier.

Known for its minimalistic aesthetic and clean, natural beauty, the Glossier brand identity is rooted in authenticity and inclusivity. All brand touchpoints are consistent with their identity values of skin first, makeup second. The cult favourite is known for ‘no-makeup makeup’ and the ‘clean girl aesthetic’.

3. Oatly.

A bold and purpose-led brand, the Oatley brand identity is rebellious and witty. It’s known for its hand-drawn typography and eye-catching pastel colour palette. The brand isn’t afraid to say what it thinks, and its quirky tone of voice appeals to its environmentally aware target customers.

4. Yorkshire Tea.

This family-owned business, dating back to 1886, focuses on fairness, flavour and quality. The distinct red visual brand identity, alongside its commitment to doing things ‘properly’, sets the brand apart from the crowded tea market. It oozes authenticity and never strays from its Yorkshire roots.

5. Lucy & Yak.

Lucy & Yak are known for inclusive and sustainable fashion. Recognised for their fun prints and unique styles, the brand creates joyful and colourful clothing. Particularly famous for their iconic dungarees, Lucy & Yak focus on community, creativity and comfort. Its brand identity also revolves around supporting environmental and social causes.

6. Greggs.

Dating back 85 years, Greggs continues to capture the heart of the nation with their great quality, freshly-prepared food at low prices. The distinct blue and yellow visual brand identity is instantly recognisable, and the brand stays true to being accessible to everyone with its affordable prices.

7. Airbnb.

Airbnb stands out from the saturated travel accommodation market with experience-focused, unique stays. The visual branding and tone of voice is warm, inviting and inspiring. Its brand identity centres around ‘Belong Everywhere’ and aims to instil a sense of belonging among guests and hosts – wherever they are in the world.

8. Burberry.

Renowned for its iconic trench coats, the Burberry brand identity is rooted in British heritage. It’s known for luxury, high-quality materials and superior craftsmanship. Founded in 1856, the brand embodies authenticity, timeless style and elegance, and is instantly recognisable by the signature Burberry check.

9. Dr Martens.

Rooted in authenticity, subculture, self-expression and rebellious spirit, Dr Martens have become one of the most culturally relevant brands since their humble beginnings in 1945. Instantly identifiable by the distinctive yellow stitching, the brand stands for individual style and attitude. Plus, the famously durable construction makes them a staple for street style.

10. Cadburys.

The signature purple visual brand identity of Cadbury’s is instantly recognisable by everyone with a sweet tooth – and even those without one. Its core values of quality, joy and community are at the heart of the brand. It’s known for iconic packaging, purple-lined confectionery aisles, and heart-warming marketing campaigns.

How can Adobe Express help you shape your brand identity?

Brand identity is essential to stand out in crowded markets. A strong identity ensures that your brand is recognisable and trusted by customers. Here’s how Adobe Express can help you in creating a brand identity:

1. Build your own brand kit and guidelines.

Use Adobe Express to design your brand identity. Choose colours, fonts and graphics to represent your brand and set up your own brand kit. Once you have your brand identity ironed out, you’ll need to outline some brand guidelines to ensure you stay consistent across all visual and written content.

2. Make a strong logo for your business.

While brand identity goes far beyond a logo, it’s still a very important starting point. Your logo will help customers recognise your brand and choose your products or services over the competition. Experiment with visual effects and create a logo to represent your business.

3. Create unique, re-usable colour palettes.

Colour is a powerful branding tool. It affects both recognition and how your brand is perceived by customers. Experiment with different hues and shades to create a colour palette that works for your brand identity.

4. Build web pages from scratch.

Design a professional-quality web page to bring your brand identity to life. Start with a customisable template or create from scratch. Experiment with different themes, fonts and styles until you’re satisfied.

5. Apply your branding in one click with Adobe Express for Business.

Once you have your branding colour and style nailed down, it’s easy to keep all of your creative outputs consistent with Adobe Express’ one-click apply brand. You can instantly apply your brand style to any project.

Create branded assets in a few clicks with Adobe Express’ AI template generator.

With the AI template generator, the opportunity to create branded assets is endless. Simply ask the prompt what you’d like to produce, for example: ‘social media post to promote X product’. The more descriptive you can be, the better the output. Click Generate to review the results and choose from high-quality templates. Not quite right? Click Generate more results for new options.

Apply your branding and further edit and refine the output until it best captures your brand identity. Plus, everything you produce using Adobe Express Generate is commercially safe, so you don’t need to worry about using the assets.

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Good to know.

What are the 5 pillars of brand identity?

The five brand pillars are purpose, perception, positioning, promotion and personality. These five pillars are an essential part of brand strategy and work together to make up what your brand stands for. For example, why your company exists, how it’s perceived by your target audience, where it’s positioned in the market, how it’s promoted and how it relates to customers.

How do I define my brand identity?

To define your brand identity, consider what makes your brand tick. Ask yourself what you’d like to be known for. Remember that creating a brand identity doesn’t happen overnight. You need to carefully select visual elements that represent your brand and cultivate a strong brand voice that’s true to your brand values.

How do you analyse a brand identity?

Visual brand analysis involves examining the visual elements that make up the brand, including the logo, colour palette and typography. To analyse the brand identity as a whole, you’ll also need to consider its messaging, how it’s positioned against competitors and how it’s perceived by its target audience.

Is Adobe Express free?

Yes, our free plan offers many core features including thousands of templates, photo editing and effects, animation, and 5 GB of storage. See our pricing page for details and to compare plans.