It’s plastered on billboards, it’s painted on buildings, it’s being shouted from the rooftops…pretty much everybody knows by this point that your brand is more than just a logo. Your brand isn’t just the collection of values, principles, priorities, and passions that drive yourself and your business; it also consists of the words, images, and materials you use to communicate those things to your audience.
Via Pixabay.com
Designer Meg Reid puts it like this:
“A logo is mark or a symbol and it’s the most essential first step to building a brand. It is a an emblem by which an organization can easily be recognized on letterhead, signage, online and even on the product you sell. It is custom designed and must be entirely unique for simple and immediate recognition.
Brand imagery, on the other hand, is how you build your brand’s aesthetic. These images can appear in a variety of forms, from billboards to Instagram, websites to print ads. Whether modern or traditional, simple or complex, clean or edgy, these images are more than simple visuals—they convey an emotion in the viewer (known as “brand feelings.”). This often occurs on an intangible level, building trust and confidence over time and repeated exposure.”
When we talk about “branded images,” we’re talking about pictures that are designed with the specific goal of communicating with your audience and customers. Reid explains that the images we choose to represent ourselves and our professional endeavors are powerful because photographs can have such a strong impact on us. Branded pictures are the best way to tell your audience the story of who you are, what you do, and why it matters.
Check out Meg Reid’s full article, “Brand imagery: how to select images to represent your organization” for more tips.