This month, we hear from Paula Reile and Sarah Godfrey, with the Business and Commercialization Innovation (BCIC) Centre.
You’ve set your business plan, landed on a name and figured out a logo. Your brand is ready to go, right? Not quite!
For a strong brand identity, you are going to need much more than a logo. Of course, this is a vital building block, but it is not enough to create a cohesive brand identity across the many touchpoints a business has with customers and clients.
Here are the key elements you need for a full brand kit:
- A responsive logo set that includes scalable variations.
- Font pairings for headings and body text that work with your logo and overall aesthetic.
- A defined colour palette with primary and secondary colours to use in graphic design and web design (with hex codes).
Above: Local company, Fonthill Family Fruit Farm, worked with the BCIC team to rebrand their logo.
These are the most important core pieces that you will need in your brand kit. Let’s take these even deeper with a few more elements that help build a cohesive brand image:
- • A set photography and imagery guide for a unified aesthetic and feel for product photography and content creation.
- • A brand pattern to use in graphic design, packaging design, web banners, etc.
- • A brand story description that explains the “whys” behind your brand’s essence.
These pieces become especially important when a business builds a team and levels up their marketing efforts. The brand kit should be laid out in a guideline document that outlines exactly how to use each piece. This can then be shared with any graphic designer, web designer, social media manager or team member who needs to make sure they represent the brand accurately.
Once multiple people start working on a business, it can be challenging to streamline brand representation. If fonts are applied inconsistently, or colours are used that don’t fit the vibe of your brand, or the photography style is mismatched to the brand tone, you will be left with a watered down and confusing version of your image. Building brand recognition requires potential and future customers to see the same imagery multiple times, across several channels. It is hard to do this in a strategic way without a framework in place.
Above: Research Lead, Sarah Godfrey (right), and Research Assistant, Lex van Es (left) review a colour swatch as they work on a branding project.
The BCIC media team carefully crafts strong branding for businesses looking to build a cohesive image. With the right brand kit in place, your business can communicate a consistent, powerful identity that resonates with your audience across every touchpoint—building trust, recognition, and lasting success.
Interested in learning more about BCIC and how they can support your business?
Explore BCIC’s website, and contact David DiPietro, Manager, Business Development, at [email protected].
