7 Brand Identity Examples to Inspire You

There are two sides to the brand identity coin. On one side is the visual appearance of a brand. This includes the logo, packaging, color palette, typography, and tagline.

On the other side is the non-visual identity of a brand. Although this isn’t commonly associated with brand identity, it’s equally as important as the visual aesthetics of your business.

Non-visual identity is your brand’s personality. It’s the conveying of values through your tone of voice, and the message behind the elements your brand consistently uses (such as graphics, illustrations, and messaging).

Your brand identity is critical for your business because it helps you distinguish yourself from the competition and build your reputation among customers. Without a strong brand identity, a small business’ ability to stand out is diminished.

There are a number of key elements that when pieced together create a cohesive representation of your brand. These elements include (but aren’t limited to):

1. Logo: This is the universally recognizable visual symbol that represents your brand and its core value.
2. Tagline: By creating a simple, memorable phrase, you can capture the essence of your brand. So what are you waiting for? Like Nike says, “just do it”.
3. Tone/Style: Developing a distinct voice and style for all communications and marketing efforts makes sure customers recognize your brand across any medium. It also promotes consistency, which fosters trust.
4. Color Palette/Typography: Selecting specific colors, fonts, and other design elements helps to define the look and feel of your brand, and the message you want to portray to your customers about who your brand is, not just what.
5. Content Strategy: This non-visual element helps you interact with your target audience with purpose and consistency; providing useful, valuable content that educates, entertains, and engages customers on multiple platforms with content they can relate to (social media, website, newsletters).

Combine all of these elements (among others) and you’ll have yourself a confident, clear brand identity that inspires trust and loyalty from your customers.

Now you know what makes up a brand identity, and why it’s important, let’s look at some of the best brand identity examples to help inspire you moving forward.

Glossier is a beauty brand founded in 2014 with the ethos of providing natural, simple, beauty products. Its brand identity is rooted in the idea of being uncomplicated, inclusive, and empowering. To reinforce this, Glossier’s “about” section on the website powerfully states that “beauty isn’t built in a boardroom—it happens when you’re a part of the process”.

The brand uses a pastel color palette and clean, clear designs to evoke feelings of positivity, comfort, and familiarity while emphasizing its products in its marketing efforts. Its signature pink color gets a special mention, not only because it’s iconic, but also because the brand cleverly trademarked its millennial pink-lined product packaging. Restricting other brands from copying Glossier with similar color schemes.

An inspiring aspect of this brand identity example is that Glossier uses real people as models for its products through influencer marketing, instead of unrealistically airbrushed models often used by competitors in the beauty industry.

We love this as it conveys Glossier’s inclusive and empowering values perfectly, sending a clear message about body positivity to its customers.

Find Out More

Glossier is an example of a DTC business, which allows it to have plenty of control over its identity, branding, and customer experience. To learn more about DTC, check out our What Is Direct-to-Consumer Ecommerce guide.

Boy Smells’ brand identity centers itself around modern masculinity grounded in nature, sophistication, and self-expression. The full-bodied fragrance maker prides itself on creating products that are accessible to all genders.

The overall aesthetic is minimal and sophisticated, with its simple black-and-white logo design serving as a nod to the gender neutrality it inspires its customers to feel. Although its candles hold the same minimalist attributes, the classic shapes are bursting with elevated scents and fragrances, such as rhubarb smoke or fleurshadow.

What we love so much about Boy Smells’ brand identity, is its non-visual elements. Through the power of its scented products, it encourages customers to explore gender roles while reconceptualizing traditional beliefs about masculine and feminine identities – even in something as seemingly humble and simple as fragranced candles for the home.

Coca-Cola’s prolific red and white logo has been emblazoned across its products for over 130 years and is the company’s most recognizable asset.

The familiar cursive logo was first used in 1887, while the iconic red and white colors were added in 1895. The classic font and color scheme have changed slightly throughout the brand’s history, but that’s what we love most about Coca-Cola’s brand identity.

The beverage-makers ability to successfully rebrand over the years, while keeping its fundamental design origins, is something that can inspire us all. From the “125 years” design that skillfully portrays a coke bottle exploding open to invoke a feeling of celebration in consumers, to the “Share a Coke” campaign, which was a stroke of marketing genius, and one that is now often mimicked by other brands.

Want to find out more about building brand awareness through killer marketing campaigns? Check out our guide on how to increase brand awareness.

Oatly is a plant-based dairy alternative brand that focuses on providing sustainable, cruelty-free, and oat-based food and beverages. Its brand identity is loosely based around the concept of “Oatspiration”: a worldview that acknowledges people’s need for excitement, connections, and taste experiences while making “better” choices for their own health and the environment.

However, the brand has taken this concept and portrayed it on not one, but all four sides of its oat milk packaging. Spreading climate-conscious information through the brand’s positive, humorous, and optimism-filled messaging.

Aesthetically, the brand’s packaging has a clean, light, natural color tone that’s easily identifiable on supermarket shelves, helping it to stand out from other competitors. It uses a handwritten font varying in size to convey a sense of conversational dialogue with its customers, making Oatly’s content (and product) more relatable to its audience – especially younger generations.

You can certainly take inspiration from Oatly’s resourcefulness – using every angle of packaging on its products, which has enabled it to attract consumer attention no matter how it’s placed on shop shelves.

Who can ever forget that almighty “dudum” sound as Netflix’s signature red “N” leaps at our screens? Not us, and not Netflix’s 223.09 million plus subscribers.

We love Netflix’s brand identity, largely due to the fact it practically owns a letter of the alphabet. Universally recognized by the red “N” around the world, the online streaming giant pride’s itself on simple, but effective, branding.

As well as the “N” logo, the “Netflix” wordmark that appears at the top of our screens as we dive into yet another binge-watch of our favorite TV show is simply encapsulating. There’s no tagline, and why should there be when such a prolific brand thrives on simplicity?

All brands can take inspiration from Netflix’s ability to do a lot by saying so little visually. In fact, the brand does the majority of its talking non-visually via its portfolio of unrivaled, continuously evolving TV and film content that focuses on its consumers and their needs.

Burt’s Bees is a climate-conscious brand with a unique identity, helping it stand out from countless other personal care brands in the market. Easily defined by its natural and earthy tones, Burt’s Bees draws upon a vivid yellow and black striped color palette to symbolize honeycomb and bees.

We like Burt’s Bees because this simple but powerful visual identity not only makes it easy for customers to pick out the brand’s products on crowded store shelves, but also reinforces the company’s values: 100% natural ingredients, and responsible sourcing.

Overall, branding for Burt’s Bees reflects its commitment to quality and honesty, and that’s something any brand can take inspiration from. By showcasing natural formulae through vibrant visuals such as honeycomb stripes and bee illustrations, consumers are drawn to its products.

Of all the brand identities we’ve looked at, Spotify has the most variety. Yes, it’s the brand with the iconic green and black (or white) color scheme for its logo and tagline, but it also uses a whole host of vibrant colors throughout its designs, particularly for its annual “Spotify Wrapped” campaign.

And it’s easy to see why. Spotify is all about connecting people around the world through the power of music. It uses a powerful combination of visuals, messaging, and products to convey its brand message of “music for everyone”.

Although the logo remains unchanged, the color schemes throughout the app’s features, such as playlists, are ever-changing. Spotify’s branding creates a sense of unity (through its consistent logo, app font, and general color scheme), alongside a varied and colorful recognition and appreciation of different cultures, and types of people, all of who listen to music.

It reinforces this visual identity through its non-visual campaigns and initiatives, helping connect people through music and culture. These campaigns include “Music for every mood”, which creates playlists on the Spotify app specifically designed for certain circumstances, including a breakup playlist full of sad songs.

Summary

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A good brand identity is an incredibly important part of any business. Not only does it help you stand out from your competitors, but customers are more likely to recognize and trust your brand if it has a strong identity.

Whether you focus on visual elements, such as your brand’s logo, or work on your brand’s personality, we hope these examples have been a helpful source of inspiration. To recap, here are some of the best elements of these incredible brand identities:

• Simplicity – Netflix is the boss of simplicity, proving that if your product is good enough, you don’t need a tagline.
• Resourcefulness – Why be limited to showcasing your brand’s identity on one side of packaging? Why not make use of every angle like Oatly? And remember to throw some humor on there for good measure.
• Creative brand campaigns – Coca-Cola tapped into a whole new market with its “Share a Coke” marketing campaign. Take inspiration from this idea if your brand has the power to do the same.