BREAKDOWN OF MY PROCESS
Strategy behind the foundational
elements of a visual identity
Introduction
When I take clients on, my goal is to be your go-to partner—someone who offers guidance, honest advice, and a clear pathway to help support your success. I’m your cheerleader! I love collaborating closely with my clients, working together to support one another every step of the way.
I’m fully transparent about how I work because I want you to know exactly what to expect. While my portfolio showcases the final outcomes, this post highlights the steps and critical thinking behind the work—specifically the three foundational elements of a visual identity: logo creation, font selection, and color palette development. Guided by intentional design principles, I create custom visual identities that are not only visually compelling, but functional and built to support your business’s short- and long-term goals.
Logo Design
I start by mind-mapping, brainstorming, and exploring ideas with pencil and paper. This is where I allow myself to get messy. I’m not trying to make anything look good yet, and I don’t erase ideas that feel weak or incomplete. The goal at this stage is simply to get every idea out of my head and onto the page, then push those ideas further. More often than not, the first idea is not the right idea; if it came to you immediately, it likely came to someone else, too. Working by hand helps me stay creative, connected, and fully focused. I’m not looking at my phone or computer for inspiration; I’m just drawing, exploring, and experimenting until something shows real potential. My goal is to create something that not only looks good, but is built to last. Something unique and not influenced by fleeting trends or another designer’s work.
Once the exploration phase is complete, I will pick the top three designs and digitize them, refining them. In the digitizing phase, I will complete two tests with each logo to ensure it is a viable contender for you, the business owner, to use as a final concept.
Test One: Clarity and Contrast
A logo should be fully legible in black on white and in reverse (white on black). This is a critical test in the design process because you never want your logo’s functionality to depend on color. Think about situations where your logo might be embroidered on a hat or shirt, and the shop can’t process your design because the details don’t translate well without color. The same issue can arise with vinyl decals for vehicles and windows, or any production method that relies on high contrast.
When your logo works in both black and reversed versions, you know it has enough clarity, contrast, and simplicity to function in any application. It saves you a major headache later on.
Test Two: Scalability
Your logo should remain legible at both very small and very large sizes. It’s easy to get carried away with intricate details, multiple elements, and stylistic flair such as gradients and halftone effects. But in logo design, your best friends are breathing room (negative space), bold lines, and confident, simplified features. As a general rule of thumb, a logo should be fully legible at around one inch in size.
How Tests are Conducted
After digitizing the three designs, I will take each concept and place three sizes on a page, ranging from smallest to largest in both black and white. I print off each page and hang it on a wall to analyze. I look at each design close up and far away. Viewing a logo on a screen is very different from seeing it in person. Printing exposes flaws, spacing issues, and legibility problems that are easy to miss digitally. When I present the three options to my client, I want to feel confident in whichever one they choose, knowing it can stand the test of time and work in both digital and printed applications.
Visual Identity Must Have: Logo Variants
Once a logo direction has been selected, I work with the client to finish refining the design and making the arranged number of alterations if needed. From here, I turn the one logo into three to four different layouts, such as horizontal, vertical, stacked, abbreviated, and icon. As a general rule of thumb, I recommend having four core variations, though in some cases you may benefit from up to six, depending on your visual identity’s needs.
I’ve spoken with business owners in the past who worry that using multiple logo variations will diminish brand recognition. However, that’s simply not the case. Whether you move from a wordmark with a mascot to just the wordmark, or just the mascot, the brand remains consistent as long as the visual style is unified.
Typography
Never underestimate the impact of a font. It is a major asset in a visual identity because it is not just the messenger; it dictates how the message is perceived and understood.
My rule of thumb is to create an identity that can work using two fonts. In some cases, a third font can work, perhaps a more decorative or specific typeface used sparingly in intentional spaces. Beyond that, too many fonts can overwhelm your visuals and graphics. Typography should guide your audience, creating a clear visual flow and emphasizing what you want them to see first.
The two fonts I provide to my clients are the focal point fonts – they are your headers: call to actions, punch lines, the font that can break rules! The second is your body copy: the information providers, the structured rule followers. These two fonts should work together in a unified manner, while also contrasting against each other.
The two fonts I provide to my clients are the focal point fonts – they are your headers: call to actions, punch lines, the font that can break rules! The second is your body copy: the information providers, the structured rule followers. These two fonts should work together in a unified manner, while also contrasting against each other.
My process for selecting fonts is simple but deliberate: I conduct careful research to ensure every choice supports the business needs.
The What, Who, Why, and Where of Type
The research I conduct highlights everything important I need to know to help me select a font. Beyond noticing the distinct characteristics of a font, or picking one that looks fun and festive, there is more to learn, such as:
Choosing a Style: Tone, Mood and Voice
There are three primary classifications of fonts: serif, sans-serif, and script. There are many other variants within each category, such as mono, slab-serif, handwritten, decorative, etc., but without making things too complicated, let’s stick to these three.
Each style has a purpose and works best in a specific format. For example, it has been tested that serif fonts often make for better body copy in print production due to the extenders on each letter. These extenders almost help to add a block between each line above and below them, acting as a guide for the viewer’s eyes. However, in the digital realm, sans-serif may be easiest due to the resolution difference across screens and applications. When working with a client, I make a decision based on what they predominantly will be using for collateral and where the most text is shown (a website vs a brochure or magazine). Script itself can be hard to read, and should never be used as body copy.
Each style has a purpose and works best in a specific format. For example, it has been tested that serif fonts often make for better body copy in print production due to the extenders on each letter. These extenders almost help to add a block between each line above and below them, acting as a guide for the viewer’s eyes. However, in the digital realm, sans-serif may be easiest due to the resolution difference across screens and applications. When working with a client, I make a decision based on what they predominantly will be using for collateral and where the most text is shown (a website vs a brochure or magazine). Script itself can be hard to read, and should never be used as body copy.
Besides having functionality restrictions, each one gives off a different tone and can impact the way people think of a brand, so picking the right style is vital!
Who Designed It - And Why It Matters
As I explore different fonts, I pay close attention to who designed them, because a typeface often reflects the ideas and influences of its creator. Every designer embeds meaning in their work, especially in type, which serves as a powerful medium for expressing ideas. Designers come from different artistic eras or draw inspiration from various movements, and understanding their background can reveal a lot about the choices behind a typeface.
This level of knowledge can strengthen your business’s visual identity by ensuring your fonts integrate seamlessly with the overall design. Think of it as the cherry on top! Depending on your business and what you are hoping to achieve, an option for your identity is to push the envelope and focus primarily on using typography to share your messages rather than using common elements such as illustrations, icons, and patterns.
Type Foundry
Once I’ve learned about the designer, I take it a step further by looking into the type foundries they work with or have contributed to in the past. This is often one of the best ways to discover typefaces that naturally pair well together.
Exploring a designer’s body of work and the foundries they’re associated with can guide you toward that perfect second typeface. Designers often carry certain stylistic signatures across multiple fonts, and foundries tend to curate families of typefaces that share a similar philosophy or aesthetic. By paying attention to these connections, you greatly increase your chances of finding a type pairing that feels intentional, balanced, and aligned with your message.
Visual Identity Must Have: Weight Variants
It’s equally important to ensure you use the type to its fullest potential. Even if I find a font that feels perfectly suited to your business, I will choose not to use it if it offers only a single weight (such as regular). For a typeface to function effectively across a visual system, it should include at least four weight variants: light, regular, medium, and bold.
Having multiple weights gives your visual identity the flexibility it needs to communicate with clarity and intention. It allows your collateral to carry more impact, elevating the typeface from a simple design element to a strong return on investment. With a range of weights, you can establish hierarchy, create contrast, and maintain visual cohesion across all applications.
Framework For Color Selection
When it comes to choosing colors for your brand, it’s not about picking your personal favorite. Maybe you love purple and want your entire brand identity to revolve around it, but here’s the truth: your brand colors should be chosen based on how your clients perceive them and the associations you want them to create.
Every choice should tie back to your business goals, the emotions you want to evoke, and the message you want to communicate. With the right strategy, your color palette becomes an influential tool that reinforces your identity and unique value.
When I create a color palette for my clients, I focus on understanding the businesses and select colors based on the psychological understanding behind them to best support the emotional journey my clients want their business to evoke.
Before Color Development Can Begin
Understanding Your Target Audience
Let’s expand more on the concept of an emotional journey. Everyone’s perception and emotions linked to a color can differ based on their personal experiences, environment, and cultural background. However, when it comes to your business, you should already have a solid understanding of who your target audience is, not just their basic demographics, but also their personality traits, consumer behaviors, motivations, and thought processes. The more deeply you understand these individuals across all levels (primary, secondary, and tertiary), the more accurately you can anticipate how they will respond to the colors in your visual identity.
In my visual identity service, I don’t create audience personas for you. As the business owner, you should already have your personas developed—or at least have a clear outline, story, or set of bullet points that can be expanded into usable insights. I rely on this information when selecting your color palette to ensure it resonates with the right people.
If you don’t have this foundational understanding of your audience, I recommend choosing my brand identity service instead. In that service, I conduct all the necessary research and legwork to define your audience in detail, ensuring color development is grounded in strategy and aligned with the people you want to reach.
Color Theory As Your Foundation
Once I understand who the audience is, I turn to color theory to begin exploring which colors will work best within your visual identity. At this stage, I’m not choosing exact swatches or color codes yet. Instead, I’m looking at the broader picture, deciding which areas of the color wheel are worth exploring based on the emotional tone and personality your brand needs to convey.
Color theory generally offers three core approaches for building a palette: complementary, analogous, and triadic. Each creates a different type of visual relationship and emotional effect. By considering your audience’s psychology and your brand’s intended message, I can determine which of these approaches will form the strongest foundation for your color direction.
Complementary colors have high contrast and bring out the best of each other, making them great for bold brands that want to stand out and have a focal point in the market. When you use complementary colors together, they help to bring out the best of each other, making them appear more vibrant and dominant. Examples of complementary colors are purple and yellow, red and green, and orange and blue.
Analogous colors are those that are side by side on the color wheel – so green, blue, and yellow. These colors together make a business feel united, structured, and harmonious. You can play off on focusing on a cool vibe or a warm vibe by using an analogous color palette. This color theme is a great option because it opens up a seamless identity that is easy on the eyes and can convey an idea without the need for high contrast.
Triadic colors give you the best of both worlds; you have high contrast and a powerful presence while simultaneously communicating balance and harmony. Tradic colors can be found on the color wheel equally spaced apart, for example, red, yellow, and blue. This is a great option when you want to allow your business the opportunity to have flexibility in the message it shares. It is also a great option to help you push that narrative of having focal points and key concepts you want to share with your audience.
Development Begins
Finding The Right Story In Color
Breaking down the meaning of every color would take forever. Honestly, it could be a blog post on its own. So instead of giving you a long lesson, I want to share how I personally approach choosing colors for my clients. Regardless of which color theory direction we take, complementary, analogous, or triadic, I look for hues within those chosen ranges that share a meaningful story. What that means is: I aim to find colors that genuinely connect with the brand’s message and personality.
For example, red and green are classic complementary colors, but they’re often associated with Christmas. To avoid that, I look for variations that keep the complementary relationship while creating a completely different emotional effect. Instead of pure red and green, I might choose a coral-toned red paired with a turquoise green. These still follow the principles of color theory but tell a fresher, more relevant story.
Oddly enough, choosing colors for a visual identity is the hardest part of the process for me. My clients receive a moodboard that previews potential colors, and while I do create a visual strategy with them, I always remind them that nothing is set in stone. As we develop more elements of the identity, color is something we can always revisit.
Visual Identity Must Have: Palette Planning
Color theory forms the foundation for selecting your primary colors. Once those are established, I move on to developing your secondary colors. These can be completely different from your primaries, or they can be variations of your primary colors at different saturation levels, blends of your primary hues, or any combination that feels intentional and appropriate.
Most palettes also benefit from having a neutral color such as tan, off-white, light gray, or even a very soft tint of one of your primary colors. Pure white can feel harsh, especially in digital environments, so having a warmer or softer alternative helps the design feel more comfortable and approachable.
I also include a very dark color for body copy. Whether in print or digital, using softer colors or light tones for text can make your content difficult to read. While many palettes default to black, I sometimes create a near-black version of one of the primary colors instead. This approach maintains legibility, adds depth, and makes the overall identity feel more cohesive.
No matter what your final palette becomes, one important consideration is the number of colors included. There’s no need to go overboard; I typically aim for four to five colors. But using too few can also limit your brand’s flexibility. Having both primary and secondary options gives your collateral room to be dynamic, expressive, and versatile.
Final Thoughts
In my experience as a student designer, I was always expected to justify every detail of my work, and that mindset has become second nature. Although it might seem silly to need to justify what some might think of as minor details, such as type and color, when you have a designer who makes every aspect of the project intentional, your visual identity will be able to stand strong in the market and develop with your business as it grows.