Build a Brand Cheat Sheet

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I f you’ve read my crash course brand, on you know what brand is, how it shapes the world, and how to build one for yourself.

To help you in your brand design journey, here’s a handy list of top resources and tools for each of the deliverables needed to build a stellar brand identity. May they guide you step by step to success!

Brand Landscape

Business Landscape

Competitive analysis: curate and analyze competitors’ brand assets and strategies, noting key differentiators
• Dig into this comprehensive guide to competitive brand audits

Objectives: clarify the organization’s short- and long-term actionable business goals
• Read this overview of the types of objectives to capture

Offerings: clearly define the organization’s products and services
• Check out this MIT research on defining business offerings

Positioning/value propositions: outline the benefits the organization delivers, and how this value sets it apart from competitors
• Learn how to create value propositions, with examples

Messaging Landscape

One-liner: create a single sentence that describes the people and problem the organization serves, and its unique solution
• Apply these helpful writing suggestions

Tagline: select a few words to communicate the brand’s offering and value
• Tagline writing tips from 10 entrepreneurs

Boilerplate: develop a brief, standardized description of what the organization does, including metrics and positioning
• Here’s a good overview

Audience Landscape

Audience personas: build profiles of individuals that represent the behaviors, character, and preferences of a key segment of your audience
• Here’s a great 101 on personas, and tips to uncover customers’ values

Organizational culture audit: capture a sense of the team’s values, aspirations, and existing relationship with the brand
• Try one of these design research tools

Brand Compass

Mission statement: define the core mandate of the organization — what it does, who it serves, and the value it brings to the table
• A quick video on writing a mission statement that doesn’t suck

Vision statement: clarify where the organization is going and the change it seeks to create in the next 3–5 years
• Check out this guide, or watch this TED talk

Purpose statement: answer the fundamental question — why does this organization exist? — and articulate the shared meaning that makes this work worthwhile
• How to, and why this differs from your mission/vision

Values: name the organization’s core beliefs and the behaviors that will manifest its purpose
• Try out these exercises

Visual/Verbal Identity

Brand Personality: define the unique character traits of your brand persona to build consistency
• Some inspiration from top brands + exercises

Voice and tone guidelines: select key words to describe the way your brand communicates, and consider how that changes in context
• Peruse voice and tone guidelines from top companies

Editorial style guidelines: define rules for writing in your brand voice, including grammar, formatting, and a glossary of key terms
• Try this useful overview to get started

Typography: limit yourself to two typefaces, and try pulling from the same font family
• Learn about picking and pairing from typography queen Jessica Hicshe

Colors: use them with intention and restraint, and consider visual weight and hierarchy
• Check out top brand palettes, and this helpful case study

Logo: create something that looks great across different sizes, materials and contexts
• Here’s a detailed guide to designing a great one

Creative assets (photography, illustration, iconography etc.): create a consistent style that is unique but easily scalable
• Find some good tips in this article

Multimedia (data visualization, video, sound etc.): build off your other styles to determine standards you can stick with
• See some great data style examples

Additional Resources

• A great collection of brand-building tools
• Brand 101

Independent designer/strategist making impactful digital products, good food, & enthusiastic ukulele music. IDEO alum. More at elanagurney.com

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