Expressing Your Brand Through Images

When creating content for your brand, we often focus our energy on the writing itself. While words are certainly important, they’re not the only elements that matter. Images are another element that matter, but unfortunately, many treat it as an afterthought. The reality is, images, words, and layout all work together to solidify your brand. Images should be chosen to not only reflect the content itself, but the brand as a whole. 

Images Represent Your Brand 

Every piece of imagery you use should be considered part of your brand. This holds true no matter where the image will be used, and this includes both online and offline content. Brochures, business cards, websites, blog content, social media, and more all require imagery. This same principle holds true whether it is in the form of a graphic, photograph, logo, and more. Each of these images should be carefully selected to best represent your brand.

The reason for this is that images leave a fairly lasting impression. Let’s say that you add a photograph to an article on your blog. While people may enjoy reading the content itself, it’s the image that creates a visual cue. If you select an arbitrary photograph, you miss the opportunity to imprint your branding onto your audience. 

Content is a Visual Experience

It is important to understand that content is actually a visual experience. We tend to focus on the words themselves, but this only tells part of the story. Content is about more than just the words on the page! How the words are arranged, the size of the paragraphs, subheadings, and images all work together to create a visual experience that pleases the reader.

Special care needs to be taken when selecting the images. A great image not only offers a visual representation of the words themselves, but also creates a visual cue that will remind people of your brand as a whole.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that the images need to contain branded information. However, it could mean that you should develop a set of rules for the types of images that are selected, such as whether or not the images will include people, landscapes, or if they will contain graphics. 

Develop Your Brand Strategy

Ideally, images will be part of the conversation when creating your brand strategy. Understanding that it isn’t a simple matter of choosing graphics, illustrations, or photos that simply “look good” isn’t enough. Define what types of images you will be using and keep it consistent across all of your platforms. Whether you need an image for an article you will be posting on your blog, require an image for a new business card design, or if you need an image for a product. It should all maintain a consistent look and feel.

When developing your brand, it is important to remember that your images need to be consistent across all platforms. They also need to reflect your brand because they give your audience visual reminders of who you are.