June 2025

Why Your Brand Identity Isn’t Memorable (Yet)

The secret sauce behind a powerful brand identity

A strong brand identity is what turns first impressions into lasting ones.

Looking good is just the beginning. A great identity is instantly recognisable, unmistakably you, and easy to remember. It’s how your personality, values, and positioning show up in the world, in a way that your audience can see, feel and never forget.

Done well, your brand identity does the heavy lifting. It builds trust. Sparks emotion. Sets you apart. It’s the stuff that makes people stop scrolling, take notice, and come back for more.

So what makes one brand unforgettable, and another fade into the background?

Whether you’re launching something new or giving your brand a well-earned refresh, this is your no-nonsense guide to the design fundamentals that make brands stick.

 

A closer look at brand identity

What you need to build a stand-out brand

Before we get into the nuts and bolts, it’s important to understand what actually goes into a brand.

Creating a brand identity means more than just a logo or colour choice. It’s the whole ecosystem working together to create your ‘visual voice’; one that shares a consistent, compelling story.

It’s made up of many moving parts:
● Strategy: your purpose, values, positioning, and personality.
● Visual identity: your logo, typography, colours, imagery, and layout.
● Verbal identity: your tone of voice, messaging, and brand story.
● Experience: how your brand comes to life across touchpoints, from your website and advertising to social posts and customer support.

Each element has a job to do, but it’s how they work together that creates something memorable and meaningful. In this post, we’re focusing on the visual side; the design fundamentals that help shape first impressions and lasting loyalty.

 

The 5 pillars of a memorable brand identity

The non-negotiables for creating serious brand impact

1. Brand positioning that packs a punch

This is your foundation, and often the first stumbling block.
Brand positioning is about defining your unique place in the market. It answers the big questions:
● Who are we here for?
● What problem do we solve?
● Why should anyone choose us over our competitors?

More than a strategy, it sets the direction for your entire visual identity.
Your positioning shapes how your brand should look, feel, and behave. A bold disruptor brand needs a very different design system than a trusted heritage brand. Nail your positioning first, and design becomes a lot more intentional, with every piece working harder to reflect who you are, and why you matter.

2. Logo design to lead the way

Once you know who you are and what you stand for, your logo is the symbol that carries it. It represents your entire brand with one mark – making it a pretty big deal.

A great logo captures your brand personality, adapts beautifully across formats, and holds its own, whether in an email signature or 3 metres wide on a trade show wall.

Here are just a few of the key things to consider when it comes to crafted, effective logo design:
● Simplicity: Is it clean enough to be instantly recognisable?
● Relevance: Does it authentically reflect your brand’s personality and values?
● Flexibility: Can it work in different colours, orientations, and on light/dark backgrounds?
● Timelessness: Will it still feel relevant in five years? Can it grow with you?
● Versatility: Does it work across print, digital, video, and physical spaces?

We design logos that are as practical as they are powerful. See what we’ve done here.

3. Typography that talks

Typography: the personality of your brand. Whether it’s elegant and high-end, bold and no-nonsense, or quirky and quick, type choices are your tone of voice in visual form, and they say a lot about who you are, and how you interact with your audience.

It’s not just about picking a nice headline font and calling it a day. A good typography system includes hierarchy, flexibility, accessibility, and the right balance of character and clarity.

It should be consistent across digital, print, and motion, and easy for your team to use.

4. A colour palette that steals the show

Colour is one of your most powerful tools when it comes to creating a brand identity. It does a lot of heavy lifting: creating emotion, building recognition, and making you instantly memorable.

Think: Google’s playful palette. Coca-Cola red. Or the iconic golden arches.

Palettes should feel fresh but timeless, be flexible across print and screen, and offer the right amount of variety without becoming too… chaotic. Bonus points if they make your competitors look a bit beige by comparison!

Colour me bad & tickle me pink

Within the first 90 seconds of seeing a product, people have already made a judgment – and up to 90% of that is based on colour alone.
Yep, colour isn’t just pretty. It’s powerful psychology in action.

● Blue is the most universally liked colour (trust, calm, stability – hello, banks and tech firms)
● Primary colours carry your core brand presence, whilst secondary colours support flexibility across platforms and content types (without things getting too samey)
● Around 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women experience some form of colour vision deficiency, so strong contrast and accessible combinations are essential for inclusive design.

Interested in colour psychology and branding? Adobe has a full article on this here.

5. Visuals that speak volumes

While colour holds a lot of weight when it comes to first impressions, your imagery – whether photography, illustration, or icons – is one of the fastest ways people get a feel for your brand. It helps to communicate the essence behind the name; whether you’re friendly and relatable, edgy and high-concept, technical, or playful. Your visuals should reflect your brand with a consistent tone, style, and treatment across every touchpoint.

And great visuals don’t just exist in isolation – how they’re arranged matters, too. Thoughtful layout and use of space can elevate your imagery, improve clarity, and guide your audience’s attention to exactly where you want it. Whether it’s a homepage hero, a social post, or a presentation slide, your visual storytelling is as strong as the structure that holds it.

Not sure what kind of imagery your brand should use? Here are some questions to guide you:
● Are you using photography, illustration, or a mix of both?
● Do your visuals feel polished, candid, abstract, or expressive?
● How does your imagery reflect your audience, values, and tone of voice?

And finally, that secret sauce we mentioned

The most underrated power-move for lasting brand recognition

You can have a beautifully crafted logo, a striking colour palette, captivating imagery, and killer copy, but if it’s applied one way on your website, another way in a proposal, and something else entirely on LinkedIn? The impact completely disappears.
Consistency is what transforms brand design into brand identity. It’s how trust and recognition are built. And it’s why brand guidelines are a non-negotiable. They should:
● Be easy to follow (not just for designers)
● Cover both visual and verbal identity
● Leave enough room for creativity, without going off-brand

Your brand guidelines are a reference point for all of your future communication, ensuring clarity and consistency, whether you’re a team of two or two thousand.

Make your brand identity unforgettable

From bland to bold: leave a lasting impression

So there you have it. The core elements of a brand identity that not only looks the part, but creates a presence that earns trust, builds loyalty, and drives recognition.

Gulp Creative are design experts. We know this stuff inside and out, and get our kicks from helping our clients create or improve their brands so they look and feel their absolute best. If you’re ready to create something brilliant (or your current branding just doesn’t cut the mustard anymore), we’re here to help. Let’s have a conversation to see if there’s a fit.