Visual Brand Language 🤝 Brand Voice and Tone

You know your buddy Belch, who looks like he should be headlining a heavy metal concert, but actually sounds like a hamster with corn stuffed in his cheeks?

That’s your brand.

OK, maybe not. But if your brand’s visual brand language doesn’t align with the voice and tone, you’ve got a Belch-the-Hamster-Level problem on your hands.

The good news is, compared to some other brand tragedies, this one is relatively easy to identify and, if you’re motivated to make a change, pretty straightforward to fix, as well. But reader beware, you may have to kill some of your darlings to get it done.

Two Languages, Both Alike in Dignity

Before we get too far into the nitty-gritty of why you should marry your VBL (that’s visual brand language) to your V&T (you guessed it, voice and tone), let’s level set just what we mean when we talk about these terms.

Your VBL is made up of all the design elements and standards of your brand. This includes your color palette, your typography, your photography style and composition standards, your layout principles, and even your iconography. All the visual representations of your brand are part of your visual brand language.

All of these elements are subject to change over time, which is a phenomenon we call brand evolution. When it happens unintentionally, it can be disastrous, but when intentional and insightful, these evolutions can breathe fresh life into floundering brands. If your VBL has become disconnected from your core values or brand voice, it may be time for a brand evolution of your own.

Your V&T is your brand’s personality — how it talks and who it talks to, and how its words make people feel. This includes brand characteristics, core values, target personas, taglines, mission statements, and elevator pitches. All the content you produce, from social media posts to comprehensive campaigns, is part of your voice and tone.

When your brand says something that doesn’t feel authentic, we call it being off voice. Nailing brand voices can be tricky, which is why great copywriters stay in business, even in the era of AI. Your audience will always be able to feel it if something’s off with your brand voice, and unfortunately, one slip-up can quickly snowball.

Without a well-established brand guide and experienced professionals on your side helping to maintain and protect your brand, it’s easy for these two languages to drift apart over time.

In the Brand Book, Where We Lay Our Scene

Unless this actually is your first rodeo, you’ve likely worked somewhere that had a big, fancy brand book sitting on a counter or coffee table in the office. It’s shiny, it’s fancy, and it feels totally inaccessible to anyone who doesn’t speak branding.

Unfortunately, in millennia of advertising, we haven’t come up with a better way to deliver branding documents than in one of these brand books. It’s where all the brand standards are codified and protected, and even if you don’t use it, you can trust and believe that your entire creative department treats it like a bible.

Inside, you’ll find a field guide on how your visuals and voice should work together to create:

• Cognitive Consistency – It looks and sounds familiar to audiences, building confidence and trust in consumers
• Competitive Differentiation – It looks and sounds authentic and unique, so it doesn’t blend in with every competitor.
• Coherent Experiences – Consumers know what to expect and understand how to interact with your brand.

Having this reference is super helpful for managing existing brands, and it’s also a great place to start if you’re feeling the disconnect between your visual brand language and your voice and tone.

Star-Crossed Besties Take the Stage

Getting your brand elements to speak the same language can be challenging, especially if you already have a job (like, say, running the company), but to get these stars aligned again, you’re going to have to interrogate some of your past choices and forecast some of your future goals.

Start by defining your brand’s personality. There are many, many ways to do this, from color mapping to personality archetyping, but the end result should be a character profile that outlines personality traits, highlights language patterns, and provides guardrails for copywriters.

No matter what mechanisms you use throughout, the personality identification process will always require patience, trial and error, and dedicated time. We also recommend an honest thought sparring partner to challenge your basic beliefs about your brand and elevate your thinking beyond “this is what we’ve always done.” This should be someone who knows you and your brand well, isn’t afraid to share tough truths, and knows how to articulate their opinions.

Once you know how your brand sounds, it’s time to put that personality into practice. Developing visual assets that support your brand voice and tone is vital for creating a cohesive brand experience for your consumers. So if your brand voice is bold and confident, your visuals should leverage color, movement, and have a presence that makes them stand out. If you favor concise, clear copy, then a minimal, mid-mod aesthetic may be more your speed.

You get the picture. The most important things at this juncture are that you have a brand identity that feels authentic to your company and is consistent across all your materials, channels, and touches.

Our Toil Shall Strive to Mend (in other words, we got this)

If all this feels like a bit much, just know that we get it. Branding is a job unto itself, and if you’ve already got a full plate, then carving out time to focus on these elements can be nearly impossible.

That’s why creative agencies like ours exist. We have the experience, skillset, and dedicated time to make progress on your branding project, while you do your real job.

We will conduct the stakeholder interviews and the competitor research, we will interrogate the brand personality and discuss the color theory. We’ll gut check our choices at every turn, A/B testing and focus grouping, and we’ll show you how we did it all, if you’re into that sort of thing.

Need more answers? We got ’em. Drop us a line or connect with us on social, and share your questions and concerns with us directly.