Identity · 5 min read
What is brand identity, and what is it made of?
Brand identity is everything a customer can see and hear of a brand, kept consistent. Here is what it contains and how the pieces fit.
By the Brandtune studio · Last reviewed 2 Nov 2026
In short
- Identity is the visible and audible side of a brand, kept consistent.
- It has six parts: name, mark, colour, type, imagery and voice.
- A logo is one part of it, not the whole.
The short answer
A brand identity is the set of visible and audible things that make a brand recognisable: its name, mark, colours, typefaces, imagery, tone of voice and the rules for using them. Branding is the wider work of shaping how people think of the company. Identity is the part you can see.
The six parts
- Name. What people say and search for.
- Mark and logotype. The symbol and the written form of the name.
- Colour. A small palette with a clear main colour and tested contrast.
- Typography. One or two typefaces and a hierarchy for headings, text and labels.
- Imagery. The kind of photographs, illustration and graphics the brand uses.
- Voice. How the brand writes: short or long, formal or warm, what it never says.
Identity, logo and branding are not the same
The logo is one part of the identity. The identity is a system of parts. Branding includes the identity and also the positioning, the promise and the experience of buying. A logo alone cannot hold a brand together; the rules around it do.
Why it matters for an online store
On a store, the identity does the work a shop front and a shelf do in person. A visitor decides in seconds whether the products look trustworthy. A consistent identity makes every page, email and parcel feel like the same company.
Four questions to test yours
Could a stranger recognise your pages without the logo? Does the mark stay clear at app-icon size? Do the website, packaging and social profiles use the same colours and type? Could a freelancer produce a new piece without asking you how?
If the answer to two or more is no, the identity needs work. Our guide on refreshing or rebuilding a brand explains how to choose the size of the change.
