Brand Identity Essentials, Revised and Expanded

Brand Identity Essentials is what the title says: An essential book for anyone involved with brand identity. It's a perfect textbook not just for (aspiring) graphic designers; it's an excellent read for any business owner to understand the what and why of branding and how to reach their ideal client. It's well organized and describes every aspect of a brand identity and, is illustrated with many photos to explain the different parts involved.

A terrific overview of the branding process with good focus on both developing and updating logos, trademarks and packaging. While a great resource for the business community, it is also a good look at consumerism and the role of visual art in business. The excellent organization, with detailed and extensive photos, make it the perfect textbook for a class on this subject. A nice starting place for the new entrepreneur trying to figure out how to best impact the public.

This book outlines 100 principles for building your brand and each of the ideas are explained with wonderful, specific examples. It's very comprehensive and detailed even though the description of each principle is short and to the point which makes it a perfect companion and a fantastic reference book.

I am not a designer but I thought it would be fun to read a book on the topic and this completely delivered. I loved this section:

If your brand was a person, what would they sound like? Are they loud and boisterous or quiet and shy? Are they funny? Educational? What do they say? It's an easy way to personalize the brand voice, and whether or not you use a spokesperson, successful brands have a deliberate voice.


And here's another bit:

Staking a claim is giving customers a meaningful reason to choose your brand. What is significant to a customer depends on their motives and what they value. As a brand builder, your job, is to make your case for the brans in a clear and compelling way.

and finally:

A brand identity is a valuable asset - the symbolic face of the company. Once an appropriate approach is established, the organization needs to commit to it. Change is inevitable. Business must evolve with their customers, but the most successful businesses evolve strategically.


All of these are conversations we are having at my workplace about our product. These are great questions to ask, perspectives to explore and wisdom to keep in mind. Even if you're not brand designer, you can get a lot of value out of this book.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in return for an honest review.

This book offers 100 principles for building your brand and wow, does it deliver. This is a comprehensive guide for anyone who wants to consider the branding of their company/business and the reader is expertly guided through each of the 100 principles for building, reflecting upon and enhancing your brand and identity. There is a plethora of visual images to accompany each principle which further enhances the text. I would highly recommend it for anyone working within a business no matter what your position is as this can only enhance the company’s brand.

This is a fantastic guide for branding for beginners and/or graphic designers.
This helped me immensely with thinking about my own project and website.
The images are stunning and the whole book is easily comprehendable.
I can highly recommend this to anybody starting a business or thinking about branding or re-branding no matter if large company or freelancers.

Thank you Netgalley for granting my wish!

Great book with comprehensive advice for entrepreneurs and design specialists! The information on logo design, colors and brand psychology is top-notch. The visual images included are constructive and stunning. Five stars.

When the word brand is used, the first thing that often comes to mind is a logo. However, this is only part of a brand and there is a lot more that must be considered. In Brand Identity Essentials, Kevin Budelmann and Yang Kim cover what all a brand is, and what goes into creating one.

The book is very thorough and full of useful information for people who are involved in building a company's or group's branding. There are points to keep in mind and consider during the entire process, from colors to finding a niche to fonts and beyond. Each point is well explained and accompanied by pictures that show examples of it in practice. It is easy to understand and prepares you to put the ideas into use.

I wanted to read the book because I thought it would help me do better in my graphic design business. My clients may not always understand what goes into building their brand, and I need to be able to explain what should be considered. I think this book will go a long way in helping me better serve my clients.

I received a complimentary copy from the publisher through NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Extremely informative read - it breaks down elements of brand identity that some might not think are important, but play a huge part in the success of the brand. A really enjoyable read.

More like 4.5 stars but yeah, doesn't really matter.

This book is a great introduction! We get 100 basic concepts of branding. They're explained clearly and have some examples (which are all super aesthetic).

My only issue with this book is that sometimes it was difficult to see the connection between the examples and the concept.

Other than that, this is really good. I don't know much about branding and wanted to understand more and this book definitely gave me that.

I think the strongest part here is the end, where there is a list of questions organized in a very useful way. I'll go back to this book once I'll have some branding work.

I liked how it was organised by parts so there's an area for graphic design and one for strategic work and so on. It was handy and also proved how branding involves so many fields.

All in all, I haven't read enough books to say definitively that this is the best intro but I can say that it is extremly accessible and was useful to me!

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a copy in return for my review!

<b> What I'm Taking With Me </b>
- Brands are like people. Figure out how they act, what they do, what they "sound" like.
- Create rules for your brand. What's always there? What would your brand never do?
- Make people smile.
- Figure out how you can involve the brand in the product.
- When designing a logo, ask yourself who are the people that would happily wear this logo.