It’s the distinctive visual appearance of your organization or brand. Your name and logo speak volumes to the world. And the “look and feel” that flows from your logo should be consistent throughout your entire organization from the architecture of the building down to the most basic marketing communications.

Corporate identity includes your logo, distinctive colors, typography, trademarks, brand characters, and graphics. It must be consistent with your company mission, vision and values.

It’s important to choose a talented design firm that can communicate all your company’s attributes through your logo design. Is your company big or small? Are the services you offer modern or traditional? Are you in a technology field or a service-driven market? Is your organization serious or fun? Your logo needs to communicate everything you stand for. It’s also important to make sure it’s multi-dimensional. Your logo may appear on everything from coffee mugs to your Web site, so it needs to work in every environment.

Once a corporate identity is developed, you can create a graphic standards manual. It’s filled with rules for usage of logos, colors, distinctive characters, etc., on signage, letterhead, business cards, collateral material and more. The purpose of the standards manual is to keep the company look and feel consistent through all materials, and to help protect brand names and trademarks.