Quick Links Features of Creative Brands I Generated a Creative Brand with Generative AI Tools Using Generative AI Doesn't Work to Create a Creative Brand Summary Good creative branding involves reasoning, elements beyond logos and colors, and resonating with the target market. Logos should have some relevance to the brand; color palettes denote meanings and build trust with the brand. Typography, market research, imagery, and tone of voice also play crucial roles in creating a successful creative brand.
Many people think creative brands are just a logo and colors, but there's much more to it. Could multiple AI tools replicate the same creativity as a design team, if used together?
Features of Creative Brands
While logos and colors are important to a brand, there's more to a solid brand. Good brands have reasoning behind design decisions and choices, as well as more elements to make up a total brand package.
1. Logo
Logos are often the face of a brand. Logos can be made up of different elements: an accompanying text with an icon; a sole icon; or purely text-based.
A logo doesn't always need a meaning, but it shouldn't be completely irrelevant to the brand it represents. There's a nuanced line between too much and too little meaning in your logo elements, something to keep in mind if developing a logo with AI.
2. Color Palette
A brand's color palette is important for many reasons. First, the colors must go together.
Secondly, colors have meanings. Good brands use color theory to their advantage. You'll notice that plenty of banks use red -- as red denotes prosperity. Lots of social media uses shades of blue -- this is a sign of freedom and dependability. Brands that use white and silver -- like Apple -- show confidence.
Thirdly, color choice is important for accessibility and allows your brand to be accessed and appreciated by all.
A strong color palette builds trust with your brand. The colors denote meanings, and your target market will trust your brand when everything makes sense.
3. Typography
Typography is another important aspect of branding. Your font choice matters in the same way as colors.
Overused fonts are draining to see and confuse your brand with others using the same fonts. Underused fonts can be gimmicky -- which is why they're often underused.
You should choose a strong typeface for your logo and a complementary typeface for your brand communications. This includes separate fonts for headers versus an easier-to-read font for body text.
Fonts need to be legible in all sizes and match the style of your brand. Don't use Comic Sans for a corporate brand, but perhaps Times New Roman isn't right for a children's nursery, either.
4. Target Market
Market research is an overlooked, but important, behind-the-scenes aspect of a creative brand project.
Your brand needs to resonate with the demographic your product or business is aiming to target. The research happens before any creative design has begun.
5. Imagery
Part of your brand and target demographic is envisioned in the imagery your brand puts out. This comes across in adverts and marketing, product lifestyle shoots, and general vibe of the brand.
6. Tone of Voice
A brand's tone of voice shows the vibe of the brand in its written or voiced communications. This reflects the target market and type of reputation evoked from the branding. Word choice and tone matter more than you may consider in your branding.
I Generated a Creative Brand with Generative AI Tools
I used a handful of different AI tools to attempt to achieve a successful creative brand. Here's what I used and my results.
Market Research and Tone of Voice from ChatGPT Close
I started by using ChatGPT for market research for my brand: a watch company for military men in their mid-30s. ChatGPT replied with a brand persona, including personality traits and lifestyle of a hypothetical customer.
It also gave suggested information about brand keywords, ethos, tone of voice, and more, which are important within brand research.
Logo Design from Kittl
I used the brand keywords in Kittl's AI Logo Generator in a text prompt for a logo. I didn't input a name for the brand, so that was part of the generation too.
I wasn't happy with the AI Logo Generator results, so I also used Kittl's AI Vector Generator, although I'd need to fix the AI gibberish text results.
I don't think Kittl's AI generator took my prompt very literally, so the results are very different from ChatGPT's brand message.
Lifestyle Imagery with Adobe Firefly
I used Adobe Express's AI Image Generator -- which uses Adobe Firefly's AI model -- to generate lifestyle images for my watch brand. Sadly, they suffered the wrath of weird AI hands.
Using Generative AI Doesn't Work to Create a Creative Brand
The point of using AI for creative design is to see quick results, and while I got very quick results, I didn't get good results. ChatGPT was the most helpful part of my AI creative brand project, and I could use those results to work with real designers and researchers for a branding project.
I was disappointed by Kittl's results which seemed to ignore major parts of my prompts, and Adobe Firefly's lifestyle images looked obviously AI-generated.
Without using dozens of software for this one project, I didn't have AI tools to generate suitable typefaces or color palettes for my brand. Overall, I think creating these brand elements myself or with a human design team would produce much better results, even if it's a longer process.
