How to Style Your Brand: Everything You Need to Know to Create a Distinctive Brand Identity

by Fiona Humberstone

The right brand identity has the power to attract, engage and compel people to do business with you. But for many entrepreneurs, creating an effective brand can be a challenge.

Whether you're a start-up on a lemonade budget, or a seasoned entrepreneur planning on working with a professional, an understanding of the process is essential.

In this comprehensive workbook, Fiona Humberstone will walk you through the process of styling your brand. From finding your focus, creating an inspirational vision and unlocking the power of colour psychology; Fiona will help you understand the design details that will make your business irresistible. How to Style Your Brand will ensure you get your branding right, first time.

In How to Style Your Brand, Fiona shares with you the secrets behind using colour to create an emotive connection; how to use pattern and illustrations to add character and personality and how to carefully select typefaces that add a distinctive and intentional edge to your designs. We'll examine how to pull all of these elements together to create a remarkable and cohesive design that you can be proud of. I'll encourage you to think big about your business so that you develop the focus and vision to brief a designer with confidence, or feel able to create your own identity. Once you understand the principles behind styling a brand, there is no reason why you can t create something extraordinary for your business.

Drawing on her experience from developing hundreds of brand identities for companies worldwide, Fiona's tried and tested framework will give you the clarity, confidence and creative know-how to create a brand identity that wins you work.

Packed with more than 60 inspirational examples of some of the best brand identities for small businesses worldwide, How to Style Your Brand is more than a business book.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Design, Art, Reference, Self Help, Writing

208 pages, Paperback

First published May 12, 2015

Reviews

[Shog Al Maskery · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great easy to read book for beginners in branding and design.

[Ahmad Badghaish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well organized book. Sometimes I thought it was too shallow, but I think it’s a good introduction to the field.

[Alex Truta · Rating 2 out of 5]

4.5 out of 5 stars? That must be a joke.

As a newly graduated Graphic Design student with a focus on Branding and Visual Identity, I find this book EXTREMELY basic, so I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone pursuing a career in Branding.

I feel that the target audience this book is trying to reach is blogging teenage girls (not literally, but feels like it), so I see it best suited and actually informative for people that had no idea about what Visual Identity is and how to approach the subject in order to perform a little bit better in the marketplace (maybe).

Gave it 2 stars because of those people mentioned above, since there is a tiny bit of useful information that can help them. Otherwise, my rating would’ve been 0.5 stars.

[Zia Eubanks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book! Fiona really has the ability to guide the reader in a way that gets to the real core of your brand. Her book helped me so much in designing my new website and online platform. I have a new confidence and foundation that I didn't have before. She also has some wonderful downloads on her website.

[Felicidad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very useful and practical tips , and very easy to understand.

[mòrag · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a hard review to write, as I think I might have just not been the intended audience but I'm doing it anyway....

It was very basic and isn't aimed towards people who have the basics of design down. As a marketer, it is VERY important that I know enough about design so I can work with the design team to create something that is aesthetically pleasing but also gets the message across. So if you're new to the marketing game I'd recommend this book.

BUT, the designs and examples are very Pinterest and won't be suitable for all industries, like banking or law...

[Rachel Polsi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Covering everything from brand colors and font, to voice and website design, How to Style Your Brand is a great introduction to the branding process. Although the book is just skimming the base level of the branding process, Fiona does do a wonderful job explaining the process from start to finish and gives you a few homework assignments along the way, which I loved. If you’re new to branding, this is an excellent read!

[Maggie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty basic design information if you're looking to do your own logo and create a brand identity. Beautiful photos and examples but was looking for something a little more in depth.

[Gals FB · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vaig comprar aquest llibre perquè volia començar a estar a les xarxes amb una conta professional i em sentia molt perduda. M'ha ajudat bastant a establir unes bases i veure com és el procés creatiu de l'autora, el qual comparteix amb bastant detall (no és el típic llibre de generalitats del que no n'acabes treient res concret). Tot i així, un cop he començat a treballar amb una dissenyadora gràfica, m'he adonat que hi ha moltes maneres de treballar i la seva, sota la meva humil opinió, no és la que em sembli més pràctica o senzilla per una persona que no sap gaire res de disseny i vol crear la seva pròpia marca personal pel seu compte.
De totes maneres, el recomanaria i segur que el seguiré consultant de tant en tant.

[Layan Ibrahim · Rating 3 out of 5]

مثل أي كتاب يتحدث عن البراند والتصميم
هذا الكتاب ليس للمصممين أو المسوقين فقط، الكتاب لكل شخص يملك مشروع تجاري يريد العمل مع مصمم أو يفضل يصمم الهوية بنفسه.

إذا كنت تعمل في مجال التصميم وعندك معلومات أساسية عن المجال، هذا الكتاب غير موجه لك.

لإنه يحتوي على معلومات سطحية عن البراند وتصميم الهوية، أعتقد أنها غير كافية أو انها محصورة على أنواع معينة من المشاريع مثل تصميم وتنسيق منشورات انستقرام.
أو هوية بلوق.

بشكل عام أسلوب الكتاب يشبه پينترست ستايل، الصور والأمثلة ،ممل نوعاً ما والأمثله متشابهه ومكرره.

أعجبني أسلوب تصنيف شخصيات البراند حسب فصول السنة، تساعد على فهم البراند بطريقة مختلفة وكريتيڤ.

[Eswar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brand design guide for novices and serial designer alike.

Inspired me to search the world to find elements for my brands.

I look forward to revisiting the book over and over again.

Humberstone writes with elegance and flair, imagery flows through her prose. Her font descriptions were helpful in associating categories with seasons; I would like to have seen samples of font types next to their descriptions.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very helpful book for small businesses who want to up their branding game but don't really understand what "branding" means. This book walks you through everything so you could effectively (with a fair amount of time) do your own rebranding.
Also great if you want to hire someone to design your branding for you. I've learnt a lot and it's been very helpful guiding my to find the right designer to create a new brand identity for my business.

[K. Morral · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting guide through what is needed to consider for business branding. Beautifully presented, and clearly explained. Nice and easy to read.
A selection of examples shared throughout the book, with some comment on the resulting design (colours/ patterns/ typology etc.). Useful for those who intend to go it alone, and for those who intend to appoint a graphic designer.

Some good ideas to take forward.

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I do not have a brand to style and read the book simply because it looked interesting and promised to provide new information, ideas and resources.

It did not dissapoint - it delivered all that in a concise, well-structured manner, covering what I would imagine are the basics of styling a brand, while asking a lot of (relevant) questions and offering guidance.

[Sophie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good introduction if you want to start a business and don’t know where to start with branding. A beginner would definitely get more out of it then I did, as a graphic design graduate there was quite a bit I already knew, however it’s beautifully laid out and I would recommend it if you don’t have a design background.

[Kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

My comments on the other book Brand Brilliance are still valid for this one. I have to say that this book has a lot more visual examples to really understand what she means about creating a specific brand in a specific season. There are a lot of repetitions (although necessary) from the other book but I recommend reading both: Brand Brilliance forts and then How to style a brand.

[Alexandria Blaelock · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful book packed with practical and useful brand and design information. Start by defining your brand, working through vision and meaning, before getting to the technicalities of logos, colours and illustrations and what to do with them. Ending with leaving it alone for a couple of years before you tinker with it again. When you’ve finished reading, hire a designer or DIY, it’s all good.

[Julija · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an easy to read set of ground rules for beginners in brand creation and small business owners. It helps you to create very first steps in your brand identity and provides the main idea how to start, get inspiration. The variety of examples could be wider.

[Doris Maklewska · Rating 4 out of 5]

My topic but not my cup of tea, to be honest. A beautiful book and pictures but... a fluff inside. 4 seasons of colors, some tips on fonts. Quite an expensive book with rather basic information.
Not science based.

[Shirley Houston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very insightful & helpful!

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant for small bix owners and bloggers

[Lori Fortini · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you only get one book on branding - this is the one!

[Fiona · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really supported the rebrand of my business.

[Elaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing resource! Very educational and inspirational! So glad I bought this.

[Susu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful illustrations.

[French-B · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loooooove it !
My favorite brand styling book so far !

[Alison Harvey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book - highly recommend to anyone looking to give their brand or business the polished edge

[Trish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of good advice about making a brand identity.

[إسراء أحمد · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fiona has a very special vision and style for branding. i highly recommend this book to all those artists and creative people .

[Alexandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

A minha parte preferida é o capitulo onde são abordadas as cores.