The Complete Guide to Interior Design Brand Identity
Why brand identity for interior designers matters (and why it’s more than just a logo).
Just like one paint sample, tile selection or wallpaper direction can’t give the full picture of the finished space for your clients, a singular logo can’t carry the full positioning of your interior design brand. By building a thoughtful brand eco-system, you’ll have the building blocks and strategy to tell your brand’s story through multifaceted ways vs. a rigid and flat approach (singular logo).
In this article, we’ll do a deep dive on what makes a strong interior design brand identity, exploring strategy, brand messaging, photography, logo and brand mark exploration and more.
By having your brand eco-system in place, you’ll have a stronger brand experience for your audience, allowing for clarity and cohesion.
From the Client Perspective
“Nikki was an absolute dream to work with in the rebranding of my interior design firm. From start to finish she kept me on task, on schedule, and truly listened and understood my vision. She provided the attention to detail that is woven through every aspect of my brand. From a custom drawn logo to color palettes; she was thoughtful every step of the way from digital to paper goods. Nikki is wonderfully talented and will elevate any brand that uses her services.”
—Suzan Hadaway, Chicago Interior Design Firm
If you’re wanting to command higher fees, speak to your target audience or simply reduce overwhelm when creating client facing collateral or social media assets, then read on!
Table of Contents
Part One
The Strategic Foundation to Branding for Interior Designers
The strategic foundation is often one that causes a bit of friction–or can feel like it can be skimmed or even skipped. But this is actually where the magic happens.
By fully understanding your interior design business and tightening your strategy, this unlocks the direction, aesthetics and more for building out the full brand eco-system.
Most often key strategy evolves around:
Design philosophy and values
Positioning
Target Audience
Brand personality and voice
Design Philosophy and Values:
Although this may feel very familiar to you and your interior design firm, it may not be as clear to your potential clients. Honing in on this and getting crystal clear will help ensure the brand itself speaks to these in an enduring, understated way.
Positioning: What Makes your Approach Distinct
Again, this may be a piece that feels second-nature, because it is to you. But this is often where we can glean some unique perspectives, process, insights and translate them into your interior design brand identity. These moments and details can also be teased out and used throughout your marketing and website to ensure the client understands your unique POV.
Target Audience
Most often interior designs are coming to our boutique branding studio at a pivotal time in their business–the rebrand. They’ve outgrown their current branding, have elevated their process and expertise, and furthermore their target audience has shifted or evolved.
Getting a deep understanding of this audience helps ensure that every color, font, texture, etc. aligns to that target audience – rather than what you like personally.
Brand Personality and Voice
During the branding phase we uncover snippets of the brand personality and voice, whether it’s through your interactions with your clients, how you run your business or how formal/personal your website feels. This translates to copy/messaging on your website, the usage of colors, fonts, etc. and can trickle all the way down to brand photography.
This is also a point in the project where working with a brand messaging and copywriter can play an integral part of the process. At this point our studio does not offer full brand messaging and website copywriting, but we have a curated list of copywriters we can collaborate with.
Spoiler alert: this often feels like a therapy session for businesses, and also gives them an opportunity to look inward. I’ve seen interior design businesses refine their process and gain more clarity during this phase (ex: release an offering that was no longer aligning)!
Part two
The Visual Expression of the Interior Design Brand Identity Strategy
I’ll be the first to say it, this is where things get really exciting! All the inner work from the strategy phase starts to take shape–allowing you to see the brand identity come to life.
This most often looks like:
Logo system: primary logo, secondary logo, submarks and monograms
Pattern, texture or illustrations
Color palette
Typography/Font System
Brand Guideline
Collateral Design
Logo Systems
Having a thoughtfully curated set of logos is crucial in this day and age. From your primary/main logo to scaling it down to fit in a website favicon, your logo system needs to be able to scale with ease.
So rather than just one logo, we believe in a set of variations to allow for your brand to take shape in a variety of settings.
Most often we’ll explore a primary logo, secondary (this could be stacked or horizontal), tertiary logo (in some use cases), brand badges and monogram/mark. This is our tried and true process to allow for a brand that can evolve while feeling cohesive based on the use case.
And something noteworthy: here at Made by NF we use the one-concept approach for our brand identity work. More on this streamlined process here.
Patterns, Textures and Illustrations
Depending on your brand (hence strategy from phase one), your interior design brand identity may also evolve into bringing in textures, patterns or illustrations. These companion assets allow for a deeper expression of the brand experience.
Color Palette
As an interior designer, you understand that color plays an important role in any design, so having a thoughtfully curated palette will ensure things feel on-brand, whether you’re posting a carousel on Instagram or updating your website.
Typography and Font Systems
Keeping a tight set of fonts allows for hierarchy, cohesion and brand recognition over time. Not to mention, having a set of fonts to pull from helps with decision fatigue.
Brand Guideline
Think of your brand guideline as the holy grail of the branding experience. Any team member playing a creative role needs to have access to this document to ensure any promo items, collateral, social graphics, presentations or website updates follow the guidelines to ensure consistency and brand recognition. You invested in a brand identity, this document helps ensure that investment holds true.
Collateral Design
Collateral design can range from the digital space: think Canva social graphics to presentation templates, to bespoke print materials such as business cards, thank you notes, material label cards and so much more. The world of collateral for interior designers is truly endless, so having a branding expert to help navigate this is very helpful and will result in memorable brand moments–both on and off the screen.
Part Three
The Interior Design Website: Where the Brand Identity Lives and Works
Your interior design website is one of the main touchpoints for clients where your strategy and visuals collide. Most often, potential clients are doing their homework before hiring an interior designer, so not only your social media presence but your website is an extremely crucial and important part of your brand experience.
From site structure and experience to perusing your interior design portfolio, the website is a key piece in ensuring your prospective clients understand your studio’s expertise, values and positioning.
Most often, an interior design website is going to have these key pages and structure:
Homepage
About (About the Studio and team bios)
Services (Services overview, packages, FAQs)
Portfolio (learn more about what makes a strong interior design portfolio website here)
Inquire/Contact (intake form)
Blog (allowing for client education, deeper dive on case studies, podcast show notes, etc)
Part Four
Signs it’s time to rebrand your interior design firm
There’s often a few key signs it’s time to rebrand your interior design studio, and I’m sharing a few that may ring true.
You’ve outgrown your brand and/or name
When you started your interior design studio, it may have just been you as the solo designer. Fast forward years later, you have a team of highly talented interior designers working for you. This can be a time to even explore not only a rebrand, but also a brand name change. This can feel very overwhelming–and that’s because it sort of is. But working with a brand designer and messaging expert can make sure the roll out happens smoothly.
You’re quietly embarrassed to share your website or any branded collateral
I get it, you’ve built your thriving interior design business, and have been busy building beautiful spaces and homes ever since. But you have that underwhelming feeling about anything client facing, and often send users to your social media feed over your website.
Your business has evolved, but your brand hasn’t
You may have changed service offerings, gained clarity and honed in on your target audience, wildly changed your price point and who you serve – all these things play an important role in exploring a rebrand.
Part Five
Real Client Examples for Luxury Interior Design Brand Identity Design
Suzan Hadaway Design
High-end Interior Designer in Chicago
Suzan is a trusted and talented interior designer in the Chicagoland area. She had a minimal website and modest logo, both that did not align with her expertise, audience and distinctive design. We worked together to build her brand eco-system that felt layered, chic and effortless. From her full logo system, colors, fonts, etc. to bespoke printed collateral to her portfolio website, each piece feels cohesive, aligned and truly SHD. Peruse the chic and classic brand identity and website experience for this Chicago interior designer.
Letra Baehr Design
Residential Interior Designer in Charlotte, NC
Baehr Design is a Charlotte-based residential interior design studio specializing in timeless interiors and architectural selections. The studio is guided by a belief that architecture and finishes of a home should honor its history and its setting. We brought this value into the branding by means of a refined typography treatment to the logo, while weaving in a glimpse of delight and Charlotte charm with the floral emblem. Ensuring the brand felt classic yet creative, we introduced a neutral color palette, anchored with rich tones of carmel and olive. The end result, a full brand eco-system easily translatable to collateral and a custom Squarespace portfolio website. Previously, Letra had a brand that she had DIY’d and no website to showcase her portfolio. Now she has a clear brand system in place to elevate her client experience through and through. Take a peek into the charming and cohesive world of Baehr Design.
Donna Perillo Designs
Interior Design Studio in Houston, TX
From interior design to event and wedding planning, Donna curates experiences for discerning clients seeking something more personal. With years of experience, she was ready to finally have a brand and online presence to showcase her distinct style, expertise and blend the interior and event planning worlds. Together we crafted an experience that felt immersive, refined, editorial and experience led — just like her sought after work. From brand identity to custom textures to bespoke print materials and a reimagined online home, every detail was thoughtfully crafted and collaborated on to ensure a polished, curated feel. We especially love this project with Donna, as we brought in copywriting and messaging expert, Copy Uncorked, to ensure the messaging felt clear, cohesive and distinctively Donna. See this interior design portfolio example here.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Brand identity for an interior designer or design firm can range based on needs, but most often it evolves:
having a thoughtfully curated set of logos. From your primary/main logo to scaling it down to fit in a website favicon, your logo system needs to be able to scale with ease.
So rather than just one logo, we believe in a set of variations to allow for your brand to take shape in a variety of settings.
Most often we’ll explore a primary logo, secondary (this could be stacked or horizontal), tertiary logo (in some use cases), brand badges and monogram/mark. This is our tried and true process to allow for a brand that can evolve while feeling cohesive based on the use case.
This scope also includes color, font pairings, exploration of textures/patterns and collateral design.
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A brand identity for interior designers includes:
Mood board + client brief
Primary logo, secondary logo, sub-marks
One pattern or texture
Website Favicon + social profile
Typography system
Color palette
Two collateral pieces
Brand standards and style guideline
Additional add-ons available
Learn more about our full interior design branding and website packages here.
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Absolutely! Rather than just one logo, we believe in a set of variations to allow for your brand to take shape in a variety of settings. If you’re looking for just a logo, our studio may not be the best fit for you. We want to create an entire brand eco-system for your interior design firm.
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This ranges based on the scope of work. Most clients looking to have interior design branding spend between $2,800-$4k+ with our studio.
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Having a cohesive and thoughtful brand identity for your interior design business is extremely crucial in this day and age. It helps visualize your strategy and expertise and ensure alignment across your brand eco-system. Just like you don’t want your interior design clients going rouge and adjusting your thoughtfully curated spaces and renderings, having a brand identity in place will help your brand feel cohesive from room to room – or rather print material, website, digital experience and so forth.
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There’s often a few key signs it’s time to rebrand your interior design studio, and most often it comes down to simply outgrowing your current interior design brand identity and trusting your gut.
If you’re quietly embarrassed to share your business card, website or print materials because they feel outdated or simply not aligned, then that’s a tell-tale sign that it’s time to rebrand your interior design studio.
Ready to build a cohesive and strategic brand identity for your interior design studio?
Explore our branding and website design packages for interior designers.
