Effective brand design goes beyond aesthetics—it must produce assets which are easily usable by all stakeholders, including non-design staff. A well-structured brand system ensures that logos, colour palettes, and visual assets are easy to apply across various touch points, from digital platforms to printed materials. By optimising file structures, standardising colours, and improving adaptability, brand assets become seamless to use, reducing errors and ensuring consistency. Usability-driven brand design empowers teams to work efficiently, maintaining brand integrity without requiring design expertise.
Role: In-house Marketing Designer
Time frame: One week project, September 2024
Tools: Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Figma and Microsoft Office
Research methods: Qualitative informal interviews and document reviews
A visually inconsistent brand identity can create usability challenges—especially for non-design staff who rely on clear, easy-to-use assets. The company's brand elements existed in multiple distorted variations, making it difficult for consultants, administrators, and learning and development staff to apply them correctly. This project aimed to refine the brand assets to ensure scalability, consistency, and ease of use for all internal stakeholders.
Before: Logo appeared in several colour profiles and proportions. After: Clean lines of the refreshed logo.
What's the problem?
✘ No brand guidelines
Non-design staff lacked a reference for correct logo version, proportions and colours.
✘ Distorted logos
Stretched, squashed, and pixelated versions led to unprofessional materials.
✘ Complex file structure
The vector logo had 27 layers and 278 anchor points and multiple layered gradients, making it difficult for non-designers to manage in documents, presentations, and proposals.
✘ Limited adaptability
The logo disappeared on brand coloured backgrounds, reducing legibility.
Before: Logo did not work well on brand coloured backgrounds.
UX approach to enhancing brand usability
✔️ Optimised vector structure
Reduced from 27 to 10 layers and 278 to 250 anchor points for efficiency. Clean, structured layers for seamless handover to non-design users and external vendors.
✔️ Standardised brand colours
Defined HEX and Pantone values to eliminate inconsistencies, and created Microsoft PowerPoint Master slide templates and Microsoft Word styles for easy use by non-design staff.
✔️ Improved usability for non-designers
Developed simplified, easy-to-use assets that employees could apply without design expertise. Ensured logo versions worked seamlessly in Word, PowerPoint, and eLearning platforms.
✔️ Scalability and file efficiency
The optimised logo retains crisp resolution at any size. Lighter file sizes improve load times for digital assets and prevent document lag.
Redesigned corners meet perfectly. Parallel lines convey visual harmony. Solid colours display better in print and online.
Measuring success
⌖ Brand consistency
A single, unified logo ensures non-design staff always use the correct version.
⌖ Improved readability
Logo remains legible across all background colours without adjustments.
⌖ Faster workflows for non-designers
Simplified assets ensure that users can insert logos effortlessly into documents, reports, and presentations.
⌖ Better adaptability
Ready for motion graphics, print, eLearning, and digital use.
⌖ Scalability
Crystal-clear resolution from business cards to large-scale signage.
The logo was tested across different applications and iteratively improved until each use case was satisfied.
Lessons learned
This project reinforced the importance of usability in branding. By applying UX principles to brand assets, I transformed a fragmented logo system into a versatile, scalable, and user-friendly resource that supports teams across the company. Now, non-design staff can confidently use brand assets without risk of distortion, colour inaccuracy, or formatting issues.