Whether you’re turning a hobby into a business or acting on a gap in the market, starting a successful ecommerce business takes more than a great product—you need a strong brand that connects with your customers. Your branding shows potential customers what you stand for and helps them remember you. The visual part of your brand, called branding design, includes everything from your logo design to the fonts you use.
Ready to create memorable branding design for your business? Let’s look at some inspiring examples from successful ecommerce brands and get expert tips to help you develop your own visual identity.
What is branding design?
Branding design creates your company’s visual identity through elements like typography, photography style, and color schemes. It includes both the visual assets you create (like logos) and the rules that guide how you use them across your website, social media, packaging, and other materials.
While branding design focuses on visuals, it’s just one element of branding. Your complete brand identity also includes non-visual elements like your brand voice, brand values, and brand manifesto. But strong visual branding can make your company instantly recognizable—think of Nike’s swoosh logo, which customers recognize without even seeing the company’s name.
What makes great branding design?
Your branding design should follow clear brand guidelines that inform all your design choices. These guidelines typically cover your typography and color choices, and might include a library of brand assets and photography rules.
Here are the key elements to consider as you develop your brand design:
Logo
Your logo is the symbol that represents your brand. You can choose from several types of logos, like emblems, wordmarks (text-based logos), or mascot logos.
Mascot logos can make your brand especially memorable. Take skin care brand Starface—it uses Big Yellow, a friendly smiley face mascot that represents its commitment to self-expression and kindness.
“At Starface, we pride ourselves on being part of that cultural conversation, especially for our core demographic, the Gen Z audience,” Starface president Kara Brothers says on an episode of Shopify Masters. “What that means for us is we have this marquee character, Big Yellow, who is an approachable character who uses very simple language, is a very earnest voice that we use throughout our social media and our campaigns.”
Color
A carefully chosen color palette helps you keep your brand consistent everywhere customers see it—from social media to your website to ads. While some marketers focus on color theory or color psychology (like how 68% of people associate red with love), what matters most is picking colors that work well together and clearly communicate your message.
“It’s so open to interpretation because we all have different associations with colors,” says Sara Mote, creative director of digital design agency Studio Mote, a Shopify partner. “So I usually approach color more as a branding opportunity. Certain decisions are really important just for legibility and clear communication, rather than the psychology of it.”
Typography
The fonts you choose and how you arrange them plays a big role in your brand identity. Your brand guidelines should specify which fonts to use and how to style them consistently across all your materials.
12 beautiful branding design examples
- Omsom
- Mount Lai
- Atacz
- Glossier
- Big Bud Press
- Noted
- Schoolhouse
- Wild One
- Hero Bread
- Bombas
- Parks Project
- KimChi Chic Beauty
Ready to see branding design in action? Let’s look at how successful ecommerce businesses use color, typography, and other visual elements to create memorable brands that connect with customers.
1. Omsom
Omsombrings South and East Asian noodles and sauces directly to consumers with branding as bold as its flavors. Its design features bright colors that match their energetic voice.
“Their whole concept was about energy and fire and smashing things,” says Ky Allport, creative director of branding at Outline, the agency that helped develop Omsom’s brand guidelines. The brand uses fiery bright colors, with a favicon (the small browser tab icon) shaped like a candle flame and stretched typography that resembles steam.
“In a world that’s obsessed with minimalism, Omsom has been able to take the concept of maximalism and make it their own in a way that captures their fun and energetic voice,” says content designer Ibrahim Hasan.
2. Mount Lai
“The most simple, modern logos tend to do really well with customers,” says designer Skyler Hestnes. Mount Lai, a beauty brand rooted in traditional Chinese medicine, demonstrates this with its clean black-and-white wordmark logo.
Mount Lai’s brand identity features a muted, natural color palette and photography that showcases products alongside natural elements like leaves and rocks. Its website uses a carefully chosen set of readable fonts, creating a minimal and serene design.
3. Atacz
Bag brand Atacz combines art with sustainability. Its mission to create artistic objects from recycled materials needed visuals that would appeal to fashion-conscious, environmentally aware customers. The result? Sharp, high-contrast photographs, modern fonts, and vivid colors that catch the eye.
4. Glossier
Glossier’s less-is-more approach to skin care extends to its brand design. It keeps things minimal with two logo versions: a simple wordmark and a stylized capital G.
“Glossier is one that just always stands out to me,” says Skyler. “Sometimes something flashy and colorful isn’t really needed.”
5. Big Bud Press
Big Bud Press is an LA-based ethical clothing brand creating vibrant jumpsuits, overalls, tops, and accessories like tote bags.
While their products come in many colors, Big Bud Press maintains consistency through signature vintage-inspired oranges, golds, and ochres that appear across its website, Instagram, storefront, and sunshine logo.
6. Noted
Noted candles use neutral, minimalist brand design to create a sense of calm. Its product photographs are simple, often featuring natural elements like flowers and fruit that inspire its fragrances.
7. Schoolhouse
Schoolhouse is a lighting and home décor brand that focuses on ethical manufacturing and American craft traditions. Its website design is almost entirely black and white, letting its colorful patterns take center stage. Product photos show its pieces in warm, welcoming spaces.
8. Wild One
“Boring isn’t in our DNA,” states pet accessories brand Wild One on its About page. Its branding design proves it with bold blocks of color throughout its text and clean white backgrounds that make its vibrant products pop.
9. Hero Bread
Hero makes protein-rich, high-fiber bread products with fewer carbs. Its brand centers on golden yellow, reminiscent of wheat fields—an association strengthened by its wheat bundle logo.
Their photos show Hero bread outside its packaging, helping customers see that it looks and feels just like regular bread.
10. Bombas
The wool sock brand Bombas donates one item to someone experiencing homelessness for every purchase. While its site features many colors, a consistent blue accent maintains brand recognition. its product photos showcase items against simple gray backgrounds, highlighting their quality.
11. Parks Project
As an official National Park Service partner, Parks Project creates merchandise that supports and raises awareness about national parks. Since 2014, they’ve helped fund park maintenance while educating customers about climate change impacts.
Their brand combines modern fonts with retro graphics and vintage-inspired photography, all in muted, natural colors.
12. KimChi Chic Beauty
“I imagine my aura to be an array of ultraviolet colors that spews glitter. I celebrate all things cute, fun, weird, and exotic,” drag queen KimChi told Vice, describing her aesthetic as “bionic doily.”
KimChi Chic Beauty’s brand design reflects this unique vision through pastel colors, cartoon characters, and playful illustrations of hearts and other symbols.
Brand design tips from a branding expert
- Keep your logo simple and versatile
- Research your market
- Choose your colors wisely
- Use your full brand toolkit
- Stay true to your brand
Designer Skyler Hestnes has helped countless small businesses create memorable brands. Here are her top tips for developing your own distinctive brand design:
Keep your logo simple and versatile
“Sometimes a simple wordmark—instead of a big fancy logo—really does the job,” says Skyler. A straightforward logo with a thoughtful color palette can catch attention without requiring extensive design skills. You can even use Shopify’s free logo generator to get started.
Remember, simple doesn’t mean boring. Your logo should work across different backgrounds and sizes—from billboards to product tags. As Skyler puts it, “Having a logo that you can work on a white background or a black background, or anything in between, is something that is going to take you near and far.”
Research your market
Even experienced designers conduct market research before starting a brand project. Understanding your industry’s design standards helps you create a brand that feels authentic and relevant.
“I would recommend looking at what competitors are doing,” says Skyler. “It puts people off if they walk by a sushi place and the font looks like it’s for a day spa.”
Choose your colors wisely
Your color scheme shapes your brand’s identity across every touchpoint—from your website to developing products. Skyler recommends starting with neutral background colors, then adding “a pop color as your brand color,” plus complementary shades.
Use your full brand toolkit
“In ecommerce, your first touch point with someone is typically on social media,” Skyler notes. Make sure customers instantly recognize your brand by consistently using all your design elements—logo, typography, colors, and photography style—across your social posts.
Stay true to your brand
“The brands that need the most TLC are the ones that aren’t united,” says Skyler. Once you’ve established your guidelines, use them everywhere—from social media to internal communications.
Most importantly, align your brand design with your products. As Skyler explains, “If you’re selling very neutral-colored candles, you don’t want a brand that’s red and blue or bright and crazy. Make it fit.”
Read more
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Branding design examples FAQ
What are branding designs?
Branding designs include logos, color palettes, typography, and photography styles that work together to create your unique brand identity.
What makes an effective brand design?
The most effective brand designs reflect your company’s values and personality while staying consistent across all platforms. Take Omsom—their bold colors and energetic design perfectly match their vibrant Asian flavors and upbeat brand voice.
What are the key elements of visual brand identity?
- Logo: The cornerstone of your brand design that visually represents your business.
- Color palette: A carefully chosen set of colors that helps customers recognize your brand instantly.
- Typography: The fonts and text styling that give your written content a consistent voice and feel.
Why does brand design matter?
Strong brand design helps customers recognize and remember you. It sets you apart from competitors and creates a cohesive experience across every touchpoint—from your website to your packaging to your social media presence.
