How to meaningfully build a brand’s visual identity
In an era of image saturation, good branding creates a visual world that people want to enter, inhabit and return to.
We need new roadmaps in fashion. Leaving design school with an uber-creative graduate collection, some Instagram clout, and an i-D feature is of little use if there isn’t good business nous underpinning it. With this in mind, we’ve partnered with AZ Academy, a Milan-based fashion course born out of the late Alber Elbaz’s AZ Factory – his brand turned fashion incubator – and overseen by Richemont, Creative Academy and Accademia Costume & Moda (ACM), to democratise access to its valuable lessons on how creative people can build commercially-successful brands. Read the fifth edition here.
By Amy Francombe
In the early stages of building a fashion brand the clothes are only part of the story. Before anyone tries something on, they see it. And what surrounds a garment: the visual language, references, images and collaborators can determine whether a brand gets lost in the noise or not.
For emerging designers, this creates a unique kind of challenge. It’s no longer enough to make beautiful clothes; you also need to build the world they live in. That world must be visually legible and emotionally layered. It must speak clearly across platforms and mediums – from the runway and the Instagram grid, to the lookbook, the retail space and even a behind-the-scenes video. And, on top of that, it must feel coherent without becoming repetitive, fluid without becoming diluted.
Done right, it tells people how to read the clothes, where to place them in culture and what kind of life they might belong to. In this context visual storytelling becomes a form of worldbuilding, giving the audience cues about intention, context and personality. Are these garments cinematic or streetwise? Nostalgic or futuristic? Political or playful?
Visual branding is both mirror and megaphone. It reflects a designer’s inner world, their values, their creative DNA, but it also broadcasts those things into a saturated, hyper-visual marketplace. It’s also what sets intention apart from output. With so many brands launching every season, what separates a label from a legacy is the ability to build a world people care about, one they recognise, and more importantly, want to belong to.
Whether it’s the softness of the lighting, the cadence of an editorial or the colour of a label tag, the details build trust over time. Visual consistency becomes a kind of promise: this is what we stand for, and we’ll keep showing up that way. And in the context of an over-edited digital world, that kind of authenticity becomes rare currency.
Two people who know this terrain intimately are Pablo Arroyo, a photographer and art director whose work spans L’Officiel, Alexander McQueen and Gucci, and Benoît Béthume, a stylist and consultant who has collabed with Vogue, Marine Serre and Lemaire. Here, the pair break down what it really means to tell a story through an image.
Start with substance
“I usually start by creating some wording around the brand that will remain relevant over time,” Benoît says. “Visuals tend to age or follow current trends easily, but words, values and intent, those last.” This process begins by identifying a single item that encapsulates the spirit of the brand. It could be a garment, a photograph, or a symbolic object. That anchor becomes a creative seed, allowing a visual language to grow with integrity and coherence. It's a strategic form of simplification – one that roots a complex brand universe in a single, resonant idea.
This hierarchy of purpose over aesthetics resonates with Pablo’s philosophy. “Yes, it’s commercial, but never forget yourself – your roots, your story, your values,” he says. These are the signals that convey authenticity, the same authenticity that gives visual branding substance and resonance. Without them, even the most beautiful image can feel hollow.
Moreover, be sure to apply these roots consistently across the full visual spectrum, from the logo to shipping boxes, as well as lookbooks and invites. “You have to be consistent and build a consistent image,” Pablo says. “That means labels, tags, shopping bags…. And if you can’t afford boxes, maybe just use wrapping paper or stickers. It doesn’t have to be expensive, but it has to be very curated and consistent.”
But how do you deepen that substance? According to Pablo, research must stretch far beyond fashion. “Architecture, design, painting, nature, cultures – you need to be aware of the whole world,” he says. Looking outside fashion expands a designer's reference pool, helping avoid the repetition that happens when everyone draws from the same moodboards. Research, in this context, becomes a protection against creative myopia.
It’s also about building visual memory. Fashion imagery is cultural commentary, even if only implicitly. Pulling from broader cultural phenomena – like Brutalist architecture, Renaissance painting, or Japanese street markets – adds dimension to your work and helps viewers connect the dots. It situates a brand in the world rather than isolating it within the fashion bubble. A certain shade of green might recall a childhood kitchen. A grainy photo might conjure the texture of 90s magazines. These emotional details matter. They create a sense of intimacy, allowing the audience to see themselves inside the brand’s universe.
Trend-chasing, both agree, is a creative dead end. “If your core values are only trendy," Benoît says, "then you'll fall out of fashion eventually." A visual identity should evolve, yes, but its foundations should remain steady. Trends are inherently transient; building your identity around them is like constructing a house on sand. Instead, Pablo encourages long-term thinking: "If your work has substance, if it’s well-researched and carries values, it’s going to last longer. It will be more well done, well thought through, better perceived and understood."
They both look to icons for proof. Pablo admires the long-running partnerships of Versace with Bruce Weber and Calvin Klein with Joe McKenna – visual consistency over years, not seasons. Yes, these collaborations produced great images, but they also built emotional and stylistic continuity. Similarly, Benoît points to Richard Avedon, Helmut Newton, and Irving Penn – “just a model, a dress, and a setting” – a blueprint for clarity and emotional precision. These timeless campaigns reveal that simplicity, when anchored in emotional clarity, can be more powerful than elaborate concepts.
Build a team that feels like family
As the above proves, a brand’s visual identity is rarely crafted in isolation. Behind every campaign is a constellation of creative collaborators: stylists, photographers, set designers, and makeup artists and choosing that team is as much about chemistry as it is about talent, especially when the best visual campaigns are built upon long-standing partnerships. “Don’t go for the cool kids just because they’re cool,” Pablo says. “Don’t just pick the trending names. Build a team that really works for you. A team that shares your mission and your values. That’s how you start to create something like a family around your brand.”
When you build a team like that, you’re building a culture, and that culture becomes the emotional tone of your brand. It influences everything – mood, energy, even the atmosphere on set. Collaborators who believe in your vision will bring their best to the table; they’ll challenge you, refine you and help you stay true to what matters. Conversely, when collaborators are chosen for clout rather than compatibility, the work can feel disjointed or impersonal.
“Don’t just look for people to execute your vision,” Benoîte says. “Focus on collaboration. Be open to surprises and let the process lead to unexpected outcomes.” That openness allows creative relationships to evolve, and the visual language of the brand to deepen over time.
Learning how to lead creative teams with clarity and empathy is a crucial skill for any designer looking to build a meaningful brand. The more open and collaborative the process, the more dimensional and emotionally rich the outcome. Pablo also emphasises the value of longevity in creative relationships. "Some of the best campaigns I've worked on came from working with the same stylist or set designer over multiple seasons. You develop a shorthand, a rhythm. You build a common language." This continuity can become part of the brand identity itself, reinforcing aesthetic consistency across projects and platforms.
There is also something powerful in the humility of creative partnership. "The best images don't come from ego," Béthume says. "They come from people who are willing to listen to each other." In an industry that can reward speed and spectacle, that kind of patience and trust can be radical.
What’s more, investing that time in building an early entourage helps keep costs down, which is important when considering how quickly they can pile up when shooting. Studio hire, lighting, shipping costs…for emerging designers on a budget, asking for help is a must – but it also means returning the favour. “Everybody needs help,” Pablo says. “So if you’re a brand, start helping upcoming magazines, stylists or talent – it will really help you too.”
And, although it may seem simple, “obviously, don't look for impossible things. Don't look for expensive things. Just look for a nice, clear, simple idea that can enhance your product or your design. As they say, less is more,” continues Pablo, pointing out that even Jurgen Teller famously shoots on an iPhone.
Think across platforms, but tell one story
In the age of Instagram, it’s easy to confuse visual storytelling with platform performance. A single post can feel like the final product rather than a small piece of a broader visual identity. “People consider an Instagram picture as their final result, but that’s just a snapshot,” says Benoît. “Every image should serve a purpose.”
He encourages designers to think across levels: campaigns, editorials, process documentation, and digital activations should exist in a coherent visual ecosystem – not in competition with each other, but in conversation. Each piece should deepen the story rather than simply repeat it. For example, a behind-the-scenes video might not be high-gloss, but it can build emotional resonance. A lookbook might speak to buyers, while an Instagram Story builds intimacy with followers. Every output has a role to play.
Benoît suggests that designers build rhythm and hierarchy into their visual strategy. “A casual selfie from a designer might get more attention and likes on Instagram because it feels real and instant, but in six months, people will remember the campaign, not the selfie,” he says. The goal is to balance immediacy with longevity – to create layers of meaning that unfold over time.
Understanding platform logic is also about emotional pacing. What feels urgent on TikTok may feel disposable in a printed zine. A moment that works in Stories might fall flat on a homepage. Great brands know how to stretch an idea across formats without losing its core. That means paying close attention not only to what you’re saying, but how and where you say it.
“If the image is good, it works everywhere. In a magazine, in a subway ad, on TikTok or Instagram, it doesn’t matter,” Pablo says. “If the idea is right and the team is right, the image will work.” For him, a strong idea should be flexible enough to live across platforms but stable enough to stay recognisable wherever it lands.
Too often, brands try to do everything without a unifying thread. The result is fragmentation. One season they lean into studio minimalism, the next they pivot to chaotic street content, followed by a seaside campaign shot on film. Without a common thread, the brand starts to feel fragmented, like a mood board with no narrative. Consistency, on the other hand, builds recognition. “You still remember Hermès’s orange box. You still remember Valentino red,” Pablo adds. “It’s because they stay consistent. So, I wouldn’t chase constant reinvention. That’s how you end up lost in the noise of what everyone else is doing.”
When each image feels like it comes from the same emotional and conceptual universe, a brand becomes more than a product, elevating itself into that hard-to-reach sweet spot of being a mood, a mindset and even a place. Strong branding at its core is a long-term conversation between designer and audience, carried out through the slow accumulation of images, symbols, collaborators and cultural references. And like any meaningful conversation, it requires listening as much as speaking. The best brands invite viewers in. They give them something to feel.
If there’s one takeaway from Arroyo and Béthume’s advice, it’s this: clarity doesn’t mean simplicity, and consistency doesn’t mean rigidity. The most powerful fashion images aren’t the loudest or the trendiest. They’re the ones that say something true and keep saying it long after the feed has moved on.
