What is Visual Identity?

So I got a lecture for my final semester project today and the lecturer talk about visual identity (which is my main topic). From what I get is what we've known about branding, corporate identity, etc; are all actually other definition for visual identity! For example, if there is a 6 sided cube, one side is called branding and the other side is called corporate identity... which side it is but it's still in one unity, a single cube, a visual identity.

But a visual ID consist not just a logo, but also the whole corporate system. The standard colors, the stationeries for paperworks, namecards and lot more! People sometimes think that a visual ID is just changing the logo, but it's actually not! A visual ID is the whole identity of a corporate visually. For examples, a corporate color and logo must be able to express their motivation and spirit in giving their best service to the client. Clients or customers who see the logo, would be able to catch the corporate spirits. There are no good or bad logos, is what my lecturer said this afternoon, it's just a matter of expressing the corporate spirits. Can you imagine if a banking company use yellow or orange as their primary colors... the meaning of yellow and orange is more fun, cheerful and playful. It won't fit into the situation, but if yellow is used in McDonald's it will totally have different effects. Same applies to orange if it's applied to a company which more active and mobile.

Here's a link for people who find it hard to find some definition about branding jargons
Brand Dictionary
Officially was published by Landor and Associates but somehow the dictionnary has gone so I have to look at Google for other web who has this dictionnary. Better save it before it's gone again.

Next post is about, why people change their visual identity or logo. Changing visual ID or logo costs very expensive! But why people still insisting to change their Visual ID? We're going to talk about next post ^^