Adjectives That Would Best Describe the New Logo Design

What is your brand personality?

In this post, I'm going to share:

• 500 adjectives you can use to define your brand personality
• A 6-step process for choosing and narrowing down the right words
• Examples of how I did it.

Let's get started.

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Now, on with the show.

Defining Your Brand Personality

Describing your brand personality using the perfect adjectives is essential. Therefore, it's worthwhile to take some time to choose a handful of adjectives that describe your brand.

I'm sharing some tips on doing a brand adjective exercise. You can also just scroll down if you want the list itself of 500 adjectives!

Here's the best way to do it.

Step 1: Make Your Own List

Before you ever look at the list below, make a list with whatever words come to mind first. When you think of your brand personality, what words do you think of?

For example, for the as-yet-unnamed-Marketing-Doula, the words I came up with on my own were: experienced, supportive, strategic, tactical, smart.

Step 2: Add to Your List

Second, look at the list at the bottom of this post, and write down any words that catch your eye. So there are 500 brand personality adjectives on this list, so you should find a few you like! If you want a shorter, more streamlined list, here's a great list.

Try to keep it to fewer than 15 words.

You can see how I did NOT follow my own advice when I did this exercise below. I added 27 words. Whoops.

That's too many words!

Step 3: Ask Other People

Likewise, ask your best clients or customers to describe your business with a few adjectives. If you don't have a business or product yet, ask people who know you and/or your intentions.

It's best to do this with an informal conversation. For instance, send individual emails or texts saying something like this. "I'm doing some branding work, and would love to hear what words you think of first when you think about me/my product/ my service." You'll get some very helpful information this way.

Here's one possible snag you may hit. Let's say your current customers think of you one way, and you want to be thought of another way. For example, let's say your current customers say you are dependable, trustworthy, and diligent. But what you actually want to be is fresh, edgy, innovative, and exciting!

We will talk in a future post about how to understand and bridge that gap. If the results are vastly different, I encourage you to explore whether you really want to be different. There is a lot of value in whatever your best customers think you are.

But for now, if what people think about you differs from what you WANT them to think about you, go with the latter. Most of the work that involves this exercise is aspirational. So aspire! It will give you something to work toward with your branding.

Step 4: Categorize

Next, write down all the adjectives you've collected so far and put them into buckets. Ideally you'd have no more than 4-5 buckets in total.

For example, here's how that looked for me.

Step 5: Narrow down and Prioritize

If you have more than five categories of words, you're going to need to narrow them down. More than five isn't really useful. Three or four is ideal.

For example, the way I did it was just to try and group similar words together.

As you can see above, I ended up with 4 categories, which I narrowed to three:

• "I'm smart and experienced and I know what I'm doing."
• "I'm kind and supportive and calm"
• "I am strategic, tactical, action-oriented and collaborative." I ended up deciding these characteristics had enough in common with the first category to include them there.
• "The exercises I create are realistic and anyone can do them."

Step 6: Summarize

Most importantly, once you have the categories nailed down, you need to choose one word to represent that category.

Again, watch me not follow my own rules. I chose (and circled) two words from the first and second categories that I thought were different enough.

My final list is: experienced, knowledgeable, supportive, encouraging, accessible.

How Will You Use These Words?

How won't you use them?

I like to write my core brand adjectives on an index card and post them above my desk and use them to guide EVERYTHING I do. For example:

• Do those adjectives (experienced, knowledgeable, supportive, encouraging, accessible) apply to my business name?
• Does my website get those words across, including the art I choose and the design format?
• Do my colors and fonts convey those words?
• Does every social media post hit one or more of those words?
• When I'm emailing with someone, does my email convey those adjectives?
• Do my products, pricing, positioning, messaging all get those messages across?

In summary, I want everything about my brand to reflect those core words. If you pick the right words, you shouldn't have to change them very often, even if your product or service offerings change.

Now what you've all been waiting for. The list.

500 Adjectives that You Can Use to Describe Your Brand

A

Accepting

Accessible

Accommodating

Accountable

Action-Oriented

Active

Adaptable

Adaptive

Adept

Admirable

Adorable

Adventurous

Affordable

Agreeable

Airy

Alert

Alluring

Altruistic

Amazing

Ambitious

Amusing

Analytical

Androgynous

Antique

Approving

Artistic

Assertive

Astute

Athletic

Attention-giving

Attentive

Authentic

Awesome

B

Beachy

Boho

Bold

Botanical

Boundless

Brave

Bright

Bubbly

Budget

C

Calm

Candid

Capable

Captivating

Carefree

Careful

Caring

Casual

Cautious

Challenging

Charismatic

Charming

Cheerful

Cheery

Chic

Choosy

Classic

Clean

Clever

Coastal

Coherent

Collaborative

Colorful

Comfortable

Comforting

Compelling

Competent

Compliant

Complex

Concerned

Confident

Conscientious

Conservative

Considerate

Consistent

Contemplative

Contemporary

Content

Contrarian

Controlled

Convenient

Cool

Cooperative

Corporate

Cosmopolitan

Country

Courageous

Couture

Cozy

Crafty

Creative

Credible

Cultured

Curious

Current

Custom

Cutting Edge

D

Dainty

Daring

Darling

Dashing

Dazzling

Debonair

Decisive

Decorous

Decorated

Deep

Deliberate

Delicate

Delightful

Deluxe

Dependable

Detailed

Determined

Dignified

Diligent

Diplomatic

Direct

Discerning

Disciplined

Discreet

Disruptive

Dramatic

Dreamy

Driven

Dynamic

E

Eager

Earthy

Easygoing

Eccentric

Eclectic

Edgy

Educational

Efficient

Effortless

Elaborate

Elated

Elegant

Eminent

Enchanting

Encouraging

Endearing

Enduring

Energetic

Engaging

Enigmatic

Enterprising

Entertaining

Enthusiastic

Equitable

Ethereal

Exacting

Excellent

Excited

Exciting

Exclusive

Expensive

Expert

Exquisite

Extravagant

Extroverted

Exuberant

F

Fabulous

Fair

Faithful

Familiar

Fancy

Fantastic

Fashionable

Fast

Fearless

Feminine

Festive

Fierce

Fine

Fit

Flexible

Flirty

Floral

Forgiving

Formal

Forward Thinking

Frank

Free

Fresh

Friendly

Fun

Functional

Funny

Future-Oriented

Futuristic

G

Generous

Gentle

Genuine

Giving

Glamorous

Glorious

Good

Gorgeous

Graceful

Grand

Groundbreaking

Guilt-free

H

Happy

Hard

Hard-working

Harmonious

Healthy

Heavy

Helpful

High-Tech

High-Touch

Hilarious

Hip

Historic

Holistic

Homey

Honest

Honorable

Hopeful

Humble

I

Imaginative

Impactful

Impartial

Impulsive

Independent

Indulgent

Industrial

Industrious

Influential

Informal

Ingenious

Innocent

Innovative

Inquisitive

Inscrutable

Insightful

Inspiring

Instinctive

Intellectual

Intense

Intentional

Intriguing

Intuitive

Inventive

Inviting

Involved

Irreverent

J

Jolly

Joyful

Joyous

K

Kind

Kind-Hearted

Knowledgeable

L

Lavish

Lawful

Level

Liberal

Light

Likeable

Lively

Logical

Lovely

Loving

Low Maintenance

Loyal

Lucky

Lush

Luxurious

M

Magical

Magnetic

Majestic

Masculine

Mature

Measured

Mechanical

Messy

Methodical

Meticulous

Metropolitan

Mindful

Minimal

Moderate

Modern

Modest

Moody

Multi-talented

Mysterious

Mystical

N

Natural

Nautical

Neat

Nice

Nifty

Noble

Noisy

No-nonsense

Nostalgic

O

Obedient

Old-Fashioned

Open

Open-minded

Optimistic

Opulent

Orderly

Organic

Organized

Original

Outdoorsy

Outgoing

P

Painstaking

Passionate

Patient

Peaceful

Perceptive

Perfect

Perfected

Permissive

Persistent

Philosophical

Placid

Plain

Plausible

Playful

Pleasant

Plucky

Poetic

Polished

Polite

Posh

Positive

Powerful

Practical

Pragmatic

Precious

Predictable

Present

Pretty

Principled

Pristine

Private

Productive

Professional

Progressive

Protective

Proud

Punctual

Pure

Purpose-Driven

Purposeful

Q

Quaint

Questioning

Quick

Quiet

Quirky

R

Radiant

Rational

Raw

Realistic

Rebellious

Receptive

Reflective

Refreshing

Relaxed

Relaxing

Reliable

Relieved

Resilient

Resolute

Resourceful

Responsible

Retro

Revolutionary

Rhetorical

Righteous

Robust

Romantic

Routine

Royal

Rugged

Rustic

S

Safe

Sage

Scalable

Scholarly

Scientific

Scrappy

Secure

Sedate

Seductive

Seemly

Selective

Self-Assured

Selfless

Self-liking

Self-sufficient

Sensible

Sensitive

Sentimental

Serene

Serious

Sexy

Shabby

Sharp

Shrewd

Silly

Simple

Sincere

Skillful

Sleek

Smart

Smiling

Sociable

Social

Solid

Soft

Soothing

Sophisticated

Soulful

Specialized

Specific

Spiritual

Splendid

Spontaneous

Sporty

Stable

Standard

Steadfast

Steady

Stimulating

Stoic

Straight-forward

Strategic

Striking

Strong

Structured

Studious

Stunning

Successful

Succinct

Sumptuous

Sustainable

Swanky

Sweet

Sympathetic

Systematic

T

Tactful

Talented

Tech-Savvy

Thoughtful

Thrifty

Timeless

Timely

Tireless

Tolerant

Tough

Traditional

Tranquil

Transparent

Trendy

Trusting

Trustworthy

Truthful

U

Unassuming

Unbiased

Unconventional

Understanding

Understated

Unified

Unique

Unprecedented

Unusual

Upbeat

Urban

V

Values-Driven

Versatile

Vibrant

Vigorous

Vintage

Vivacious

Vivid

W

Warm

Welcoming

Whimsical

Wholesome

Wild

Willing

Winning

Wise

Wistful

Witty

Wonderful

Woodsy

Worldly

Y

Young

Youthful

Z

Zany

Zealous

Am I missing any adjectives that you think are really essential? Leave them in the comments, and I'll add them.

Adjectives That Would Best Describe the New Logo Design

Source: https://www.themarketingdoula.com/2020/02/14/500-adjectives-that-can-define-your-brand-personality/

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