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About the Author: Andrea León

Content Manager - Andrea owns a degree in Graphic Arts with a concentration in Design by Taylor University (US) and a Master’s degree by IED MADRID (ES) in Branding & Visual Identity. She has a great passion for visual communication, content creation, and digital marketing that she’s developed through her international experience working in different creative and marketing agencies both in the U.S. and Spain.

Having a cohesive and strategic visual identity means much more than just embellishing the surface of a brand or in this case, a proposal for an EU funded project. The importance of a good visual identity in EU projects is key.

Some people say the correct colours and imagery speak louder than words, and it is mainly because we as humans do not feel attracted to look at something by just reading words. In most cases, words should have a connection with something visual so that we can capture the idea and directly associate it with our emotions and feelings. We must feel a connection of some sort, and that’s how the parameters of a consistent visual identity come to play a bigger role in this game.

Which are the main elements of a cohesive visual identity?

  1. Logo & sub marks
  2. Colour palette
  3. Typography
  4. Imagery style
  5. Illustration/iconography style

You may be asking yourself at this point, why does this even matter in the world of proposal writing or EU project management? – Understanding the applications of the elements that form a visual identity in key to communicating your ideas and helping the person on the other side of the paper conceptualise and visualise it.

The EU commission takes a great amount of time reading long proposals full of text, and sometimes, we understand it could get exhausting. Therefore, helping the eye go through the paper by adding a colour palette and related graphics or figures that resonates with the topic and the proposal ideas could ease this process. It can even help understand the principles of the proposal in a more summarized way.

On the other hand, when it comes to EU projects that are already funded, to establish a direct connection with the project objectives and goals and the audience to target, you must follow some specific visual guidelines.

These are a few reasons why it is important to follow visual identity guidelines in EU projects:

  • To make a connection between the project’s content and the communication materials.
  • To help the audience resonate with the project’s communication and dissemination actions.
  • To easily identify the project when visiting fairs/events/conferences.
  • To establish a connection between visual elements and the wording used to describe the project in different platforms (social media, web, print)

In any case, understanding the basic principles of a solid visual identity is key to help ease the reading and evaluation process of proposal writing. As well as it is essential to establish strict visual guidelines to follow to maintain a cohesive and consistent use of the visual identity elements along the project’s timeframe; specially to help all targeted audiences to connect with and effectively promote all dissemination and communication materials and actions.

This article has been prepared by Andrea León, Innovarum´s Content Manager & Graphic Designer

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