Carrying Corporate Identity to the Web
You hold a corporate identity built over years: a logo, colours, perhaps a brand book. Entering a Turkish website project, the natural expectation is: “Our identity should transfer exactly.” And precisely there a subtle mistake begins: exactly.
Because the screen is not paper — and Turkey is not your home market. A logo flawless in print can turn unreadable when shrunk on screen; a colour dignified in the catalogue can tire the eye on a display; the elegant typeface on your letterhead can fall apart on a phone — and may not even carry Turkish characters. Identity must be translated when carried; copied, it breaks.
This guide is that translation’s handbook: how logo, colour, type and voice move to the screen; what must be preserved, what must be adapted; and what to do when the brand files are incomplete.
The core principle upfront: what gets preserved is the identity’s spirit and recognisability — not its pixel measurements. In a well-carried identity, the customer says “yes, that’s them” without noticing how it was done — in Istanbul as in your home city.
The Logo: Carrier of Recognition
BU BÖLÜMÜN ÖZETİ
- Start with the right file format
- The small state is designed separately
- Background harmony gets tested
- The clearspace rule survives on screen
The logo is the identity’s most visible part and the screen’s most battered one. Four rules make the move solid.
Start with the right file format
Files produced for print are heavy and dull on screen. The site needs vector formats: sharp at every size, light on every display. If only print files exist, the first job is deriving screen versions from the source file — before the Turkish project starts, not during it.
The small state is designed separately
On a site the logo lives mostly small: in the top menu, the browser tab, the phone screen. A detailed emblem shrinks into a smudge. The answer is a simplified small version of the identity; not a concession but the screen’s language.
Background harmony gets tested
The logo does not sit on one background: light sections, dark sections, photo overlays. The right version for each background — full colour, white, single colour — is set upfront. A logo without the background test disappears in some corner of the site, guaranteed.
The clearspace rule survives on screen
The protection zone in your brand book lives on screen too: a menu, button or text hugging the logo reads as brand indiscipline — to a Turkish eye exactly as to yours. The rule is simple: breathing room for the logo, on every device.
Colour: Translating from Paper to Light
BU BÖLÜMÜN ÖZETİ
- Colour codes get translated to screen language
- A screen hierarchy gets built
- Readability is non-negotiable
- White space is identity too
Colour is where identity moves go wrong most, because paper speaks in ink and screens speak in light.
Colour codes get translated to screen language
Print codes find no exact screen equivalents; every brand colour needs a defined screen counterpart. The translation is done once with care and bound into a written rule; otherwise the colour drifts across applications — and across your markets — and the identity waters down.
A screen hierarchy gets built
In print, three colours can share the stage; on screen one colour governs and the others assist. The main colour on grounds and headings, the accent on buttons and links: colour without hierarchy turns a site into a funfair — a look Turkish corporate buyers read as downmarket just as yours do.
Readability is non-negotiable
With your brand colour as ground and text on top, is the contrast sufficient — including for Turkish diacritics at small sizes? Elegance that cannot be read is not elegance. Where needed, darker and lighter tones are derived for text grounds; the identity survives, and so do the eyes.
White space is identity too
Spreading the colours everywhere does not strengthen an identity; it smothers it. What truly carries identity on screen is disciplined scarcity: a brand colour glowing in the right place inside generous white space stays in memory longer than colour covering everything.
Type and Voice: Carrying the Sound
BU BÖLÜMÜN ÖZETİ
- The typeface is used in its screen version — with Turkish glyphs
- The tone survives; the sentences shorten
- The photo language is governed from one hand
- Small touches complete the identity
Identity is not only image; it is sound — and cross-border, sound has an extra layer: the language itself. The table condenses the rules.
| Layer | In print / at home | Right on the Turkish site |
|---|---|---|
| Typeface | Print-licensed, fine detail | Web-licensed, small-size readable, full Turkish character set |
| Text size | Fixed point system | A scale that flexes by device |
| Voice | Corporate, long sentences | Same tone, short sentences — written natively in Turkish |
| Photo language | Catalogue aesthetics | Same aesthetics, framed and weighted for screens |
The typeface is used in its screen version — with Turkish glyphs
Your corporate typeface gets checked for web licence, screen fitness and, critically, full Turkish character support: a face missing the dotted and dotless i renders your Turkish copy subtly wrong on every page. If it fails, the closest screen-proven face with proper Turkish glyphs is chosen: identity face in headings, readable partner in body text — a healthy middle road.
The tone survives; the sentences shorten
Corporate seriousness does not mean long sentences. On screen the tone stays; sentences shorten, headings sharpen. And the voice must be born in Turkish, not translated into it: a native reader senses translated corporate voice within a paragraph, and what they sense is distance.
The photo language is governed from one hand
Identity lives in photo choices too: real or stock, people or product, bright or dramatic — and does the imagery include your Turkish presence, or only your home offices? A photo language shifting page by page quietly scatters the identity. A one-page visual rule set prevents the scattering.
Small touches complete the identity
Button corner softness, icon style, spacing rhythm: the consistency of small decisions is the identity’s texture on screen. The texture is defined once and applied identically in every corner of the site.
Quality Control of the Move
BU BÖLÜMÜN ÖZETİ
- The side-by-side test
- The small-screen test
- The stranger’s-eye test
- The consistency tour
The identity has moved; how do you know it moved well — from another country? Four tests run before the work is counted done, and none requires Turkish.
The side-by-side test
Your brochure and the Turkish site sit next to each other: do they look like two faces of one brand, or two different firms? Family resemblance is what you seek; not twin resemblance. The eye’s first-second verdict is usually the right verdict.
The small-screen test
The site gets browsed on a phone: is the logo readable, do the colours watch without tiring, do the headings speak in the identity’s voice? Identity is tested in the palm, not on the desktop; the majority of Turkish visits live there.
The stranger’s-eye test
Someone who has never met the brand sees the site for five seconds: what kind of firm did they sense? If the impression matches your identity goal, the move works. The inside view has blind spots; the stranger’s eye is the mirror — and a Turkish stranger’s eye is the truest mirror of all, worth borrowing through your agency.
The consistency tour
Five different pages get browsed in a row: do the button style, spacing rhythm and photo language come from one hand? A texture shifting page by page signals a half-finished move. The short list kept during the tour is the list of remaining work.
When the Brand Files Are Incomplete
BU BÖLÜMÜN ÖZETİ
- What exists gets compiled
- A mini rule set gets written
- The gaps get filled inside the project
- Consistency continues after the site
Real life comes without brand books: many businesses hold just a logo and a few habitual colours — and translations of the brand book rarely cover a new market. That blocks nothing; the route changes.
What exists gets compiled
Logo files, used colours, old brochures, office photos: scattered material gathers into one folder. Most businesses own more than they assume; what is missing is not material but compilation.
A mini rule set gets written
A full brand book is not required; a one-page screen rule set is enough: logo versions, screen colour codes, typefaces with Turkish support, button style. That page keeps the Turkish site — and every digital piece after it — in one line.
The gaps get filled inside the project
Missing pieces — the small logo version, an accent colour, the visual language — can be produced inside the site project; waiting for a separate identity project is usually unnecessary. The Turkish site becomes the identity’s first big rehearsal in the new market. The whole process sits in the process guide.
Consistency continues after the site
The carried identity does not end with the site: social covers, email signatures and ad visuals feed from the same rule set. Consistency is identity’s compound interest: every touch recalls and reinforces the last one. The identity’s value on the site belongs to the corporate design guide, its agency-side counterpart to our web design page; for your current site’s identity report card, a digital audit stands ready.
Frequently Asked Questions
Sık Sorulan Sorular
By translation, not copying: the logo in screen versions, colours with screen codes and hierarchy, type and voice disciplined into screen language — natively in Turkish.
Vector files, a simplified small version, background versions and a clearspace rule.
Paper works in ink, screens in light; each brand colour needs a defined screen counterpart.
Contrast gets tested; where needed, darker and lighter tones are derived for text grounds.
If it has a web licence, screen fitness and full Turkish character support, yes; otherwise a balanced partner face is chosen.
The tone stays; the form changes: short sentences, sharp headings — and native Turkish rather than translation.
Yes: what exists is compiled, a one-page rule set written, and gaps produced inside the project.
The “transfer exactly” expectation: copying print files and print habits onto screens breaks the identity.
Through the written screen rule set feeding the site, social media and ads alike.