Visual consistency is the adaptation of all designs to one criterion, aiming at sending a unique message to consumers. The non-verbal message is the one that is created from graphic-visual elements such as colors, typographies, textures, shapes, sizes, etc. Each element communicates a message and it is important that all designs meet the same criterion so that it is always the same and, thus, it is established in potential clients’ minds.

Web design, like all the other components of a company’s corporate identity, should respect the parameters the rest of the components share. In a special way, Web design should do so because it is not just another component, it is not ephemeral and it is not disposable: it is a stable and essential component of a company’s identity, and it is the only design element that allows company-consumer intercommunication. As there is a criterion based on the corporate image components and thanks to it consumers know the company ―or at least, that is the intention―, companies’ Web design should reinforce that message the criterion tries to keep uniform. A company’s Web site has a main role when creating its corporate identity and that is why you should be very careful when maintaining the criterion and promoting it, based on this new element.

Many people make the same mistake when asking for their Web design: they overload their sites. Many small-sized company businessmen try to show companies bigger than they are by filling a Web site with design elements was. Many of them have sites with animated GIF, flash animations, too many colors and different typographies. Unfortunately, trying to look more important only results in chaotic, overloaded and untidy sites. Usually large-sized companies have sober Web sites, with just the necessary information, subtle details and they do not pretend to be something they are not. This trend has prevailed on the Internet: plain companies’ sites contrast chaotic entertainment sites.

A company’s Web site has certain specific features in its design that distinguishes it from other corporate identity’s components. However, good designers do not treat these features in a careless way. The proper use of a site’s features result in the small details that distinguish it, or approach the corporate message from another point of view. In the case of a different approach, design elements can be treated in such a way so that they communicate the same idea but in a different way, in an alternative and exclusive way. Choosing this use for special features can be very productive, because if you communicate a message in as many ways as possible, you have more chances of making it clearly understood.

A company’s Web site is very important for advertisement, and modifying the criterion that the corporate identity’s components establish could result in a great confusion for consumers. When consumers encourage an implicit message in a series of business designs the system works. But if any of these components communicates a different message, two consequences may occur: 1) if it is a non-significant component we are talking about, such as a flyer handed out on the street, consumers may consider this component did not succeed in adapting to the company’s message; 2) if it is an essential component, people may think they did not understand the message and that they still do not, or that they were wrong before and that the real message is this new one, not knowing that this component is not within the company’s parameters.