The Brand Identity Process
Are you thinking of rebranding but are unsure of what is actually involved when working with me? I've written out my complete Brand Identity Process to give you all the ins and outs when it comes to creating your new and improved look!
To give my clients the best experience when (re)branding their look, I'm always finetuning my process. If you decide to work with me, here are the steps we will go through when designing your new brand identity:
Questionnaire
To create an impactful and fitting brand design for a client, I firstly have to understand who they are, what their business is all about and who their ideal client is. I do this by sending an extensive questionnaire.
I ask questions like:
What are your values?
What feelings do you want your ideal client to have when they look at your brand?
What makes you unique? Why do people come to you?
Who is your ideal client?
etc...
But I also ask questions about what style they like, their favourite colours and if there are specific elements they want to see in their logo.
This is part is crucial to get an understanding of the strategy behind the new brand identity- without knowing all this it is very hard to design a brand that hits the mark! For this reason I always ask my clients to give me as much detail as possible.
The more information = the more the brand identity fits
Pinterest board
To better understand what the client is attracted to and to get them thinking about their style I ask them to create a Pinterest board. I ask them to not just add branding images but really anything they like and that they want their brand to feel/look like. This means that there is a mishmash of styles, colours and ideas. But with the answers from the questionnaire, I will sift through the Pinterest board and get a good idea which style to go for.
Moodboard + Creative direction call
Once the questionnaire is complete and the Pinterest board has all the images pinned to it, I will create a moodboard. Together with the client and a hot cuppa as this is probably our longest chat throughout the whole design process, we'll go through all the answers and images. We all know that when things are written out, a lot can get lost in translation, so I will give a summary of what I believe the client wants and doesn't want and they give me feedback on this.
After this chat I will have a clear idea on style and which direction the design should go and I can get creative!
Logo concepts & colour palette
When I start creating the concepts for the logo I always start sketching a million ideas on paper. They are not detailed or pretty but a very good exercise to get the creative juices flowing and to get a lot of ideas out of my head. Because sometimes an idea works better in my head than when it's actually sketched out. Once I've done the initial sketches I will draw them out in more detail and from there create presentable concepts in Adobe Illustrator.
The colour palettes are a bit different. Because colour is such an important part of your brand- it gives that initial feeling to customers- I look at a lot of different elements to create three options for the client. In the questionnaire I ask the client to describe themselves and the feeling they want customers to have. Using colour psychology in combination with the client's style I start putting colour combinations together.
I usually give the client three logo concepts and three colour palettes, the client can then pick their two favourites to go through the first round of revisions.
Three rounds of revision
During the revisions I ask two things from my clients to be clear and to be honest. As a designer there is nothing worse than to hear "I like it but I'm not 100% sure and I don't know what it is". Don't get me wrong I know it's hard to make decisions (I can be the queen of indecisiveness) but by speaking up about what you feel or think about each design and colour palette gives me a better idea of how to tweak it so the final design hits the brief.
I do help my clients by asking questions like:
Which logo are you most attracted to?
What is it that you specifically like about it? And what do you not?
Are there elements from any of the other logos that you like?
Is there a colour that on its own you don't like?
Is the colour palette bright enough? Should it be more muted?
Is there anything that should be banned forever?
The revision rounds are the perfect moment to play about with the designs- and if the client finds that what they thought they liked actually doesn't work out, we'll go back to the original.
Branding Style board - submarks, different coloured logos + fonts
This is the step where it all comes together! Putting the logo design, submarks, colours and fonts all onto one page. I also like to create logos in different colours. A big step as all of a sudden the branding comes to life, but as everything is already done it is a very quick one.
The brand style board is the most helpful tool as it holds all the information a client needs when creating marketing collateral for their new look. They can keep referring back to it without having to look through emails or other documents.
Transferring the files Brand Identity Files
Yay! Now the most exciting part- sending all the files over to the client so they can start using their brand new look! I create a folder in my Gdrive and give the client access to all the files. I also add an infosheet in it that tells them what each file should be used for.
And the most important part - for them to save a copy on their computer or external harddrive as it's their responsibility to keep them safe and I won't hold on to the files forever..
I give my clients all the files they need so they don't need to come back and ask for different file types. And that if they decide to go to a different designer in the future, they can send the raw files.
Testimonial
Now that everyone is happy I ask the client to fill in one last questionnaire that I can then use as a testimonial! As a small business getting testimonials is so important, so for me a crucial step in the whole process.
To have a free chat to talk about your brand, you can book some time with me here. I promise no salesy chat or having to commit then and there!
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