Inside the Branding Process
I hope you’re all having wonderful weeks so far!
Our last post looked at common branding & design terminology so now that you’re well versed on some of the basics, it’s time to dive into the ins & outs of what you can expect during the design process!
As you may remember, a brand is the feeling your customers get when they think of and interact with you and the steps you take to guide them to feel a certain way is “branding.”
For example, if you’re an athletic-wear company, you may want your customers to feel motivated and excited to work out when they see your ads. Or, if you’re a jewelry company, you may want your audience to think of you as luxurious and high-end.
These emotions that your audience feels are guided by everything that you present to them. The fonts, colors, imagery, and messaging you use all need to be done in a way that’s intentional to elicit those specific emotions.
You may be wondering how to go from point A to point B where your branding resonates with your target market. While every designer & agency might have a slightly different approach to the branding process or use different names for each phase, the overarching structure will be similar:
Onboarding
Discovery
Design & Refinement
Implementation
Onboarding
Before you begin working on your company’s branding, you’ll need to find a design partner to help you through the process. The first step before even looking for a designers or agency is to consider what your needs are and what you’re looking to achieve.
This is something that may change as you begin to learn more from your design partner and dig into your project, but having an initial idea of your needs & goals will help you narrow down the type of design partner or agency you look for.
Once you’ve figured out the high level overview of your project, it’s important to consider budget at this time. Again, the pricing and budget is something that may evolve as you dig deeper into the project, but having that starting range will allow you to have more effective conversations while you reach out to different companies.
It’s important to remember that expensive doesn’t always mean “best” (and only looking for the cheapest option could result in ineffective work). What you want to look for is the best fit for you. While budget is an important consideration, it’s equally important that you find a design partner that is going to best serve you and your goals. Some things to consider:
Do they work on the type of projects that you’re looking to have done
Does their business values match yours/your company’s
Do your personalities and work-styles match? Are they someone you feel comfortable working with?
Does their portfolio reflect what you’re trying to accomplish?
Do they make you feel easygoing? Do you feel like you can trust them?
Once you’ve selected your designer, it’s time to get started!
Discovery
The next phase in the process is what I refer to as the Discovery phase. Again, each company’s process or naming conventions may vary a bit, but this step is generally where you’ll dive in with your design partner to better understand your business & create your brand strategy.
The brand strategy is what will ultimately influence the design direction, so it’s not only critical for the designer to get a deep understanding of the businesses at this stage, but this process will also be extremely valuable to you as well as you start to think about your business in news ways.
Everyone knows what they do, and most know how they do it, but few really reflect on WHY they do what they do. And uncovering that why will be crucial to crafting a comprehensive brand strategy.
In addition to the why, you’ll take a look at the who—the target audience—to better understand what approach to take for the visual direction and messaging to best connect with them. A target market of women in their 20s-30s will have vastly different visuals and messaging than a company with a target market of men in their 40s.
It’s important to note that this stage will be extremely collaborative and will likely require a little homework and some time commitment from you for meeting(s). No one knows your business like you do, so your insight will be very valuable for your designer!
Design & Refinement
The next phase is Design & Refinement. You can expect a lot of this phase to take place behind the scenes as your designer gets to work.
At this stage, your designer will take everything that was uncovered in the Discovery phase to strategically develop visuals in a way that will resonate with your audience. This process is a wholistic look at the branding elements, which you’ll commonly hear referred to as the Visual Identity which includes logos, colors, fonts, imagery, and more.
Once the initial design options are developed you’ll be able to start collaborating with your designer on any necessary refinements to the concept(s) you’ve been presented.
You may be wondering why “refinements” instead of “revisions.” Essentially, they mean the same thing—changes will be made to the initial designs—but this shift in verbiage is something that you’ll see becoming more common in the design industry. The reasoning here is that “refinement” implies a more intentional process of evolving your branding elements until they best fit your business goals.
And once you have your elements refined to where they need to be, it’s time for the fun part…
Implementation
Based on your project scope, this phase can vary in terms of what assets and how much support you receive. But, generally speaking, this is when you’ll be given all of your brand assets (logo files, image files, etc.) and your brand guidelines document which details how all of the visual elements in your branding library can and should be used.
Beyond your visual identity, your designer may be creating templates for you, or working with you on a new website or other launch & collateral materials. While you’ll have your brand guidelines document, if you have any questions on how to use your brand elements or templates, this is the time to ask! Your designer is there to support you and can help give you clarity on anything you’re not 100% sure about how to use on your own once you have all the files.
Whether you’re launching on your own or will be doing so with extra support from your designer, make sure that a plan for launching your new branding is in place. You want to ensure you’re approaching your launch in a way that’s going to have the most impact for your business and for your audience. And, having that plan in place will help you manage the inevitable excitement you’ll be experiencing! You’ll be so eager to show the world your beautiful new branding, but having that launch plan will help you share everything strategically to make the most of your efforts.
Have any questions about the branding process?
Connect with us to chat about what you can expect when you partner with Type A!