A Brand Strategy That Actually Works
This isn’t a templated process or a fluff-filled session.
It’s a collaborative, sticky-note-covered, whiteboard-smudged deep dive that gives you the tools to:
-
Understand your position in the market
-
Speak with clarity and consistency
-
Attract the clients you want to work with
-
Align your visual brand and messaging with your values
What's Included (Interactive Workshop Breakdown)
After an initial meeting it is time to get to work. Its the fist chance to explore the shapes and layouts that match a client’s vision, business, and more importantly, their target demographic. I like to approach this first round of concepts in black and white as I ultimately do not want a particular colour to steer a clients decisions.
In this instance, we provided the client with six different approaches. The goal at this stage is to at least to get a clear sense of the direction they would like to take things. Every once in a while, like we did on this particular occasion, you knock it out of the park!
Kickoff & Discovery
Align goals, expectations & background
(Estimated 1.5hrs)
Competitive Landscape
Mapping direct & indirect competitors
(Estimated 2hrs)
Brand Mapping
Tone, pricing, quality & visual alignment
(Estimated 2hrs)
Brand Attributes
Culture, voice, x-factors and more
(Estimated 2hrs)
Customer Journey & Ideal Client Avatars
Understand your audience deeply
(Estimated 3hrs)
This Is For You If...
After taking some time to review the designs, the client was torn between concept 001 and 004 and there was some discussion regarding the possibility of using both sets. We advised that in order to do that there would need to be some common elements between them, so that was one factor that had to be kept in mind when approaching the first round of revisions.
At this stage, provided we have a clear understanding of client direction, we start approaching things with colour to help bring the logomark to life. Taking a look at full/single colour options as well as how the logomark can be presented on darker backgrounds is important to ensure branding versatility. In this instance, we also took a look at secondary marks and how brand consistency could be maintained regardless of the application.
You're Rebranding or feel like you've outgrown your current look
You’re launching something new and want to do it right
You’re tired of DIY branding that doesn’t reflect your value
You're Rebranding
You’re ready to lead with clarity and confidence
Stylescapes
At this stage, creating ‘Styescapes’ is a way to really showcase the brandmark and how it could potentially interact with the real world. It is a great practice to see how it looks within different scenarios helps to make the brand look and feel real.
The Decision
Ultimately, the client loved both designs for various reasons. While I assume, they will use on set as their primary presence, they asked for the second version as well for use down the road on some apparel and additional projects.
Regardless, we were happy to provide them with both.
Brand Identity Guidelines / Brand 'Bible'
Whenever we develop a brand identity for a business we always like to include a complimentary Brand Guidelines document to ensure consistency moving forward. It outlines how the logomark, typeface, colours andadditional design elements are to be used. Not only does it provide a client with a fail-safe guide on how to best showcase their brand, but takes the guessowrk out of the process for any third-party users.
Packaging & Delivery
Exporting and packaging/organizing all of the assets is the final and one of the most crucial steps in the process. This deliverable is where the clients first gets hands-on access to the wide assortment of their brand new files!
Extra care is taken to ensure there is no guess-work when they need to grab something or hand off an asset to a third party for sponsorship, partnership or other opportunity.
Final file delivery is generally organized as shown in the image below and generally contain:
