A brand identity is a visual representation of your business’s values. It needs to be consistent with your brand messaging and process to be truly effective. Not only that, but it should resonate with your target audience so that it helps to get clients and customers in the door.

I think that a brand identity is one of the first things that you should invest in as a business owner. Why? Because many other biz decisions that you will make are based on the foundations laid out in your brand identity. Everything works cohesively together to represent your brand and business as a whole.

Let’s put it this way if you don’t have a quality brand identity in place it makes it difficult to keep that consistency that I talked all about in this post. Your entire image could start to look scattered and unkempt. Which, makes it difficult for people to like, know and trust you.

So now you know my opinion, a brand identity is important to invest in because it’s the focal point for all other business decisions. I love working with clients to create brand identities and websites that they absolutely love. And, better yet, their clients love them too.

Here’s a peek behind the curtain of my brand design process. If you want to learn even more about a custom brand and website design then check out the Digital Presence Package for more information.

 

My Brand Design Process:

Strategy

Once your contract is signed and your project start date is set, I’ll send you a welcome kit and a couple of homework assignments for you to get started on. This includes a detailed branding questionnaire which allows me to get to the nitty-gritty and learn even more about your business, your audience, marketing strategies and if you have any design preferences. We can even collaborate on a secret Pinterest board if you like sending inspiration over using a visual platform.

I kick off every project with a creative strategy session. We’ll meet over Skype to talk all about the details of your project to ensure that we’re on the same page. We’ll also go over your homework assignments and dive into the goals that you have set for your business. Overall, these strategy sessions are great for getting to know your brand on an even deeper level.

 

Research + Moodboard

Now that we both are on the same page, strategy-wise. I’ll get to work researching your competition, checking out similar niches, and just collecting overall design inspiration. From my research, I’ll create a moodboard for you to review. This a great exercise that showcases everything that we discussed in the strategy session in a visual way.

The moodboard represents the feeling that someone will have when they interact with your brand. It’s not necessarily the place where I’ll dive really deep into choosing exact shades of colors and which kinds of fonts will be used. When you see the moodboard you want to ensure that it matches who your target audience is and that it’s something that they will resonate with. I’ll help to guide you through this decision-making process and answer any questions that you have.

 

Design

Now the fun part! You can sit back and relax while I start working on the logo design concepts. I will create 3 logo designs, in black and white for you to review. I create them in black and white because colors are so subjective. I wouldn’t want you to choose one of the logos just because you liked the colors but didn’t actually like the concept. Doing this will help you to choose the concept that you and your audience will love.

You’ll choose the logo that you like best and we’ll refine it from there. If you have a couple of changes up-front, then I’ll go ahead and make them. But usually, I take your favorite option and build it out further for you to review. Because a brand is so much more than a logo, I want you to see you favorite option all built out. This includes the logo in color and secondary brand elements like patterns, alternative logos, icons, etc.

 

Feedback + Refinement

Now that you’ve reviewed the new logo design it’s time for refinement. I’ll send you a few questions to collect constructive feedback from you, which will help to make this process seamless.

Many of my clients approve the brand identity on the first round but up to 3 rounds of revisions are included in the design process. Ensuring that you are 100% satisfied with the final brand identity.

 

Delivery of the Brand Identity

Your brand identity is ready to go! Now, you just want those final files so that you can start showing it off to everyone.

I’ll send them over to you, via Dropbox, neatly packaged in a folder that you can download to your computer. You’ll get high res vector files as well as print and web quality versions of all of the brand elements, including, your logo. You will also receive a brand booklet which shows you all of the elements in one place and how to use them. That way, you can consistently represent your brand across all platforms.

Now that your brand identity is complete, we’ll go ahead and start working on the website design. If you want to see how that process works, I break that down for you, in this post.

Want to learn more about working with me? Check out my digital presence package for brand and website design, right here. I’m looking forward to learning more about your business and project goals!