You might be thinking of launching a podcast? a new blog or just decided you’re mix-match branding with inconsistent DIY element you’ve outgrown it’s not working hard enough. Then might be time for you to hire a brand designer and invest in your branding once and for all.
Or perhaps you’ve pivoted your target market and possibly your product or services to suit this. And you now desire a re-brand. It understandable that you may think once you outsource or hire a brand designer, you walk away and they should take care of it all because that is what you are paying them to do right? Well wrong actually, with branding it’s a far different creative and passion-led process.
If you want to pay and walk away for you business to be branded, you are effectively handing them the rein of your business and they’ll be decided for you which direction to take you business. Which will most likely be in the completely wrong direction you originally wanted. It doesn’t matter how good a brand designer can design if we can’t get firm grip on what it is you want or aspiration we wont be able to do our best by your needs. You the only one who know you want out of your business best.
So in order to stop the worst from happening – which would be you ending up a brand strategy and design that doesn’t work or feel right because it’s not aligned with what you want. We must collaborate gain great insight to what it is you want. However, we don’t expect you to turn up with all the answers but we do need you to have a clear idea on what it is that you wish to achieve within your business. I’m going through three simple things you can do before collaborating with a brand designer, so that you have a wonderful experience and get exactly what you want out of it.
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Who Do You Want To Attract?
So as previously mention getting clear on what it is that you want. Obviously us brand designers can narrow it down and help you solidify it into unified message and story however we need to know what it is you want in order to work our magic! The best place to start is gaining an understand of who you want to work with. Brands are created to pull your ideal audience in, so it’s a good idea to know who it is that you wish to attract and do business with in order for you brand designer to strategically use this within your positioning and brand personality development. You will be asked questions on this so it’s best to go in with some understanding on the topic. If you unsure about where to begin these are the types of question I would ask my clients what type of people do you not want to work with? If you had to describe your ideal audience in 3 words what would they be?
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Your Brand’s Deeper Meaning
Not only do we need to get clear on audience but also on your message and what it is you stand for, this is all about your deeper meaning. I provide my clients with kinda of homework and free flowing discussions to figure out what your brand values are right you and your business, I can only recommend which once’s will work best, once I understand what it is you wish to achieve. So don’t worry you’ll never be entirely alone in this process.
Deciding your brands purpose and values can be a difficult process. But by putting time aside for it is critical. We must understand exactly how you want your business to be perceived by your ideal audience? Whether that’s kind, organic, bold, natural, feminine the list is endless. You must have an idea around what you to be known for one day? And what aurora you wish others to feel when they come into contact with your business? It can be a tall order figuring all this out, but the clearer you are the better it is. As a brand designer we’ll guide you through prompts and questions, and can evaluate the impact, sustainability and appropriateness of what values to choose.
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The Brand Designer Process & Would You Be a Good Fit?
So you may know some who know someone who does branding. There’s nothing wrong checking them out and seeing what they can do. But going with just a brand designer because you have mutual friend in common isn’t best practice.
Firstly do you know what you should be looking for? When choosing a brand designer you need to look at the three things, which business type are they working with the most? is it similar to yours? Because if someone if heavily working with serviced based business and you’re branding project is heavily based with packaging design maybe they aren’t the right fit for you.
The second thing to look for is of course design style, I’m a believer that brand designers should really leave design preferences and solely determined by our client brief and creative direction. However, that being said as all creatives we all have certain eye for specific styles, we are drawn to certain design looks more than others. Therefore it’s good rule of thumb to browse through their portfolio and make sure you like what designs they are producing.
Third their design process, plus the person behind the business, if you’re are not much of an admire by the way they talk on their site, maybe they use to many cheese terms like go-getters and hustlers then maybe they’re are the right fits. But there is never any harm jumping on a discovery call with them to confirm whether or not you would be a good fit. Plus I would recommend going on a few discovery calls, why limit yourself to one? This way you can get to know their character better and ask questions about their design process. You don’t need to know all the details of a projects process but understand how they intent to work with their clients is good to know, as another designer process may sound better suited for your needs over another’s.
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Get Prepared And Make The Most Working With Your Brand Designer
I hope you leave here today knowing that you’ll need to have some understand around what it is that you want if you want to get the most of hiring a brand designer. It doesn’t matter if you can articulate it in a professional manner but rather keywords, stories, visuals and ideas are enough to guide us. You should realise by know that once hiring a brand designer you’ll be responsible to make decisions within this process, as the designer can’t do this all for you but is there to guide and advice.
A good thing to note is that project timelines are usually fairly tight so it’s best to have gained a greater idea on what you want before hand, before you are on a little bit of a time limit. So if you are pondering the idea of investing in your brand, make sure you start thinking about who you want to work with? What you want to become known for? and what type of brand designer would suit you, your business and goals within your brand project. If you need help with finding out who your ideal audience go listen to episode 07 and find your ideal customer and or client.