Our Step-by-Step Brand Identity Process
Today, we’re walking you through our complete branding process!
The steps we’ll go over in this post are based on our Essentials Package — which includes just that, the essential visual components you need to launch and establish (or reestablish) your brand. We’ll also share where there are opportunities to expand upon those core elements and build out your branding more fully.
Before we dive in, if you find yourself wondering what “branding” really means and what makes a good brand, check out our blog, How to Create a Compelling Brand.
Step 1: Information Gathering
Intake Questionnaire
Inspiration Examples
This is the first step after booking the project. In order to provide the best service possible, we need to get to know your company’s personality and essence so we can translate it into the visuals that will become your brand.
We’ll send you an Intake Questionnaire with questions that range from basic information — like your website address and description of what you do — to more thoughtful inquiries about your company goals, values and purpose. We also want to know who your target audience is. If this is a rebrand for your business, it’s helpful to know your prior experience and intentions with your visual branding so we have the full picture and story. We ask questions about all of this in the questionnaire. Through these questions, we hope to distill the who, what, when, where, why and how that will inform your visual brand, so it’s important to be thoughtful with your answers. We expect the full questionnaire to take around 15-30 minutes, depending primarily on whether you have some visual examples ready to upload in the questionnaire — which I’m about to tell you about! 👇
As part of this discovery phase, we’ll also ask for reference photos and/or inspiration examples in the questionnaire. This should include any current or past branding. It could also include photos of your office space, other logos/brands you like, packaging you were drawn to, a website that stands out, etc. What’s most important is that you communicate what it is that you like about these pieces as you consider the look and feel of your own company. Is it the colors? Fonts? Photography? Shapes? It’s also worth noting that looking for inspiration outside of your own industry is often helpful to broaden the pool of potential ideas and get the creativity flowing. Now, don’t worry — if you don’t have any images or files ready to upload but you filled out the rest of the questionnaire, you can submit it and come back to it! You’ll be able to edit your responses after you submit them, so it’s easy to go back and add your files if you need a little more time to gather them. Simply let us know when we’ve got your most updated submission!
From here, we’ll take your information and inspiration and build on it in the next step.
Step 2: Setting the Tone
Mood Board
Kickoff Meeting
Using the information provided in Step 1 from the Intake Questionnaire and inspiration images, we research additional visual concepts to put together a set of mood boards. A mood board is a collection of images, fonts, patterns, textures, colors and other graphic elements that portray the look and feel of your brand. It will act as a valuable reference for this initial branding project and beyond. We’ll provide three distinct mood boards that represent different options for the direction we can go with your branding.
This gives us a great reference point for discussion in our first meeting. By having actual visuals to look at, we can more easily ensure that we’re on the same page. We’ll walk you through the vision behind each mood board and ask for your feedback on what you like or don’t like about each option. It’s important to provide honest insight at this stage so that by the end of the meeting, we can narrow in on one direction.
Step 3: The Beginning of the Brand
Refined Mood Board
2-3 Logo Options
Color Palette
Now is the time to dive into the core “face” of the brand – the logo! We’ll take the mood board we narrowed in on in the first meeting and update it to reflect any edits we discussed. Using this as the guiding reference moving forward, we develop 2–3 logo options. For us, this part of the process might include sketching by hand before going through multiple iterations on the computer. We explore colors, fonts and shapes to create viable logo options that characterize your organization’s personality. We also consider current design trends, your competitors and target audience, and how and where your logo will be used. Each logo will be presented alongside a suggested color palette.
At this point, we meet to walk you through the thoughts that went into each design and gather your feedback. By the end of this second meeting, the goal is to choose a direction and clearly define any edits you want to see in the next phase.
Step 4: Refining & Building
Refined Logo Design
Brand Style Guide
In this step, we take the logo chosen in Step 3 and, as needed, refine it based on your feedback. These edits might include changing colors, adjusting the size of different elements, trying a different font, etc.
Then, based on the logo and color palette, we build out a brand style guide to clearly define the logo usage, color palette and typography that will make up the essential elements of your brand moving forward. Our blog “What is a Brand Style Guide and Why You Need One” is packed full of helpful information and includes an example of a client’s style guide.
There are a variety of other valuable elements that make up comprehensive, robust branding for a business, which you can read more about in this blog, and you can choose to add-on to the Essentials Package if desired. Here’s a list:
Messaging / StoryBrand Framework
Mission, vision, and values
Description of voice and tone
Iconography style
Photography and videography direction
Key graphic elements (such as textures or patterns)
Branded examples
Step 5: Final Deliverables
Once you approve the refined logo and brand style guide, we provide organized, final files you can use moving forward. These include the variety of file types you’ll need for your logo based on best practices so they can easily be shared with your team or other collaborators in the future to ensure brand consistency.
Final deliverables include:
Mood Board PDF
Style Guide PDF
Logos in Full Color, Reverse, White and Black in the following file types:
· EPS (Vector) - Used for large-scale applications like banners, signage, vehicles, etc.
· JPG - Used anywhere the logo will be on a white background at a normal size
· PNG - Used when the logo appears on a colored or black background, and you need the background of the file to be transparent
Timing
From the scheduled kickoff meeting (in step 2), this takes around three to four weeks. It’s worth noting that successfully achieving this timeline is reliant on your making decisions and meeting your intermittent deadlines so we can keep things on track. If you need more time to consider the options presented, we’re happy to work with you and look at how we might adjust the project schedule.
Applying the Brand
After you’ve completed your branding project, it’s time to put the new branding into action! You want to implement your branding anywhere and everywhere your business presents itself online or offline, so every single interaction someone has with your business is consistent. Your investment in a visually compelling and appealing brand identity only matters so much as you carry it out well!
Your website is one of the first places to bring your branding to life. There are tons of other places you will want to apply your new branding as well, such as ads, merchandise, and printed brand collateral.
Here’s a list of where you will want to implement your visual brand and some common add-ons:
Website
Lead Magnets (or Lead Generators)
Browser Icon (or Favicon)
Additional Alternate Logo Designs (vertical, horizontal, or social media)
Business Cards
Custom Graphic Icons
Letterhead & Stationery
Pricing Guides
Email Marketing Template Designs
Social Media Post Graphic Templates
Brochures
Digital Ads
We can help you execute your brand visually in any or all of these ways. Every step of the way, we’re here for you.
When you’re ready to start this process and get your new visual brand created, we’re here to help. Simply schedule a call to get started!
P.S. Do you already have a logo or basic branding that needs a little refresh? We have a Mini Package where we update your current logo and provide a mini style guide with a color palette and typography (font) updates. Inquire if interested!
Cheers,
ALYSSA
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
P.P.S.
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