Every brand design professional needs to be able to think critically and come up with solutions to help their clients connect with their audience. As such, the brand design process is more important than ever. It’s essential for all brands to create a compelling visual identity, especially one that connects and resonates with their target audience. The right process will help you build a progressive brand that stands out from the rest. Let us take a look at everything you need to know about designing a brand-effective brand process.
The brand questionnaire; First-hand information about the brand
The brand questionnaire is the first step in building a brand identity. In this stage, your client will want to gather all the relevant information about their brand. This usually begins with a questionnaire that allows them to collect basic details about their brand, as well as their target audience. From this questionnaire, you’ll be able to gain a better understanding of the brand and its goals, which helps in creating a more relevant visual identity for the brand. If you’re working with a client, there are certain questions you should be asking them before you start. These include whether there is a specific color scheme the client would like to stick to, if there are any specific words or phrases the client would like to see incorporated into the logo, etc.
Market research and trends:
Many brands and businesses often just fall back on trends and try to fit a design around them. This is a terrible idea, as it creates a weak brand that is difficult to differentiate. Instead, research trends (Refer to https://www.logolounge.com/, https://www.behance.net/, https://dribbble.com/ ) and visual themes will help you develop a strategy for how you want your brand to look. Trends can help you find visual cues for your logo and visual identity, as well as guidelines for your collateral design. Visual trends are inherently subjective, but there are a few things you can look for when determining them. Some of these include evaluating the industry relevance, common usage, repeated elements & patterns.
Collecting mood board
If you want to develop a strong brand identity, you can’t just rely on trends. You need to collect something that is called a mood board. A mood board is a collection of imagery and design elements that you will use to help create your visual identity. By using a mood board, you can collect all of your visual ideas in one place. This allows you to create a more cohesive brand that works together. It can also help your clients visualize the direction their brand will go in. You must make sure that you are collecting diverse visuals that include both brand elements and creative assets. By creating a board that features both visuals that represent the brand, and creative assets that you can use in your designs, you’ll be able to build a cohesive visual identity that expresses all aspects of the brand.
Brainstorming and ideation
After gathering all the data about your brand, you’ll want to take some time to brainstorm ideas and concepts with your team. You can use this time to discuss the visual identity you have in mind and see if any visual cues could be added to help build a stronger identity. You’ll want to use these brainstorming sessions to help you come up with ideas and figure out how you want to approach the design. During this round of ideation, you can also use brainstorms to group ideas under themes or concepts. This can help you think about ways to approach various aspects of design.
Sketching is important
While creating ideas and concepts, you must take your time to move on to sketching to help bring these ideas to life. Using sketches will allow you to test different ideas and concepts quickly and see which ones work best. You’ll also want to use sketches to experiment with composition and see how you can make your designs come together. Sketching is important for several reasons, including the fact that it helps you test different ideas and concepts quickly to see which ones work best. This will allow you to come up with more diverse and innovative ways to approach visual design.
Finalizing logo and other brand collaterals
After developing your visual identity, you’ll want to go back to your designs and make sure that each element is clear and concise. This can help you resolve any potential design issues. At the same time, you can make sure that each visual element is consistent with the brand personality and the overall visual identity. Once you’ve finished the further refinements, you’ll be able to finalize your logo and other brand collaterals. This can include aspects like labels, packaging, on-screen logos, and websites.
Curate the Brand Guidebook
There are a lot of things to consider when designing a brand, and this process is no exception. That’s why you must take the time to create a brand guidebook. A brand guidebook is a collection of visual assets that helps in representing your brand and it must be consistent with the overall visual identity of your brand. It can help you to communicate your visual identity and help guide your clients through the design process. It can also help you curate visual assets that represent the brand and communicate its message. In addition to creating a brand guidebook, you’ll want to make sure that you are using all of your visual assets to represent your brand. This can help you create a compelling brand identity.
Conclusion
When we follow an ideal process and document at every stage, the results will be unbelievable. As you go through this process, you’ll be able to develop a visual identity that is both cohesive and memorable. The right branding process can help your clients build a solid brand that clearly expresses their business’s values and a personality that connects them to their audience. If you want to build a great brand, start with a solid branding process.
