How to Design a Brand Identity (full process)

having a defined process when designing a brand can be the difference between charging $500 or $5,000 for a project similar to how Bakers follow recipes and construction workers use blueprints having a go-to process in brand design is essential to ensure a certain level of results in this video I'll be unveiling the step-by-step process I follow when designing a brand for a client feel free to adopt this process if it suits you but remember there is no one size fits all approach take what you find useful and disregard the rest let's get into it so the first stage of my process begins with a straty call with the client this is where I dive into their business to uncover things like their story target audience competitors and design preferences Now using these insights I conduct analysis and Research into both the brand and its industry focusing on two key areas brand foundations defining the Brand's Mission Vision Values and purpose and brand position positioning where I investigate the business's target audience and competitors to identify a competitive Advantage I then compile all this Research into a strategy presentation based on a template I've developed streamlining my process now this stage not only helps me generate ideas but also formulates a strategy with actional points for my client's business going forward now this strategy then helped me develop a strategic creative direction for the Brand's visal identity so this involved experimenting and creating two two final moodboards with different directions one that features sansera fonts and a slightly toned down color palette compared to mood board 2 which features playful customized fonts and an adventurous color palette now both of these mood boards aligned with my findings and are presented within the strategy presentation now something to note here is that when coming up with the creative Direction and designing the mood boards this should be based on the target audience and differentiate from competitors and should not be based on your client part personal design preferences so alongside the mood board I provide annotations which allow the client to understand the thought process behind the decisions made like using a sanser type face and the reason behind the color Direction this process allowed them to have the final say in selecting the creative Direction ensuring alignment between the both of us which helps prevent potential misunderstandings down the line so after this the client then approved the strategy and chose the final mood board which meant it was time to move on to the design stage so here I use the insights gained from the strategy and creative Direction stage to create the visual identity which includes four key elements the logo Suite brand assets color palette and font pairings so let's dive into the first key element which was designing the logo now from the strategy stage I identified that a logo type for this business would work well balancing playfulness without being too overwhelming was crucial here especially since i' plan to incorporate illustrations as the main focal point Within in the visual identity so having a logo type that was overly playful could potentially overwhelm the viewer so I first referred back to the agreed mood board for the typography style I explored around 10 to 20 different type faces aligned with this direction now after selecting the strongest contenders I then experimented by customizing and tweaking each concept eventually landing on this logotype now each letter is subtly tilted adding a playful and imperfect style to symbolize the messiness of children so once I'd done my refinements and finalized a logotype I needed to ensure its responsiveness by creating additional variations a stacked and a brandmark now this flexibility helps maintain recognizability while allowing adaptability across different spaces so I then moved on to designing their brand assets which can either be illustrations or Design Elements intended to show the Brand's personality tell it story and differentiate them from competitors so to help with this process I re visited the word map created during the creative Direction stage which helped when searching for visual inspiration now this word map involved noting down words associated with the brand and related ideas so out of all of these the concept of children's building blocks stood out to me the most now I drew this Association from the idea that shoes Provide support building blocks are used to create structures and each block serves as support this concept also aligned well with children playing with building blocks and the shoes t for children making it a perfect fit for the brand so for the illustrations I experimented with this concept by using building blocks as a guide to create various shapes I then tested different ideas such as adding arms and legs to transform them into characters incorporating faces and eventually settling on the final concept now this involved combining building blocks with shoes and a pair of eyes to bring each character to life so you might have noticed that up until this point I've been designing in black and white and this approach helps me assess the readability and legibility of the designs more effectively and it's only after finalizing the concept that I introduced color which was the next step now that the logo suite and illustrations had been designed so this process began by extracting the colors from the mood board which the client had approved and testing various tones and shades now after this phase I narrowed down the options to the top three palets assessing their compatibility with the logo type for readability now from this selection I identif ifed the strongest palette and further tested the logo so once this was done I then went on to the next key element which was testing and incorporating font pairings and ensuring their compatibility with the rest of the visual identity now feeling confident about this direction I then proceeded to create mockups illustrating the brand in action so this just helps sell the concept to the client as they can see what their new visual identity looks like in the real world and these mockups will then be used in the brand presentation when presenting to the client so once everything was finalized I put together an artboard showcasing the complete visual identity now I find creating an artboard like this really beneficial as it allows me to see the visual identity come together and ensures each element Works seamlessly with one another now once I was happy with the design it was time to present the visual identity to the client and during this stage I put together a presentation where I showcase the concept I've created and provide context on each of my design decisions explaining how they relate to the brand strategy and vision for this I use a pre-made template which helps speed up the process of putting the presentation together now let me show you a few pages from the Skyrocket brand presentation so on the front cover I've used the Brand's color palette and images from the mood board and I've also included some sneak peeks of the visual identity with mockups this just helps build excitement for the client now one important thing you'll notice throughout this whole presentation is that I consistently use skyrockets colors fonts and overall design style now when presenting your work it's crucial to shift the focus away from your design style and highlight the direction of the client's brand it's kind of helpful to think of this whole presentation as a mockup that helps the client understand their new visual Direction so next I showcase the logo suite and its variations with annotations explaining design decisions and my thought process this is crucial in helping the client grph the strategy behind the designs then the following section ction introduces the Brand's fonts listing primary secondary and complimentary choices with explanations for their selection now there's also another page demonstrating these fonts in action then another page details the Brand's color palette explaining the rationale Behind These choices and how they align with the conducted strategy then I showcase their brand assets and provide a breakdown of design decisions and their connection to the Brand Story and audience and then lastly there are Pages filled with mockups displaying the brand brand in action and helped to further convince the client of the concept's value so once the brand presentation was finalized it was finally ready for my client to view it now this was one of those projects that every designer dreams of when my client signed it off with no Ament which meant I could move on to the final stage of the process offboarding and in this stage I do three crucial things so the first thing I do is export and package up all of their files including their logo suite and brand assets and then secondly I create the brand guidelines document now this document serves as a toolkit to educate the client on maintaining brand consistency and it also helps the client avoid misusing their new visual identity by providing guidance on fonts colors and other elements now alongside this guide I also create a condensed one sheet guideline that provides a snapshot of the visual identity showcasing the logos colors and fonts used within the Brand This Way the client doesn't have to go through the 30 plus page document to just find what they need making it really easy to access and then lastly I schedule an offboarding call to answer any queries and gather feedback leaving a lasting impression on my client now in this video we've gone over the design process of creating a brand which is just one piece of the puzzle in a design project if you want to learn more about the other stages such as onboarding strategy calls and project management I've created a course called the client process which has been made for brand designers who are looking to streamline their process charge more for services and organize their design business click on the first link in the description to check it out that just my baby dog that's just my baby dog that's just my baby

Channel: Abi Connick

Views: 54,001

Keywords: brand identity, graphic design, logo design

Id: N6fRAAX9ums

Length: 9min 41sec (581 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 08 2024