Branding Process
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- dyspl1
@fate
While I agree with you on the importance of what you wrote, I’ve always been very cautious with that side of the branding process.
To me this is a marketing person task, and our job is then to deliver the design according to the brief from marketing.
It’s just my personal view, but I find as annoying the case of designers thinking they are marketers because the have ideas, as the clients or marketing guys thinking he can design because he has “good taste” etc...
Each task require a specific knowledge and I’d rather concentrate on my part : making the shit looking cool according to the brief I’ve been given.And from my early years in art school there’s a thing I grew up hating : the idea you can justify anything by “research”. In the end a turd is still a turd, no matter how many studies and analyses have been conducted.
- Too modest ;)studderine
- Just very happy as a designer :)
Hope everything is good in SF!dyspl
- Chimp2
This brand sprint process is pretty useful for kicking things off
- fate2
At one point or another, I think we've all set foot in a place and thought to ourselves "It doesn't matter how good a logo or campaign I create, this place is doomed if it doesn't reinvent itself"
The best projects I've ever worked on, the ones I'm most proud of, are helping businesses completely change what they stand for. You're not just putting lipstick on a pig, you're using your skills as a creative individual to reimagine what a business, an organization, or a non-profit can actually be.
dyspl, I get where you're coming from. You can't run a client's business for them, and research can definitely justify anything. I've seen the flipside as well, where research and planning would have saved millions of dollars and years of time, because, for example, a client didn't realize they needed to build brand awareness and credibility before launching straight into an international eCommerce strategy.
- It’s worth noting that I’m in-house, so there are people in charge the marketing research. As a freelancer you might have to tackle this yourselfdyspl
- But then it means a consequent budget, that maybe are not so often given to small teams/freelancers.dyspl
- And the usual mom&pop shop don’t usually have a budget for something more than a nice empty shell?dyspl
- Anyway, back to my color pencils :)dyspl
- fate0
"fate I agree with your points completely, don't get me wrong, but a proper process requires a huge budget, sometimes all they need or want is a stupid logo." _niko
True, but I've also just taken an afternoon and had a conversation with a client to run through those same questions.
And I totally hear what you're saying about the art, innate creativity, sexy side of business getting lost. That's the bit that I think we all truly want from this industry and all the long hours we put in.
But I find running through that list actually gives me and my clients permission to be completely off the wall and embrace that sexy, creative, insane, unexpected side.
Because then you have some justification when you say "Look, all your competitors are doing this. You can't just copy them, you have to stand out and be different. What you're doing isn't enough. We need to do something outrageous, something that gets press coverage, that gets people talking. Or makes them fall in love with you so much that they take their children's children back to experience what you have to offer"
It gives you permission to think beyond the logo, type, colors, art and copy.
- fate0
I added this as a note to my original post, but I'll say it again:
Any good Creative Brief is going to capture the things I noted (audience, competition, brand positioning, strategy and goals)
- formed0
For those responsible for closing the deals, including proposals/$$$, I am curious how you convince someone to spend a small fortune.
In my industry, I have clients that are putting up 30+ $30million buildings across the country and the owner is proud of the $50 logos he uses for the projects (they do, however, spend for other marketing collateral).
We all know some very expensive "logos" (branding, rebranding, etc.) can really suck and the quality is not necessarily reflective of the cost. So how do you do it? A really nice office? Big client names?
How do you put a proposal together for the full process listed below when the time invested could be all over the place?
- It's only valuable if they value strategy. A lot of the companies I do branding for are embarrassed by their image.Hayoth
- They spend a fortune when you can solve a problem.Hayoth
- Demonstrate (perceived) value. Really impress them. I've won a few projects ($30K) where others have proposed a $1000 logo package. We show them how the projectMattjanz3n
- will grow and should grow into other touchpoints. How thoughtful design will increase value somewhere (tenants, clients). Their portfolio (of buildings I guess.Mattjanz3n
- How it affects their brand, legacy, ability to hire top talent .. the list goes on.Mattjanz3n
- sarahfailin0
Not sure what thread to post this in, but what do y'all think about using previous logo versions for retro-style or vintage merchandise?
Should a company ever use an old logo again? Or should they be buried away forever, and if you make a vintage style t-shirt, it should be with your new logo, made to look vintage?
- Nostalgia sells. Look at the gaming/tech industry t-shirts, everything is retro. Drinks and confectionery are also backward looking. Cadbury has released a...Morning_star
- ...line of WW2 packaged chocolate bars. Pepsi, Coke, Fanta, etc all have heritage references in their marketing. I would argue that making the latest...Morning_star
- ...logo look old is not a good idea from a brand integrity perspective. The latest version should be uncorrupted. However, i think it depends on the industry.Morning_star
