A Look Into The Creative Design Process
Perhaps you’ve been operating for a few years now, you’ve built a good team and you’re proud of the positive impact you’ve made. But you’ve reached a point where things are feeling a bit stale, perhaps your growth has plateaued, your message doesn’t seem to have the impact it once did, or you’ve outgrown your existing brand identity.
You’ve identified that something needs to change to take things to the next level, to reconnect with your audience, and increase your ethical impact.
There are many other reasons why an organisation may decide to rebrand, but here’s a few I have discovered when speaking with clients:
We’ve identified that our existing logo and visual identity is dated or no longer reflects our values
We need to to clearly communicate our message
We want to reach new audiences and connect better with our existing ones
We want to overcome some misconceptions that exist around our organisation/cause/sector
We need to set out our vision for the next decade
We want to unify and clarify our internal and external comms
We need to excite and unite our team
The first steps.
If you’ve never worked with a designer or been through the creative process before, particularly if you’re undertaking the potentially thorny task of rebranding your organisation, you might be nervous and unsure what to expect - and that’s ok!
Your role at work probably doesn’t venture into the creative world all that often, and you’re likely not sure what to expect or what to ask for, and how to communicate with a graphic designer or creative team. That’s why your designer should be the one to guide you through the process, and listen to your requirements and current situation, then craft a solution for you.
You might be tempted to try and tell your designer exactly what to do (i.e. “we want a pink circle with a horse in it”, or “can you replicate the Apple logo”), and simply use your designer as a pencil for hire, but this probably won’t end up with the best results or really solve the problem unique to your organisation.
“Your designer should be the one to guide you through the process.”
It’s your designers job to create an environment in which you are free to give have input, provide ideas, and talk freely about your organisation, your goals and how you want it to be perceived in the future. It is then their job to process and digest this data, put together a creative brief, and to pick out the little nuggets of gold that might lead to a great creative design solution.
But It’s not all about looks
Right from the start, I try and make it clear that whilst, we are ultimately going to give you a visual refresh, be that a whole new logo and visual identity or a light cosmetic tweak or modernisation, there is more to this process than simple how you look and feel.
Remember - Your brand is more than your logo.
I like to go through a creative exercise where I help you to discover your Brand Voice. This is the ethics, tone of voice, desired perception, and everything behind the visual branding that informs everything you do as an organisation, and ultimately directs the visual way in which you want to present yourself. One the tools I use is my Find Your Brand Voice Worksheet - a quick 3-step method to give you greater clarity on what you’re trying to achieve and how you want to be perceived. Understanding and defining this early on the process will save a lot of time and missteps later down the line.
Understand the creative process.
Good designers are not factories, or magic vending machines that spit out a logo after you’ve inserted a few coins. Whilst you can buy an ‘off the shelf’ logo or something for $5, there are great dangers in this. And it will be painful to rebrand a few months/years down the line when you realise that your logo simply doesn’t work for you or worse, that you never really owned your logo in the first place as it was plagiarised. Even worse, you might find yourself in hot water legally.
A professional approach
There are many processes and approaches when it comes to designing your logo and visual identity, and your designer should outline the rough plan at the start of the project when you agree on the overall timescales and deliverables.
I like to follow the 4Ds approach:
My design process: Discover, Define, Design, Deliver.
Discover, Define, Design, Deliver.
This tried-and-tested creative approach has served me well, and I have adapted this 4D approach from the Design Council’s Double Diamond Framework for Innovation. By involving my clients at each key stage, I find that the people I am designing for give me extremely valuable input and it’s important that they feel (and truly are!) involved in the process - we support each other as we travel through the process together towards a shared and well-defined end goal.
Discover.
This is the most important stage in the process, and one that you definitely do not want to gloss over. When I was a younger designer who was eager to get going and start designing, sketching and creating as soon as possible, however I found that skipping or rushing this vital stage would always result in a lot more work, rework, and pain for both parties further down the road.
I start this process with a free 30 minute discovery call where we learn if we’d be a good fit to work together, what my client’s biggest challenge is, and explore some ideas how to best move forward.
An excellent quote that is attributed to Abe Lincoln sums up the importance of this preparation stage;
“If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend six hours sharpening my axe.”
Brand workshops.
I kickoff all my brand design projects with a brand workshop. My workshops are designed to fully onboard my clients so they understand the creative process, understand the value in what we are doing, and fully appreciate the depth of understanding needed to do a good job in rebranding and repositioning their organisation for success.
We discuss your organisation, it’s values, goals and mission. I dig deep to understand what you’re trying to achieve and how we can get there. This is important as it not only gives me valuable insights into to your organisation, it’s also a great opportunity to reflect on your own goals, current positioning, and reflect on how you want to be perceived.
Define.
Strategic brand positioning.
Defining the problem means you’re half way there to solving it. Once I understand your organisational goals, ideal audience, and desired tone of voice we conduct research to get a better grasp the landscape in which your operate and I work with you to formulate a strategy to help you create the desired perception of your brand. I see what your competitors are doing, highlight things to avoid and gaps that we could possibly fill, and work out a plan of action that will get you to where you need to be.
Mood boards and visual directions.
As we get closer to defining our creative approach, I gather inspiration and existing examples of brands and organisations who are presenting themselves in a way that I feel would resonate with the target audience we have defined. I create mood boards and visual examples to demonstrate the flavour and visual direction I wish to take the design project in.
A mood board from a previous project.
My clients find this a helpful process as it solidifies a lot of our thinking and discussions which, until this point, has simply been abstract ideas and words. I also use this stage to sketch out some rough concepts to demonstrate some of the ideas we have discussed.
Design.
This is the fun part, when pencil finally touches paper and I can properly explore the ideas and concepts that have been developing inside my head as I learn more about your organisation, your values and goals, and build a picture of where we want to be.
Concept and ideas.
Pencil finally meets paper. This is often the part the designer enjoys most of all, exploring ideas, sketching out concepts and generation as many options as possible to cover all angles and whittle down to some possible solutions that meet the brief.
Present ideas.
At this point I present the ideas that I think are best for this project. Sometimes this is just one design, but I have been known to present several options to compare and contrast, and discuss my rational and design thinking behind them.
I’ve found there is usually one standout option that is agreed upon, which I finalise to completion. I then base any other pieces of visual identity design, iconography, typography and font selections, illustration styles and more, from the design direction of the chosen logo design.
Delivery.
Delivering the solution.
I handover the final approved design files along with any brand guidelines or file usage guide documents needed. I also handover 100% copyright to you - you now own the intellectual property rights to the design and have unrestricted use of the brand assets.
My typical brand pack includes the following:
Logo design(s)
Brand asset usage guidance
Brand colour pallet
Brand typography and font selection
Image and photography style guidance
Social media profile graphics
Design file pack (digital, print, and vector formats)
100% copyright handover on completion
Ongoing support.
I hope we will now have a good working relationship, and I can support your new brand going forward. I will be happy to provide brand consultancy, ongoing guidance, and I’ll work with you to produce any other materials and designs to express your newly established brand and help you to spread your message and increase the impact you make.
Conclusion.
The design process is an important one, and it can take several weeks or months. And you, as the client, have a responsibility to provide relevant information to help your designer come up with creative solutions that meet your specific organisational needs and express your values in a meaningful way. It’s equally important that your designer involves you at key points throughout the journey, and that communication is free flowing.
By working collaboratively, respecting opinions, the process, and by keeping the end goal in mind, a successful creative solution that works for everyone is bound to come out of this process.
With the right guidance and design leadership, you should gain the buy-in from your key stakeholders early on, and end up with a great solution that you, your team, and your supporters will love.
“Will helped me to have a better understanding of the image I wanted to give to the charity I work for [the creative process] led me to have a different perspective on things, and I am very happy with the final designs.”
Get it right from the start.
A professional brand design that will serve you for years to come is definitely worth investing in and getting right from the start! And by inviting my clients into the process I find that we get the most out of it and create a bond as we have both progressed through the creative journey together.