Framing your design brand
You help people to tell their brand stories every day. Designers give people a visual language with which to communicate to their audience. When a client comes to you for the design, they have, for the most part, already done the groundwork. They know who they are and who their target audience is. Your job is to pull the whole thing together with compelling visuals.
How often do you stop to think about how you are communicating to your audience? Sometimes even the most amazing designers get stuck at communicating their own message. And for good reason, there’s a lot to address.
Where do you start? What’s the story you want your own brand to communicate? Who is your audience? Are they ethical, green, large corporations, government organisations, global brands or tiny bakeries? How will you stand out? Is it better to fit in?
How do you begin framing your own brand story?
I think it’s possible to start by breaking it down into ten steps to consider.
- Mission
What are you doing right now, today? What happens because you exist? - Vision
What are or will be the results and effects of what you do in the future? - Core values
What are the attitudes and beliefs that shape your business culture? - Unique selling point
What’s your edge, the thing that makes you stand out? - Emotional selling point
What’s the intangible or aspiration that you sell? Think feelings not facts. Connection, freedom, ego, belonging.… - Brand essence
The core of what you do, the image it portrays and the signals it sends. - Tagline
One line that communicates everything. - Identity
How the consumer perceives your brand. - Name
The verbal hook on which all of the above hangs and is communicated, the icing on your cake. Comes in all the way down here at number nine! - Logo
Last but not least the visual hook that represents your brand, the cherry on the top.
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