My 5 step branding process

I get a lot of questions on process, and how we go about creating a brand strategy & identity that feels fully like you and your business.

I’ve heard it all—including:

• “But I’m really indecisive” to
• “I’m not sure what I want my logo to look like!” to
• “I already know exactly what I want my logo to look like” to
• “My team all have very different opinions on what we like.”

As a brand designer, I’m here to tell you—don’t worry! It’s my job to solve for all of these worries and create something that you not only love, but gives you both the tools and the confidence to show up and stand out so you can grow your business.

The following 5 step process is how we get there, and it’s the process I take with all of my one-on-one branding clients. And guess what? The first 2 steps don’t involve design at all. Instead, it’s a collaborative process between us to make sure we’re on the same page and creating something from a strategic and meaningful place every step of the way.

Step 1: Questionnaire & brand strategy

Brand strategy is a crucial part of the branding process, because we want to make sure that we’re creating a brand identity that is meaningful, unique, and resonates with the people you are trying to attract.

The first step of the brand strategy process is a bit of homework on your part. On our designated start date, I send you an in-depth questionnaire that asks you everything you can possible imagine about your business, including why you started, who you’re serving, your competition, and your visual preferences. This is necessary for me to learn everything there is to know about you—but I always hear from my clients that it’s a helpful exercise for them, too. Win-win!

Once the questionnaire is filled out, we have a strategy call over Zoom to more officially kick off our project. This gives us the opportunity to review it together, ask any questions, and talk about initial ideas and next steps.

The questionnaire and our kickoff call gives me the tools to go ahead and pull together your complete brand strategy, which outlines things like:

• Your mission statement
• Core values
• Content pillars
• Competitor analysis
• & much more.

This strategy guides the rest of the process, and will help you to continue to grow your business when our work together is done.

Step 2: Creative direction & moodboard

During the creative direction phase, we lean on your brand strategy to start making decisions on how you can show up visually. As I mentioned before, this step still doesn’t involve any design. Instead, I brainstorm and start to gather inspiration on how I envision your branding coming to life.

This culminates into a moodboard, which is a compilation of inspiration for your color palette, typography, logo treatment, photography style, illustration, patterns, and more.

I share this with you to make sure we’re on the same page, and we make any revisions accordingly. The moodboard will be the North Star that I continue to reference when I start designing in step 3.

Step 3: Concept exploration & revisions

Designing at last! I start sketching ideas, researching fonts, and putting together brand identity concepts that are aligned with your brand strategy and creative direction.

While I sketch out tons of options, I ultimately present the two strongest ones for you to choose from, and I present you with the following:

• Primary logo design
• Secondary logos & brand marks
• Color palette
• Font system
• Social media & web design mockups so that you can get a sense for how everything would come together in real life

Next, you choose the “winning” concept and we talk through any thoughts, feedback, questions, and revisions you have.

Step 4: Brand style guide & final files

Once we make any revisions to the winning concept & get it pixel perfect, it’s time to pull everything together into your brand style guide. This is a comprehensive document that lays out all the different components of your new brand identity and how to use them. The purpose of a brand style guide is to give you something to reference when you’re creating your own graphics (or passing any design work off to a designer) so that you can always show up consistently and on brand.

I also send you all the final files (including logos and submarks, brand patterns and other graphic elements, and links to purchase your font licenses).

Step 5: Final coaching call

We wrap up our time working together with a 60 minute coaching call, which is included in my brand identity package, to review the best ways for you to implement your new brand identity and go over any questions you may have. Some common things we talk about in this call is how to make on brand social media templates in Canva, or how to go about tackling your website.

And remember—if you’re totally overwhelmed with the idea of DIYing your own graphics, I offer a la carte services & retainer packages to take that off your plate!

Questions about process or feeling ready to reinvigorate your brand? Contact me here—I’d love to chat!