Branding : Writing a brief
Great branding is essential to a successful business. It is the face of your company, the symbol of your business and aims to represent everything it stands for. It can make or break a company by how it is delivered and perceived by the public. Therefore, it is no surprise that creating a brief for branding can be incredibly daunting. So much depends on it, including money and time, that you never want to walk away feeling you wasted an opportunity.
However, delivering a great design brief is pivotal to the process and when done well, will help you:
Find the right designer
Save you, your staff and the designer time and effort
Get great value for money
Achieve an awesome logo that you love
Granted, writing the perfect brief takes time, but it is without a doubt worth it, and will make the project more efficient and less stressful. Below, I take you through a number of questions, points, and ideas to give you the tools you need to create the perfect branding brief. These prompts will guide you and encourage you to think critically about your business and the future. (As well as, provide a brief that designers long for!)
Alternatively, you can submit a Brand Brief Form to me directly (see below). If you wish to acquire my services in logo design or creative consultancy, this form makes it easier to create a clear and inspiring brief, taking you through a few simple points and getting you one step closer to launching your new brand.
TELL US ABOUT YOUR VISION
Your Company
Every successful project begins with the basic groundwork - work from the ground up to give your designer as much insight as possible into you and your company.
Explain what has inspired your story, your values and what brought you to this point with your business. What are you looking to achieve? Who is your tribe? What mark are you looking to make on the world? All of this information is fundamental to a good brief, and luckily is an exercise you may have come across when you formed your business plan.
If you have yet to create a business plan, I highly recommend you invest the time and get started! It’s a great tool and way of forming a successful business model - Download the official Prince’s Trust free Business Plan template here.
With this knowledge, a designer can develop a true understanding of your company, which will dictate the style and execution of your branding.
Here are some questions to use as a prompt for your branding brief:
What: your business
What does your company do? (What product or service are you trying to sell?)
What are your company’s core values? (Your principles or beliefs that hold a central importance to your business.)
What problems are you trying to solve with your product or service?
What makes your company unique?
Who: your target market
Who are you trying to sell to? (Age, gender, profession etc.)
What are their tastes and hobbies?(What do they read and watch? What brands do they love and where do they spend their money?)
What do they value? (Quality, price, value, beauty etc.)
Where:
Where are you based?
Where do you supply your product or service?
Where do you see your business in the future?
How:
How do you want to be perceived?
How did it all begin?
Do:
Do you have existing branding or are you a new company?
Do you have a website?
Your Branding Requirements
This will help inform a designer of what you need from them.
Logo
Do you have a particular style of logo in mind? - An emblem, word mark, monogram, brand mark, abstract logo, mascot or combination mark?
> Click to see my blog ‘Logo Types - the options & what works best for you’ to view different types of logos and see which style suits your needs.
Do you need multiple logos for different purposes?
Do you require an icon adaptation of your logo for social media?
What colours do you need/want your logo to be provided in? (Black and white are provided as standard.)
If you’re uncertain when it comes to logo style, you don’t have to have all the answers. A designer will be happy to take the lead or have a discussions before designing.
Branding Guidelines
Do you require guidelines to inform your brand style?
Brand Guidelines are an invaluable tool for companies to help them develop their identity and remain consistent and co-ordinated throughout visual materials. They are used to help inform future briefs and save businesses time and money.
Brand guidelines include rules on how to:
Use the logos in a professional and consistent way
Choose fonts for content, subtitles and titles
Choose colours from a palette that are in keeping with the brand’s identity
Write in a certain tone of voice
Shoot photography that is consistent to the brand style
Use graphic elements
Understand the companies audience and ethos
This is a tool I recommend all new companies invest in. It will run throughout most of your online and printed material, save you time and money and give a strong sense of direction with the feel and look of your company.
Material
Once you have your logo, the hardest part is over (yay!) but you will still need certain online or printed material to get you started. Consider the following options that you may want to request from your designer.
Business cards/stationary/menus
Labels/packaging/stickers
Shop sign/banners/billboards
Leaflets/posters/brochures
Social icon/profile picture/banner
Mock up (ideas of how your branding translates into a magazine/on a website etc.)
Advert/POS
DEADLINE
A deadline will help a designer facilitate to your needs and manage expectations and you’ll need to allow at least 4-6 weeks for a designer to turn around a branding project. These things are best not rushed - all great things take time!
Note: The tighter the deadline, the higher the potential cost of the project. Designers will have to make adjustments to their schedule in order to fit in last minute work.
STYLE
An idea of what style you like, or more importantly, the style that appeals to your target market will need to be established to guide the designer.
What branding do you love?
A good designer will avoid copying a brand - a professional will seek to provide you with a logo unique to your company. An example of logos you love helps realise your style.
Give 3 examples of logos you really love and reflects a style you/your audience relate to.
Ask yourself, why do you love them?
What branding do you hate?
Knowing what you dislike will save a designer hours and help narrow down the style options dramatically.
Give 3 examples of logos you really hate, and, if you can, try to pick from businesses within your field or with a similar offering.
Why do you hate them?
Provide a mood board
If you have a clear vision for your brand, this is something I advise you, or a business partner/creative director, do.
For those of you who don’t have directional clarity and are happy for a designer to take the lead, a mood board will usually be provided by the designer before proceeding to the designing process.
A mood board can include any visuals or logos that represent the look and feel of your brand such as:
Colours
Textures
Objects
Logos
Landscapes
Interiors
People
Delivering Your Brief
Now that you have all the components you need to deliver a great brief you should be left with a 5-8 page document complete with your story, your requirements and your stylistic direction. This information will help to:
Provide you with a more accurate and potentially cheaper quote
Reduce the designing time
Collaborate with a designer that truly understands your company and it’s needs
Improves your chance of going away from the project feeling happy and satisfied
Create a logo you and your target market love, that will better stand the test of time
Create a positive relationship between you and your designer based on clarity and clear communication
We 100% recommend meeting your designer (in person or on a video chat) after giving your brief and before starting the project. This will help you decide if you will work well together, if they understand your business and if you even like them as a person! This interaction gives you the opportunity to ask questions, bounce ideas and allows the designer to get to know you and your company on a personal level.
Throughout the project, especially when delivering feedback on the developments, avoid doing so via email or text. Verbal communication will help deliver constructive feedback with clarity and far better efficiency.
Avoid middlemen: Don’t allow these figures to stand between you and your designer who convolute or dilute briefs. This can essentially end up as playing Chinese whispers with a designer and usually results in many trips back to the drawing board. Always work directly with the designer for a successful creative collaboration.
Avoid asking everyone’s opinion: During the logo’s development, you may ask other people’s opinions. It is good to have a fresh pair of eyes to work with, however, be careful whose advice you seek. Are they your target market? Do you respect their taste or opinion? You wouldn’t take your granddad bra shopping, would you? It is impossible to please everybody. We all have different ways of perceiving visuals and that’s okay! You need only to focus on your target market and what sparks their interest, not the whole worlds.
If you are looking for a designer to help you with your branding, please see my design portfolio and get in touch!
You can also submit a Brand Brief Form to me directly.