Brand Discovery
Brand Discovery is the process in which we learn everything about your brand, website, print materials, your market, your competitors, and your goals. We must establish these key elements through research before we begin. Only after Discovery is complete are we ready to build a brand that will inspire your audience to take action.
But what inspires your audience?
The first thing to do is research and examine your audience. A good way to do this is to do some research on social media. Identify some followers of the type you would like to attract. We need to understand how they think in order to understand what motivates them. To gain this insight, we ask the following types of questions:
What is the annual income of my ideal brand client/customer?
How old is this person?
What are their favorite hobbies? Brands? Celebrities?
This is where a thoughtfully prepared Case Study and other graphic planning documents come in handy as part of a comprehensive brand identity discovery process.
The Case Study
The more specific your vision becomes, the more likely you are to be able to satisfy the needs of that market. Some brands might have more than one ideal type of client and that’s OK. That’s why preparing up to 3 Case Studies can really come in handy especially when it comes to pitching a product range with various price points.
The Creative Brief
With your research in hand from the Discovery phase, you are now ready to embark upon a successful creative journey in the Design phase. One of the most important tools in the Design process is not Photoshop or the finest of quilled pens. In fact, you guessed it, it’s another planning document called the Creative Brief. The Creative Brief is usually a one to 10 page document that details the mission, vision, and overall style plan based on the Discovery phase. It’s a well planned blueprint for your designed compositions.
Moodboard
After the initial research and discovery phase is complete, the moodboard is an excellent place in which to start the design process for virtually any type of graphic communication or visual storytelling project. A moodboard is a grouping of images, fonts, textures and other visual assets that helps to establish a color palette range as well as a stylistic vision upon which to build a brand or distinct project style. Moodboards can be loosely or meticulously arranged, the end result should be the same if the board follows the Creative Brief. Whether composed on a screen with pixels, quickly made of magazine tear-outs pinned to a real life bulletin board, or made of photos, paint swatches, and fabric samples carefully prepared on paper by hand, a good moodboard helps focus a project to its vision and sets the tone for the creative work that is to follow.
Take the Next Step
With knowledge about your brand and your audience comes the power to achieve your vision! The next step is utilizing this information to tell your story in a way that brings people to the edge of their seat in anticipation of your next move. Need some help? No problem!