People often think branding is just about the logo, colours and fonts, and whilst these are important elements of your brand, they are not the place we need to start. Every branding project starts with questions; Who you are? What do you do? Why do you do it? Who do you do it for? Who else is doing it? The answers reveal your brand’s foundations, the ideas and insights that underpin the design process. Without this process, designing your brand could be an expensive guess.
When I rebranded Splitpants, I didn’t start with colours and fonts; I’d already been playing with them, which was a telltale sign I needed to fix something. I started with strategy. I asked myself the questions that revealed why my branding felt off. It didn’t reflect the values, goals or level of service I wanted to offer. The design was rigid and dated and didn’t feel warm and friendly like me. The process helped me to be clear about who I wanted to serve and how to serve them best. With clear direction I was able to rebrand confidently.
It’s like a health check; skipping the diagnosis risks prescribing the wrong treatment. If we don’t work out what the problem is, we can’t fix it. Jumping straight into redesigning your logo risks repeating the same mistakes.
A Brand Audit before deciding to redesign is a safe way to start and includes:
- Brand Discovery – We’ll ask the questions and discuss your business’s services, mission, story, values and purpose. This helps to frame the Audit around your brand foundations.
- Competitor review – We’ll review your top 5 competitors to see how your current brand compares and sits in your visual marketplace.
- Audience review – We’ll review your target audience to discover their likes and dislikes, and how well your current branding fits their preferences.
- Colour review – We’ll explore your current colour palette and associated colour psychology to assess its suitability for your audience.
- Brand Score Card – We’ll assess your current brand in light of our competitor and audience research.
- Recommendations – We’ll provide you recommendations so that you know what steps to take next.
Not sure where to start? Start with a Brand Audit.
