What happens when you hire a Branding Designer

Knowing what to expect when engaging a branding designer is just as important as knowing what they can offer your business.  Having a branding designer craft a cohesive, influential brand for your business requires an understanding of your business goals. This helps to formulate a strategy tailored to your business needs, growth targets, and audience.

What is the difference between a graphic designer and branding designer, and what do I need?

If you are looking at rebranding or starting your business it can be confusing to workout the process of branding your business, then add on who you need to hire to complete this process. Both Graphic Designers and Branding designers, often use the same tools and resources to design but their outcomes are completely different. If you are looking at setting up your business for success then you will want to hire a branding designer as they will establish key brand messaging to connect with your client base. Whereas a graphic designer will complete materials to market your business in line with your brand guidelines.

The key stages involved when hiring a branding designer:

The Discovery Call

Don’t dismiss the significance of this call! A skilled branding designer will know the right questions to ask to gain an understanding of your business and marketing goals, and your current branding strategy and most importantly, they will be able to communicate any recommendations and what they can offer to assist your branding goals. It’s also the perfect opportunity to make sure we are the right fit for one another. Here at CRC, I enjoy getting to know you and your business so that I can offer branding and marketing solutions that will help you achieve your business goals.

Proposal

This document outlines CRC’s recommendations, analyses the business’s current branding and discusses our proposed design package; incorporating branding, visual identity, messaging, marketing platforms and associated timelines and costs.

Design Contract and Invoice

The Design Contract details in full the scope of work to be undertaken including project deliverables and any exclusions to the services being offered. Branding design work is generally undertaken on the basis of an upfront payment of 50% of the agreed fee.

Client Questionnaire

The branding designer will formulate a questionnaire to use as a tool to understand better the client’s needs, preferences and target audience. This is a great stage to work collaboratively with your designer.

Tip: During the questionnaire, the process is the best time to let your designer what you do and don’t like. By upfront now allowing for a smooth process. (Plus it will save you money on revisions by being clear from the get-go.)

A Project Timeline

A project timeline is essential for both the client and branding designer and for most branding projects this is a six-eight week timeframe from commencement to completion. At CRC, we ensure the timely completion of all deliverables and maintain regular communication with our clients to keep them updated.

Brand Presentation

This important step is where the brand designer effectively communicates their vision, brand identity and messaging for the client. We appreciate that you may not always be available for in-person presentations so we can arrange to present via zoom instead.

Revisions

During the branding design process, the client is able to provide feedback to enable the branding designer to meet the client’s expectations and goals. At CRC we are responsive to our client’s feedback and request for changes and communicate the progress of revisions in a timely manner.

Glossary of branding designer terms:

File delivery in Google Drive

Google Drive is a secure cloud storage platform that allows for information to be easily shared for effective collaboration.

Brand Guidelines

Your Brand Designer will prepare a style guide that operates like a set of rules and guidelines to ensure ongoing consistency of the new branding into the future. This includes colours specific to your branding, language suitable for your target audience and instructions on applying your brand across different media platforms.

If you would like to find out more about my personalised branding design process and what CRC can offer your business, schedule your discovery call.