Brand Strategy: More Than Aesthetics
Have you ever wrapped a gift meticulously? Spent time choosing the perfect wrapping paper to appeal to the recipient and hand-crafted a beautiful tag with their name? Then the gift gets opened and admired while the wrapping lays in a heap only to go to the garbage without a second thought? That is exactly what you’re asking for if you give your brand a visual identity without having a solid strategy to support it.
Strategy must inform design- without it design has no direction, no resonance, and no relevance for the intended audience.
By first identifying a set of brand values that echo the cornerstones of your business, you will be able to see the values that your visuals should emulate.
Brand values are unwavering and should steer the direction of everything in your business from copy to visuals and everything in between. In the design process it becomes necessary to take a step back and analyze the work done thus far- part of that should be comparing the design to your brand values and finding out if they are being upheld.
It can be tempting to create a visual brand simply based on a favorite color or a unique design concept but if that concept or color holds no meaning against your brand values it’s time to go back to the drawing board. If a design is created based on this thinly veiled attempt at a strategy, it will fall apart like the fancy wrapping paper that is devoid of the gift within.
I hate to tell you this, but if you haven’t identified your brand values and strategy, you can’t rely on a designer to deliver you a successful brand identity.
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