Developing Your Visual Brand Identity? 6 Things To Know First!

What if you could work with a brand designer and get the brand identity you’ve always dreamed of? What if you could figure out what you actually wanted, and communicate that with your designer?

It would be so much easier on you (and them) if you knew what you were looking for and how to talk with your designer about it when the process started. That’s what we’re going to dive into now.

Let’s talk about what you need to have your brand identity created – the things you need to do, know, and/or figure out – before you even hire a designer. Things like:

• Business Name & Offerings
• Your Main Audience
• Bare Bones Messaging
• Market Research
• Visual Direction
• Idea Bank

We’ll go over each of these steps, with actionable takeaways you can complete for each one.

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I’m sure you might be thinking, “Why do I need to know this now? Wouldn’t a brand designer go through this with me?”

Of course, a great brand designer should ask you all the questions, and guide you through the process. But if you don’t have an idea of what you want, or how to communicate it, or if you’re not invested in the process too, you’re almost guaranteed to be disappointed with the result.

Brand designers might appear to work with pixie dust and magic when it comes to our creativity and the tools we use, but we’re not really magical.

We need the branding process to help us figure out what you want, what your ideal client or customer wants, and ultimately, serve you in the best way by creating a brand that you love and your audience can’t take their eyes off of.

An identity that, when wrapped in a pretty package with all of your other efforts, will get you the recognition you need to grow.

01. Name & Offerings

If you haven’t done this already, the very first step in developing your brand identity is deciding on your business name and what you’re going to offer. I do not claim to be an expert on this topic by any means: I’ve had multiple side things that I have named, and the process is not always coffee and cookies.

I will say, I’ve found some great resources in the past, and to sum it up, here are the best tips:

• Make it clear (ex: use “calligraphy” in your name if that’s what you offer) (And/Or)
• Use your personal name

Some would recommend starting with a service, and using your name for your business name, because it’s easier to expand on later.

Others would say that a clever or creative name and a digital product might be best for you to start out with.

I’ve done it both ways.

The last thing I tried to start was a stationery company called “Radiant Rumble”. I sold physical weekly desk pads as one of my first products, and then started selling them as digital pdf printables (and ultimately decided a stationery company wasn’t for me, but that’s another story for another day!)

Sticking with your personal name might leave room for growth or pivoting, while using a specific business name for whatever it is that you’re offering might be your better bet, depending on your niche and what you think you want to do.

• TO DO: Either way, for the sake of this exercise, decide on a name, and if you want to offer services or products to start.

02. Identify Your Main Audience

Who do you ideally want to buy from you? Who can you speak to directly?

Having a specific person in mind will help you to visualize a real scenario in which you could help them with your business offerings.

I will say though, identifying your main audience or ideal client can be hard!

Mine is still a work in progress. It’s just a plain ‘ol document I’ve started that I keep coming back to any time I get a thought or idea.

So hear me loud and clear: It’s not that you need to have this completely figured out, but it does truly help to have some of this information fleshed out and written down for your brand designer when you start the process.

• TO DO: Start creating your ideal client profile. On your phone, a document, a scrap piece or paper – or a napkin, if that’s what’s close.
• If you haven’t heard any of Jasmine Star’s many chats about deciding your ideal client profile, those are a must-listen. I’ll link a few here: This podcast episode and This video on her YT channel.

03. Craft Your Bare Bones Messaging

One of the mistakes I see often is that business owners want a logo or brand identity, but they don’t have their messaging figured out.

9 times out of 10, I have to ask the questions to pull the words out of my clients.

Not that I don’t enjoy forming creative slogans or one-liners, because it’s actually pretty fun for me, but it does make the process a little challenging, and not to mention, drag out longer.

I’m a designer at heart, but I can’t even count how many times I’ve had to tell clients that I can’t create from nothing, that I need information – like their messaging – to go off of.

That’s actually why branding questionnaires exist: First because your brand designer is just getting to know you, but second because they actually need to know the words you want to say to your audience in order to create something for you.

As much as I want to say the design of your brand identity is what will get you attention, it’s not the only thing you need to focus on when you’re starting out.

Design isn’t even the first thing I’d say you should focus on, and this is coming from a brand designer!

There has to be parameters for design, which is why messaging comes so strongly into play when you’re creating your brand identity.

If you can figure out at least some of what you want to say before you start the design process, you can provide your brand designer with words to work with and design from, and it will give you a head start.

I promise you, that’s how I would feel if you came to me as a client with even just some of this figured out!

• TO DO: At the very least, create a tagline for your business. Add in your vision and values statements, your “elevator pitch” (a one-liner of who you are, what you do, and why you do it). These things can always change and evolve, but you’re going to need messaging to go off of in order to form your visual brand.

I’ll quit harping on it now…

But if you need any help, Ashlyn over at Ashlyn Writes has had THE BEST advice and resources any creative small business could ask for when it comes to writing and dialing in what you want to say. I’d go check her out, and even if you have zero dollars to spend, you can still grab some of her free resources and binge her YouTube videos! I learned so much from those before ever purchasing a thing from her shop.

04. Market Research & Knowledge Of Your Competitors

This step might sound like something “big” companies do, or it might not seem important for you to do in general, but I guarantee that a great brand designer is going to do some research about your competitors when you hire them.

This is because, in order to create your brand identity, they will need to familiarize themselves not only with you and what you do, but with whoever might be competing in your space.

You need to do the same.

You need to know who you’re competing with, and how you can do it better or differently.

• TO DO: For your own curiosity, and to learn more about the area you’re in or about to step into, conduct a little search. See what’s out there that is similar to what you want to offer.
• Get on YouTube and Etsy and Pinterest, and search podcasts, too. Do some general exploration, and add in local or regional search terms as well.
• Take note, and specifically list out ways you could be different – either on an actual piece of paper or a digital one.

05. Visual Direction

Even if you’re not a designer, you need an idea of how you want your brand identity to look and feel. The easiest way I know to explain how to do this is to think of descriptive words that you can use to describe what your brand is or what you want it to be.

The challenge here is not to describe what you do, but the feeling or emotion you want people to have when they buy from or interact with you, like confidence, clarity, or creativity.

• TO DO: Use the top 3 or so words that you think best describes your brand, and write them down along with their definitions.
• Let these words direct you when you search for visuals that inspire you. Remind yourself that these words can change, but you chose them because they best represent your brand and what you want it to be beyond a physical image.

06. Idea Bank & Filing

It doesn’t matter where you collect your thoughts and ideas, only that you start adding things to your “idea bank” now, and do it as often as you have lightbulb moments or come across things you like.

A word of caution though: Please do not get stuck on something you find, or expect your logo to look similar or exact to another one that you see. It’s a brand designer’s job to create something unique to you, and not copy the work of others.

But I’m certain they will be forever grateful if you create an idea bank to share so they can get a feel for your style, what you gravitate towards and what you want your brand to be about.

• TO DO: To get your idea bank going, start by simply brain dumping on a piece of paper, creating a Pinterest board, taking notes with your favorite note-taking app, or grabbing screenshots and saving images to your phone or computer.
• As you compile ideas and images, PUT EVERYTHING IN A SHARABLE FOLDER! Seriously, document everything and make it easy to access! Even if it’s in a non-fancy google drive folder and document, you’ll want to have everything in one place to reference as you go along. It doesn’t need to be perfect, just needs to be somewhere that you can access and share it when you’re ready to purchase a brand identity package.

Don’t miss it: Be the first to grab my guide to developing your own brand identity, packed with my best tips and how I personally create brands for clients. Sign up here!

BONUS: A Peek Into A Brand Identity Package & More

After you’ve completed these 6 steps, you’re well on your way to a brand identity you can count on for years to come.

Your brand isn’t all about visuals, as we’ve already talked about, but at this point you’re ready to hire a brand designer and have your dream identity physically created.

You’ll have a whole pile of ideas and messaging and research to share. Your brand designer quite literally might not know what to do with themselves (raising my hand here!) if you have this figured out before you hire them.

If you’re wondering what a visual brand identity can include, here’s a snapshot (it’s not just a logo!):

1. Logo
2. Color
3. Typography
4. Photography
5. Website
6. Social Media
7. Supporting Elements
8. Branded Templates
9. Style Guide
10. (the list goes on!)

Your brand designer will help you create some of these things, and hopefully guide you on the way to creating or having the rest created. If you have any questions or want to know more, I’ve linked a few more resources that you can click on above. You can also follow along on Instagram, @designwithclarissa for more tips!

You just took a crash course on how I’d develop a brand identity, congrats on making it through this! The process isn’t always coffee and cookies, but it is fun and exciting to go through to get the brand identity you can’t live without.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this post! If you want more resources and tips, grab The B.Y.B. Toolkit! Join my brand newsletter for first dibs to my content here:

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