Strategy Workshops
Strategy Before Design
For all my branding services, I require a workshop to go over a brand strategy. I work with you on exercises to go over who your brand is, before we dive straight into design.
Why? Can’t I just have a logo?
Because all brands need a strategy to succeed in the market. The fact is, there are so many companies out there, and consumers differentiate them not just by design or product, but what decisions they make based on their unique strategy. Brands with a complete vision / cohesive visual aesthetic have a higher ROI for design than those that don’t, and my overall goal for clients is for them to have a more premium product than their competitors.
My Workshops
Below are some of the design workshops I do with all my clients before the design process even begins. The end goal here is for me to know your brand even better than you do. I take the information I learn from these workshops and apply them to the overall design to the brand. No stone goes unturned here, every design element will have meaning and somehow draw back to the story of your brand.
Keywords
I work with you to come up with as many words as possible to describe your brand. From there we narrow it down to five solid words that will be the building blocks for the 2 brand design concepts. These five keywords are vital to setting the tone for their brand. They serve as a guide for design, and I make sure that every element relates to one or more of those keywords. This establishes purpose in the overall work.
Ideal Niche
This workshop helps me figure out how your customers will see the brand. We come up with who this customer is based on possible attributes like: What profession are they in? What is their age group? How much money do they make in a year? What is their disposable income? Are they local or international? Are they male or female, or is the brand unisex? Where do they live? What are their interests or hobbies? Are they seeing this in-store or online?
Competitor Audit
This step is about how your new brand is going to stack up against the competitors in your particular industry. The way I do this is I collaborate with my clients on whom their top competitors are, or even whom they want to compete with in their industry. They may just be starting out, but want to compete with a larger company in their field some day or be looking solely at local markets. I typically start with 3-4 top competitors.
Moodboard
This step begins the design phase, but I thought I’d include it in here anyway. This is where I’ll pull photography and designs that I think will help inspire the brand. I’ll be sending this to you as a pdf and once it is approved I’ll get started with the design concepts.
Workshop Document
To ensure the strategy is inline with the vision of the brand, I’ll send you a document containing all the research and analysis we’ve worked on to that point for your approval. This document will be yours to keep and available to share with your internal team.
How I work
After the workshops are finished and approved, that’s when I start my designs. From here I work on two design directions that exemplify everything that we’ve come up with in these workshops. These designs are holistic. They include examples of how these brand directions will be applied to many aspects of the design. I do this because I want to make the choice as seamless as possible. I know that just looking at a black and white logo can be difficult to judge on whether or not it fits your brand. Having these elements will help you visualize where your brand can go depending on what option you choose.
But what if I don’t like either option?
Hopefully not the case, but let’s say you don’t. We’ll have a verbal conversation about what you’re looking for, and see if there’s anything I’ve missed in my process. I’ll provide one more option based off of the feedback.
Revision Rounds
For edits, I allow a specific number of revision rounds. This can be any number of revisions in each round, but all must be requested at the same time. Once the rounds of revisions are met, if there are further revisions past that point I charge my hourly rate.
Final Files
You will receive every file, in both digital and print formats. You will also get any working files used to create the elements.
Got more questions about starting a project? Just email me kevin@kevincraft.co or fill out the form below.