Understand the business before the brand.
Context creates better decisions.
Approach
Good branding
starts before design.
The first job is not to decorate the brief.
It is to
understand the business well enough to know whether the brief is asking the right
question.
Start with what it has to achieve.
I normally begin at the end and work backwards. What has to be different when this is finished? What should people understand, remember or do that they do not understand, remember or do now?
The brief tells me what the client thinks the problem is. I want to understand what is underneath it: the market, the offer, the audience, the competition, the pricing and the ambition.
If those things do not line up, polishing the surface simply makes the wrong answer look better.
A brief is useful.
It is not always right.
It is not always right.
- what’s the real question?
- what’s missing?
- who is it really for?
- what would success look like?
Challenge the brief constructively.
A different perspective often reveals a better question.
Find what really matters.
Focus creates stronger, clearer brands.
Join up strategy, identity and communication.
A consistent way of thinking builds confidence.
Design to make things happen.
Good design helps people understand, remember and act.
Keep it practical, not theoretical.
Real businesses need brands that work in the real world.
Working backwards
From the answer to the real question.
I normally begin at the end and work backwards, working out what has to be different, what needs to be understood, what needs to change, what is getting in the way, and what we are actually solving.
What are we actually solving?
←
What is getting in the way?
←
What needs to change?
←
What needs to be understood?
←
What does this need to achieve?