As someone who's worked with clients at all stages of their branding journey, I've seen firsthand how tempting it is to DIY-it with all the tools available from a quick Google: but trust me, there are pitfalls! To avoid design disasters, keep reading… In this short guide, we’re going to share why hiring a brand designer might just be the best decision you make this year (or ever!). After reading this, you'll wonder why you ever thought Canva templates were the answer to your branding woes.
Looking to hire a brand identity designer in the future, but have yet to work out what you need? Check out our free training, Get Your Brand Together! We’ve simplified the steps to get you ready to start your branding journey.
What is brand identity and what do brand designers do? Before we get into the world of brand design, let’s start with what brand identity means, so we’re all on the same page. Brand identity is a critical aspect in the success of your business and can make or break your success. It’s not all about having a pretty logo or website either…unlike graphic designers, brand designers are responsible for creating a cohesive visual identity that reflects your brand’s vision, story and mission. This means considering various visual elements like typography, colour scheme, icons and other visuals that represent your business. They think about how these visuals will establish a unique and cohesive brand identity that sets you apart from your competitors, shows who you are and resonates with your target audience. Your brand identity is ultimately how your audience sees your brand.
To DIY or not to DIY? If you’re considering creating a brand identity for your business, you’ve probably thought about whether you can do it yourself! While it’s true there are plenty of tools available to create your own visuals, there are a few things to consider. Do you have time and skills to create a brand identity? It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking whipping up a colour scheme and a logo is quick and easy and then get into the weeds and find it’s quite complex.
A brand identity is foundational to your business, and it’s important to get it right. Hopefully you’ll have this brand for a long time, so hiring freelance brand designers can ensure that your brand identity is visually appealing and reflects your business's values, mission, and personality, while also having longevity!
The decision of whether to DIY your brand identity design or hire a brand designer depends on your budget, time constraints, and the importance you place on having a cohesive and impactful brand identity.
Still on the fence? You can book a free 30-minute brand consultation here, to discuss your goals and what visual solutions might work for you.
The overall benefits of hiring a brand designer Picture this: you’ve been DIY-ing your brand design for a while now. You’ve been collecting inspiration and moving things around on Canva, but it doesn’t feel quite right. Something’s missing. That's where a professional brand designer comes in. They'll take your brand to the next level, giving you visuals that not only look amazing but also are tailored specifically to your business' story, mission, and values. A professional brand designer will use their experience and expert knowledge to make sure your brand stands out from the competition and attracts your ideal customers.
Some issues you might face
There are many reasons why you need a brand designer, but we'll focus on the seven most important ones. We’ve helped clients deal with these struggles in understanding and creating their visual identity, and we want to help you skip that step!
The Overwhelm
“Times New Roman? Arial? Helvetica? What’s a Hex code? Is this a good shade of blue?” You might get very overwhelmed by all the options and decisions you'll have to make when you dip your toe into the world of visual branding, afterall there are thousands of fonts, colours and styles to choose from, and so many of them are interesting and cool! But what do they say about your brand, and how do you narrow them down? The mantel of decision making may feel heavy, and you wish there were just two choices: this or that. All this information is new to you, it’s completely normal to be confused. The Time
Following on from the previous point, going through all these options you have will be time consuming. You’re not only coming across new issues to consider and decisions to make, you’re likely finding yourself having to learn how to use a new set of tools. Maybe you’re already a whizz on Canva , but you really want to create something unique to your brand and so things get more complicated. I love to use Adobe Illustrator when I create authentic and impactful designs for my clients. Learning to master this tool, and many others, took me many years of learning and practice.
That makes sense for me, this is my career and my passion, which makes all this time spent and all the future years to come perfecting my visual branding skills a joy, rather than a chore! We’re all creative in some way, but where we choose to invest our time is important. If you’re a small business owner creating handmade products, for instance, you probably find your joy investing time in your craft, not the details of which font to choose for terms and conditions. I, on the other hand, love that! Those little details help bring a brand identity together.
The Money
The issue: doing your branding one piece at a time can get messy, and expensive! Say you head to Fiverr, you buy multiple templates, go back and forth with a few graphic designers, use one person for icons and another for your logo: You end up paying over £2000 for a logo that’s still not right!
All the different elements add up, and there’s confusion over the overall brand identity. By hiring a brand designer, you can instead get an entire brand identity, including logo, graphics, typography and colour scheme for less than if you’d paid for each element separately. You end up with a cohesive brand and don’t have to juggle!
The Inconsistency
When you’re not sure what fonts, colours, staples and visual elements are right for your brand, you’ll find you might become more emotional and impulsive when making design decisions you’ll live with every day.
This might mean you end up changing the look and feel of your visual brands again and again, resulting in inconsistencies which unfortunately leads to a lack of credibility for your business. Or, if you’ve gone down the template route, you’ve end up with a style that another brand is likely using too! Not great… By building your brand identity with solid brand strategy, you save all that time (no rebranding, checking, confusion), you end up with a set of clear brand guidelines and no need to keep spending to fix or change things.
Now we’ve covered the main problems you’re having with brand design, how do I (a brand designer) make this process better?
On top of helping you save time and reduce information overwhelm, a brand identity designer (a.k.a. me), can help you in 7 key ways.
How a brand designer helps you nail your brand identity design
Professional Perspective
Take it from any brand designer, we know, we all struggle when designing our personal branding and we’re the professionals! We’re too close to the project. Our business is our pet.
The same idea goes for your branding. You may already have a vision for the logo, but will that vision convert to sales? Having an outside opinion helps, but a professional opinion is even better.
Everything you need, in good quality As designers, we have the resources to create logos in the right formats, as well as the experience. We can give you all the file types, resources and assets you need to futureproof your brand. Sure, there are many ways to get a logo without a designer, but you’re sacrificing professionalism & impact.
You can spot a homemade logo. Low-resolution files, bad font or colour choices, inconsistent messaging and overused, trendy logo styles that don’t fit the brand or its audience.
Expertise in the latest design trends
It is important to understand that without a strong brand, even the best services and products might not get the attention they deserve. Branding strategy development includes understanding your customers and what they need from you.
If you want to be successful in branding your business in this highly competitive world, then you should know how these trends will help your business and how you can take advantage of them.
360-degree Approach
Design is what we do; we have the time & resources to create a brand that aligns with your business goals. From colour codes & font licences to print & screen formatting.
We help make everything look professional & stand out from the rest. We take into consideration the details that are easily overlooked.
Own your logo
You can’t trademark Canva logos, unless they’re entirely original, and it’s hard to make innovative ideas with limiting tools. When you work with a brand designer, at the end of the project, copyright for your logo and all your brand assets is handed over to you. Noone else can use it without your permission and it’s not made up of elements you’ll find elsewhere.
Brand Story Branding can be compared to creating a story, one which ties together aspects such as visual identity, product packaging design, customer experience, and marketing materials into one coherent narrative.
The best brands are those that are able to create an emotional response in their customers through their branding strategies. The success of your branding can be measured by the number of organic leads generated or direct sales that came over a period of time.
Strategic Creative Process
A step-by-step process to help you nail your visual branding from the get-go. Each step they take you through is purposeful and strategic. They have learnt from years of experience, working with different clients, spending time to level-up their skills with courses and coming up with solutions to all sorts of challenges.
When you work with a brand identity designer, they use all the information they have discovered about your business to create a tailored visual brand. All their problem-solving and decision-making comes from a careful research and experience based perspective, based on what they know about your business, market and goals. That includes bringing together the right colours, fonts and imagery to create the perfect result.
Know What Works
We spend all our time learning about how to make branding work, so we can balance business insight, a data-driven approach and visuals that match your vibe. We bring combine this with valuable insight into your industry and knowledge of consumer behaviour to make an impactful brand.
So, you want to work with a brand designer. How do you choose one? When it comes to choosing a brand identity designer to create your visual design, you want to make sure you’re picking the right one for your business. You’re not looking for someone who promises to make your logo “pop” or a website that is “stand out”. These sound good, but what you need is someone who will get you and your business. The right designer is one who will take the time to understand your brand’s personality and values and then translate this into a visual identity to bowl over your ideal customer. Here are a few things to look for: Check their values
Do their values align with yours? What is their focus? For example, some brand designers focus on bold, bright design and others are all about sophistication. Do they understand accessibility? What sort of clients do they work with?
Check the portfolio
Reviewing a designer's previous work, and their personal projects, will give you an idea of their design style and skill level. See if their portfolio aligns with your business or the type of design you're looking for. Don’t worry, they don’t have to have done the exact style you want because part of the job is adapting, but make sure their work looks like something you’d run towards, not away from!
Check the testimonials
Read previous clients' reviews about their experience working with the designer. Did they deliver quality work on time? Were they responsive to feedback? Did their designs support the business goals?
Hop on a call Once you’ve filled out the initial enquiry and you know a bit about each other, hop on a call! This is the first date - you’re looking for someone to give your brand what it needs. Getting on a call with a potential brand identity designer is a must-do to ensure you’re both a good match and they understand your business. It can be an email chain, or whatever is most accessible, but make sure you talk.
Check pricing and contracts
Before you sign on the dotted line, make sure you understand the pricing and what’s included in the contract. Some useful questions could be: How many revisions are included? What is your policy for additional design work? Come up with all the questions you can think of, no question is too obvious, this way you clarify all the details up front and avoid any surprises later on.
What’s it like to work with us?
Working with Quinn.Media to build your brand identity design means collaborating with a passionate and dedicated brand designer, who will take the time to get to know you and your business. Right now, it means working with Caitlin, our creative lead! From our first consultation call to the final product, we will walk every step of the process together, ensuring that your vision and values are reflected in your brand identity. Communication is key, so you’ll be updated regularly throughout the design process and give feedback at every stage. We will decide together the best communication methods for your project, to make sure that the process is accessible and smooth. With our attention to detail and commitment to excellence, we will help you create a unique and effective visual brand identity that stands out in a crowded market.
If you're looking for graphic design and branding service, then tell us about your business here by filling out our enquiry form.
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