What Does a Brand Designer Do for Your Business?
Yeah, we’re taking it back to the basics today!
If you landed on this post after deep diving into Pinterest or Google trying to re-design your logo for the twentieth time, or frantically researching graphic designers, take this as your sign.
Today, we’re unpacking what it is I actually do as a brand designer! Of course, I wave my magic wand and make some awesome logos for you, but there is so much more that goes into brand design.
So, if you’ve been the queen (or king) of DIYing your branding up to this point, let’s chat.
What does a brand designer do?
I mean, what don’t we do? In all seriousness, brand designers are the people that you want to go to (cough, cough - me) when you’re thinking about a branding your business. One thing to clarify - brand designers and graphic designers are not the same.
While brand designers are technically a form of graphic designer, we specifically focus on helping your develop everything you need to launch, or re-launch, your brand. This means going way beyond a singular basic logo, giving you a full suite of resources to work with, including:
Logo Suites - main logo, secondary logo, submarks, icons
Fonts
Color Palettes
Brand Patterns
Print & Digital Collateral - think business cards, social media templates, packaging
What do I look for in a brand designer?
Unfortunately, not all brand designers are created the same. Thankfully, if you’ve read this far and are feeling inspired, we might be the right fit! When you’re looking for a brand designer, there’s a lot to consider. Here is what I tell my friends and potential clients to help them decide:
Do they have a distinct style?
Do they have a portfolio of their work that you can see brands in action?
Do they have specific industries they work with/do they have previous experience in your industry?
If you’re thinking, “well how do I even know what my style is? “, I have two answers for you. One - it’s part of our job to help you find that, and two - if you want to get ahead on some inspiration, I always recommend browsing Pinterest, for inspiration only. If you ever take a logo or color palette directly off of Pinterest because you ‘thought it was pretty’, I will find you.
Pro tip: When you’re on Pinterest, start looking at the descriptions of all of the pins your saving. Are there any adjectives that keep coming up? Think bold, elegant, modern, etc. - that will give you an idea on what style you might gravitate toward!
How does a brand designer help you + your business?
Now we’re on to the good stuff. How does a brand designer actually help your business?
I can go on and on about this topic, but we’ll keep it high-level for today! If you’ve DIY-ed your brand up until this point, and are weighing the pros and cons of hiring a professional brand designer, let me see if I can give you some clarity.
Look, there’s nothing wrong with DIY-ing your brand at the start, but as you grow, hiring a brand designer can be one of the best investments you can make in your business (not that I’m biased or anything). We’re going to split this up into two categories - for your business, and for your life (because they’re equally important)!
For the Biz
Establishes Consistency & Memorability
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, if you’re picking the trendiest Canva graphic you find to throw up a random social post, or constantly changing the colors on your website, we need to talk. Working with a brand designer helps you establish consistency across all areas of your brand - from logos, to your website, socials, and more.
Increases Credibility & Trust
To put it bluntly - your customers won’t buy from you if they don’t trust you. Remember the last time you went to check out someone’s business, and when you go on their socials or website you’re just … confused. Their business isn’t clear, their website is hard to navigate, you know the drill. You get the ick, right?
Aligns Your Mission & Value ($)
This is especially true for service providers! If you’re charging a high price point for your space or services - think wedding venues, photographers, florists, etc. - it’s going to be much harder to put that deposit down if your brand doesn’t match your pricing.
When you’re asking your customers to invest in you, they want to see that you’ve invested in yourself too! Working with a professional brand designer helps take you from run of the mill to industry leader, and a great brand will have your dream customers flocking to you because they’re so in love before they even book you.
For the Life
Provides Clarity & Alignment
This isn’t something to overlook! I’m a firm believer that a business you’re obsessed with is one you’ll want to work hard on every day. If you’ve been waking up and cringing at your logo, or sweating at just the thought of having to put together an event poster, you’re probably not feeling very aligned in your brand.
In every project, we go beyond the design, focusing on the inner work first. Where are you in your business? How do you want yourself and your customers to feel after interacting with your brand? Peeling back the layers of yourself and your business together always seems to bring the biggest changes.
Builds Your Community
Because your people are waiting to find you! If you feel like you’ve been ‘posting into the void’, with crickets on your social media, it’s probably because you don’t know who you’re talking to. A brand that you feel aligned with, that you have a clear vision for, is the perfect catalyst for you to share confidently with your followers, creating a community that you want to be around.
Makes You the Go-To in Your Industry
This is what we love to see. Working with a brand designer helps take your brand from ‘just another’ into the go-to. Why? Because everything is clear. With cohesive brand design and messaging, you’re showing up and showing out. You can have the coolest product, space, or service, but if no one is paying attention to you, we’re not getting very far are we. Working with a brand designer helps bring you front and center!
So, what’s next?
If we haven’t met yet - hey, I’m Delia, brand and web designer for bold businesses. If you’re ready to make some waves and build the coolest community around, here’s how we can work together:
Sign up for my newsletter! The Current is my weekly newsletter that’s 100% a personality trait at this point. We laugh, we learn, you just gotta hop in to see what all the hype is about. Sent out every Wednesday morning to your inbox.
Check out my services - I specialize in brand strategy and design, web design, and copywriting (but that’s just the start). Whether you’re looking to enter a new season of your business with confidence, launching your first merch line, or beyond done with trying to finish designing your website, let’s chat.
Schedule a brand audit - If you’re not ready for a full rebrand, but need some serious guidance on where to start, my brand audit is calling your name. You get an audit of your full brand - logos, website, socials with actionable strategies for improvement delivered to you within a week!
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