Self-promotional Pieces | Case Study
To improve visibility in the competitive freelance graphic design market, Gabbie Daoust Design needed to create assets and a brand identity.
Background
Gabbie Daoust Design (GDD) was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in Burlington, ON. Currently mostly accepting jobs in Hamilton, ON area, I specialize in editorial and branding services. As the industry continues to shift and become more competitive, I was looking to gain recognition and awareness.
Challenge
GDD is a freelance design agency that offers clients creative solutions for their design needs at an affordable price. To build my client base, I realized that my focus needed to be on self-promotional pieces.
While a lot of my agency’s business has previously come through partners and networks, my goal is to grow my client base organically and create an alignment between the client journey and selling my services. To support my self-branding, I started a process to create a name, logo, website and cohesive brand experience across all collateral material.
Process
The first step was to identify a strong brand DNA and corporate direction through a strategic positioning exercise. I conducted a benchmark industry study and looked at rebranding programs that had been done by leading design agencies. The overall goal of this was to clearly understand the competitive set my personal brand would have to compete within in order to succeed. The brand direction was supported by three key strategic imperatives that would help guide my promo pieces towards a unified and focused design.
The position and visual identity provided a fresh and focused approach to my freelance design while allowing it to focus on key client growth sectors that it could effectively compete in and win.
Brand Components:
Name
Building on the brand direction, I explored a wide range of names that would help reinforce my position in the design industry while also providing strong differentiation.
I conducted a naming brainstorming session where a broad range of options were identified and reviewed.
Bad Idea #1
Gabbie Daoust — Handcrafted Visuals was the first name that I came up with. Not only is this name too long, but technically speaking the visuals that I create are not “handcrafted” they are created on the computer. But when this name first came to me, I thought it was a creative way of describing what it is my agency offers.
Bad Idea #2
Gabbie Daoust — Digitally Crafted Designs was the second name that came to my mind, before coming to the conclusion that the first name was too long let alone this one. I thought changing it to digitally crafted instead of handcrafted would help specify what services my agency offers. But after realizing that the name was far too long, it was scrapped.
Solution
I ultimately ended up with Gabbie Daoust Design as the preferred name, leveraging strong personal roots (no one else shares the same name as myself), while “design” reflected on what this agency was founded to create.
Logo
Bad Idea #1
Coming up with this creative and edgy “G” design, I know I wanted to use it but wasn’t sure how yet. My first idea was to knock out the “G” shape into a circle. I felt this would create a fresh logo that could have secondary logo potential as well as could be manipulated to created patterns and other branding assets. Upon creating this logo, it became aware to me that knocking out the “G” into a circle and adding the wordmark around the circle was astronomically dated and not something I should see through.
Bad Idea #2
During my second attempt of the logo design, I had nailed the assets I wanted to use (wordmark and “G”) but needed to find the best visual solution for layout. At first I thought it would look awesome to replace the “G” in my name with the logo and the wordmark to follow beside but once I created it this way, it felt weird to have only one capitalized letter this way, as well as the “G” lost detail when shrunken down small enough to be aligned with the wordmark.
Solution
I finally settled on this design. Having the “G” separate with the wordmark below created a strong sense of hierarchy. The sans serif word mark included in the logo is a modern and progressive alternative when compared to competitor logos, while the “G” graphic provides a recognizable symbol for my agency. The “G” can also be used to create patterns or graphic details and can be coloured to differentiate product or service offerings.
Colours
The colours were chosen to embody the two key offerings of GDD’s consulting and design services. With the electric purple, pink, blue teal and light purple, the colours represent a collaborative, approachable, professional designer. The shape of the logo represents the first letter of my name. Some of these colours were picked from a geometric illustrated pattern I had designed in Illustrator. The complimenting colours that are not in the illustration were paired through Adobe color.
Tagline
GDD’s tagline, “Digitally Crafted Visuals” highlights the services and benefits that clients can expect from my agency. It has the ability to be incorporated into the new logo and stand alone as a slogan for my agency.
Stationery
With my logo complete, it was time to start working on my stationery. The illustrated pattern mentioned in the “colour” section was a very strong element tying all my pieces together, in addition to my logo. While rolling out my stationery and making sure that I used my assets to keep all the pieces cohesive, it was also very important to me that my personality shine through the typographic elements. I wanted potential clients and/or employers to know the designer they are reading about is also ambitious and quick-witted in addition to being hard-working and creative.
Digital
The mobile-friendly website has a clean and modern design that showcases GDD’s story, portfolio and services in an engaging manner. Designed to be intuitive and professional, the website is built upon a flexible adobe portfolio site with a simple platform that allows me to easily make content changes and updates.
A complete social media strategy and template was also created to help connect GDD with existing and prospective clients along their entire digital path to creative design solutions.
Result
On January 22, 2019, I revealed my name, logo and website to the public. All in all, I am delighted with my freelance design look and feel. It was a long journey, but completely worth it in the end.
Takeaways
- Establish key criteria before the design process begins. Identifying the brand essence, value proposition, personality and equities help frame the development of the visual identity and serve as a guide for the entire design process. Always ensure criteria are established well before the design process begins, as this will also facilitate the right decision process and hold the client accountable for viewing the entire process as a business solutions project.
- Alignment between client and design team is key. Creativity is very subjective, especially when you are doing a rebranding project for a company that has not changed their image for decades. Ultimately we were successful because we brought the client along the entire journey and the final selection was a reflection of who they wanted to be as a company.
