How to Create an Award-Winning Brand Identity

In order to grow, brands must nurture their online persona, which means creating a meaningful branding experience. When done correctly, your brand should create a condition of irrational loyalty. When your customers consider using a competitor’s brand — but ultimately feel like they’re cheating on yours — THAT’S irrational loyalty. At Brightscout, we want to dive deep into this concepts and explore how an award-winning brand identity can be created.

The world’s top brands bond in highly emotional and compelling ways with the customers who are likely to spend the most money with them.

So! We’re sharing our tried and true branding process to give you an idea of how industry experts tackle the challenge of creating award-winning brand identities.‍

Step 1: Brand Audit

Goal

To review all the information sent by the client in order to evaluate and detect possible issues or misalignment in terms of overall communication (visual and no-visual).

Process

Gather all the documents or information the client might have about the company that we can use as a source of information.

Analyze and review all the documents in search of the information that we usually get when running a Brand Workshop (concepts, ideas, things that make the client unique, the what, the how, the why — in addition to their main target audiences and competitors.)

During this process, we might find that there is extra information we need to know about the company. If this happens, a customized brand questionnaire will be sent to gather the missing information.

Result

An overview of the information we have. This information should coincide with the content buckets we have in our workshop:

1. Brand DNA: Positioning & Vision Statement, Key Messages, Value Prop, Vision, Mission, Purpose, What, How and Why.
2. Brand Personality: Personality Sliders, Values, Brand Pyramid, Brand Attributes.
3. Audience: Target Audience, Empathy Map, Outwards, Target Market
4. Competitors: Main competitors, Competitive landscape, SWOT analysis, Competitor definition, Competitor visual identity and Competitor brand messaging.

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Step 2: Brand Survey

Goal

The objective here is to obtain the information we need, either to carry out our brand workshop or to obtain the information that was missing in the documents the client provided.

Process

1. Analyze what information is missing in order to create specific questions to get that information.
2. Decipher whether the provided information is going to complement the insights we gained from the research or if we’ll need to run a brand workshop to garner more information.
3. Create a Google form with specific questions for any remaining information we still need.
4. Keep in mind that these questions should align with the content buckets we have or the workshop exercises we are going to use.

Result

A brand survey made using Google Forms with all the questions that the company team will have to complete individually.

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Step 3: Brand Workshop

Goal

The work we do during this workshop will form the basis for new designs and messaging that will help our client connect with their audience and take their brand to the next level.

Process

1. Choose the types of exercises you’re going to run for the client — consider the questions you’d like answered with this exercise and any other missing details you’ll need to successfully build out their brand. Use your best criteria to determine what type of information we need to know in order to choose the right exercises. For example: if you’re considering running a brand workshop, those exercises should align to the questions we send on the brand questionnaire, and vice versa.
2. Once you select the exercises you are going to run, create a FigJam with the client. The FigJam will be used to collaborate with the client during our workshop session.
3. During the workshop, pay attention to the information the client gives on each exercise and use your best criteria to measure possible issues with what they are saying. It’s important to detect and discuss problems while we are working with the client.

Result

After the 2–3 hour workshop we should have a FigJam file filled with sticky notes and invaluable information, we’ll organize into our brand report.

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Step 4: Brand Report & Visual Territories

Goal

The goal here is to show the results of our research and take the abstract concepts and ideas we gained during the process to create concrete visual results that aligns with the client, without needing to start initial design rounds.

Process

We need to organize all the information using the content buckets from the workshop or those content buckets we create from the client’s information. Usually this content buckets are:

1. Brand DNA: Positioning & Vision Statement, Key Messages, Value Prop, Vision, Mission, Purpose, What, How and Why.
2. Brand Personality: Personality Sliders, Values, Brand Pyramid, Brand Attributes.
3. Audience: Target Audience, Empathy Map, Outwards, Target Market
4. Competitors: Main competitors, Competitive landscape, SWOT analysis, Competitor definition, Competitor visual identity and Competitor brand messaging.

We use this information as a conceptual basis to create visual territories. These visual territories are quick explorations through images that reflect concepts and ideas that make the client unique.

Ideally we should propose more than one path so that the client can choose which one best suits their goals. We want to move from the abstract to the concrete and give the client a first glimpse of possible paths for their identity.

Create concepts that work both for messaging and visuals. The goal is to find a message that we can translate to the client’s visual identity. Avoid creating a visual identity consisting of nice visuals with little meaning.

Result

A presentation consisting of 2 parts:

1. First, a compilation of the information obtained in the analysis and investigation of the information sent by the client, and the workshop.
2. Second, a presentation of visual territories and brand strategy concepts that reflect our ideas for brand identity and the visuals we can use to illustrate them.

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Step 5: Brand Production

Goal

Based on one concrete visual path, we start working on the design rounds to give shape to the visual identity.

Process

1. Take all information gathered and start building the visual identity.
2. Consider the atoms of a visual identity and select the best way to showcase the progress you made.
3. Progress can be shown using stylescapes or just regular slides with specific applications.

Result

Create a presentation for the client per design round. Each presentation, should show the evolution of the client’s brand identity and the assets we’ve created during the brand identity process.

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Step 6: Brand Delivery

Goal

The goal is to review all the information sent by the client in order to evaluate and detect possible issues or misalignment in terms of overall communication (visual and not visual).

Process

Consider all possible applications the client might need according to the industry they work in, where their brand will live, and regular day-to-day situations of the company.

Make sure to create a brand guidelines presentation that covers all possible scenarios and use cases for the brand.

Export all files and visual assets that the client might need to implement the brand identity.

Result

A Brand Guidelines document and a Google Drive folder with all the assets that the client will need to create applications for their brand.

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When your brand is part of who you are and how you present yourself, it’s time to turn to someone who has experience building and managing successful brands. Your personal brand has the potential to define your company’s reputation, so let a professional help you build a brand that will last. Contact us now and let us help you create a strong brand identity that will set you apart from the crowd.