Love brand design? Building A Brand is for you

Brand design is a core service for many designers. It’s also one of the most requested projects from clients.
However, the struggle of developing a brand doesn’t just fall on the client-side, some designers are also unsure of it.
In that regard, and to end all doubts, The Futur created a series called Building A Brand.
Unlike other posts where we’ve seen multiple resources, here you’ll get a full insight in one series.
You will see what it takes to design a brand from start to finish, including the identity, packaging, and website.
But before we move into the breakdown of the episodes, let’s first see where did this idea came from, and who’s behind it.

The people behind this brand design series

To understand The Futur — the production team behind this idea — you need to know the company who’ve found it.

Blind is a brand strategy design consultancy based in Santa Monica. This company has been in business since 1995, helping clients throw the use of design.

In 2013, the founder and CEO of Blind — Cris Do — decided that it was time to create a platform where professional creatives could learn business principles. The Futur was born.

Reasons to watch Building a Brand

As mentioned in the channel, this series provides “a rare glimpse of what happens behind closed doors.”

During eleven episodes, we follow Ben Burns and Matthew Encina, the digital and creative directors of Blind. They share their process, their concerns, and their wins.

But we not only see the creatives’ side of the process, but we also get the clients’ perspective on it. It’s interesting to catch their reactions, as well as how they deal with keeping up the brand growth.

So as you can see, we get a closer look at everything that happens during the new brand design of Hamilton Family Brewery.

Another great reason to watch is that even though you might be new to branding, you will be able to understand all of it. Concepts such as logo, discovery session, and creative brief, are very well explained throughout the episodes.

Overview

1. Starting The Branding Process

This first episode is an introduction to the full series.
We get to know Hamilton Family Brewery, a 5-year business that is ready to take the next step and go into retail.
We also see how they reached to Blind, and how Ben Burns decided that it might be a good idea to document the full process.

2. Defining The Customer

On the second episode, Ben and Matthew invite the clients over and go throw the discovery process.
They find out the goals, challenges, brand attributes, and even create user personas. Lastly, they try to comprehend how the Hamiltons envision their new brand design.

3. Getting Your Creative Team Aligned

The third time we meet the Blind duo, we get to know who’s going to work in this project.
We get to see how they conduct a creative brief with the designers, and what’s their opinion on the project.
After that, there’s the initial research presentation from the designers, feedback from the directors, and the next steps to build stylescapes.

4. Visual Aesthetic

In this episode, designers dive deep into creating stylescapes that have in mind the user personas, and the creative brief.
By the end of it, Ben and Matthew have 5 different options to present to the clients.

5. A Better Way to Present to Clients

It’s time to present the stylescapes.
Presenting this type of more completed mood boards will allow the team to finetune the brand look, before actually starting to design it.

6. Designing A Logo

In this episode, designers finalize the ultimate stylescape with feedback from the clients, before moving on into designing the logo.
Once they are confident with certain directions, they use mockups to showcase the results to the clients.

We end the episode knowing that the client chose a logo but after some time, changed his mind.

7. When Clients Change Their Mind

On the previous episode, the clients chose a logo to move on with but ended up changing their opinion.
Because of this new direction, Ben and Matthew are worried about time deliverables, and the lack of funding to continue to iterate the logo.

However, the directors decide to go with one of the client’s ideas and create a new mark for the brand design.

8. Building A Client Website From Scratch

Since the logo was approved, it’s time to create a website that could be easily maintained by the client in the future.
We follow the process from the creation of the sitemap, up to communication strategy and choosing the right tool to develop the website.

9. Package Design, What Could go Wrong?

This episode is all about packaging.
Firstly, we see why the previous design wouldn’t work due to communication problems.
After that, we have a sneak peek on much work it took to develop the final options and how the clients reacted to them.
Another important step that we get to see, is Ben and Matthew making sure that everything is ok on the printer’s proofs before the submission of the final files.

10. Client Video from Start to End BTS

A video is an important part to connect and communicate the brand to both local, and non-local customers.
So, even though this episode looks less important when it comes to design, it’s actually fundamental. It shows how all mediums can be used to communicate a brand.

11. Launching A Beer Brewery Brand

On the final episode of this series, we see clients reveling the new brand design to their local customers and how well it is received.
Additionally, we are also told of how much growth the Hamilton Family Brewery experienced once the process of rebranding was over.

Will there be a second season of this brand design series?

I hope so!
The impact that this small series had was so huge among the designers’ community.
Like other creatives, I became obsessed with this series because I learned a lot on both design and business skills.
As someone mentioned in the comments, to me it was also better than Netflix, so I hope they get a huge sponsor and turn this series into something even bigger.
Lastly, if you’re a designer and have no idea what The Futur is, you’re missing out on a lot of good things. Please do yourself a favor and don’t waste more time, open up Youtube and start with Building A Brand. I guarantee you won’t regret it.

Originally posted on August 4, 2019.