You might be seeing the services of designers offering a web design and branding package. They offer these services because oftentimes clients that are looking for websites are also looking for branding, and vice versa. Clients are looking for these services combined because web design is one of many things that make a good brand, but it is not always included in a brand package.
You may be asking yourself 'If web design is a part of branding, why isn't it included in a brand package.' Well, some people do include web design in their brand package, that package just costs more than some clients can afford so it's more of an add-on. Good web design as well as a good brand both take a lot of time and effort and should be given the proper attention whether it is grouped together or not. That is why web designers create websites and brand designers create brands (that may or may not include a website). Design agencies usually have the upper hand with projects like this because of their internal design teams with multiple skill sets.
Here is my process of creating a brand and a website.
The Branding Process
I do not like to work on Branding projects. People come to me all of the time asking me to create a brand for them. So I would come up with this long list of deliverables and a 3-month time line noting things I need them to do and when I need it done. And they respond, 'Hey... I just wanted a logo'.
People mistake a logo for a brand all of the time. Branding is far more than just a logo. It is everything that conveys the essence of your product, service, company, and even an individual. I bolded 'it is everything' because the list of things that contribute to a successful brand is very long and varies from brand to brand.
If you are looking to build a brand you need to figure out what matters to you and your audience and focus on building branding assets in the places you and your audience show up. That will take that long list of possible branded assets down to a short list of relevant assets that you should create for your brand. We do branding because every time your target audience sees these branded assets, it builds trust, loyalty, and just an overall positive feeling about you, your product, or your company.
That is why branding is important and why it is more than just a logo.
Here are 6 steps in the branding process
- Define Your Brand Identity: Start by clearly defining your brand's mission, values, personality, and target audience. Understanding who you are and what you stand for is fundamental to effective branding.
- Market Research: Conduct thorough market research to understand your target audience, competitors, industry trends, and market positioning. This will help you identify opportunities and develop a strategy that resonates with your audience.
- Create Brand Elements: Develop the visual and verbal elements that will represent your brand, including the logo, color palette, typography, tagline, and brand voice. These elements should be cohesive and reflect your brand's identity.
- Design Brand Assets: Use your brand elements to design various assets such as business cards, letterheads, websites, social media profiles, packaging, and marketing materials. Consistency is key to building brand recognition and trust.
- Develop Brand Guidelines: Document your brand guidelines to ensure consistency in how your brand is presented across all channels. This document should outline rules for logo usage, color schemes, typography, tone of voice, and imagery.
- Launch Your Brand: Roll out your brand across all touchpoints, including your website, social
Must haves in a simple branding project
If you are someone looking for someone to create a simple brand for you, you should make sure you get these things as a bare minimum. Likewise, if you are a designer, and doing a brand project for a client, you should make sure you give them these elements. With that said, if a client lowballs the rate for a branding project it is perfectly fine to do less work for less pay. SO for all of the clients out there, if you want it done right, you have to pay for it.
- Logo: A distinctive mark or symbol that visually represents the brand. It should be simple, memorable, and versatile enough to be used across various platforms and mediums.
- Color Palette: A set of primary and secondary colors that reflect the brand's personality and evoke the desired emotions. Consistent use of colors enhances brand recognition and cohesion.
- Typography: A selection of fonts or typefaces that convey the brand's tone and style. Choose fonts that complement the logo and reflect the brand's identity, ensuring readability across different applications.
- Visual Elements: Beyond the logo, include additional visual elements such as patterns, icons, or illustrations that reinforce the brand's identity and add depth to its visual language.
- Brand Guidelines: Document the specifications and rules governing the use of brand elements to maintain consistency and coherence. Include guidelines for logo usage, color codes, typography, spacing, and imagery to ensure uniformity across all brand touchpoints.
- Stationery: Basic stationery items such as business cards, letterheads, and envelopes that feature the brand's logo and design elements. These items serve as tangible representations of the brand and are often used in business communications.
Optional Branding upgrades.
- Tagline or Slogan: A brief and memorable phrase that encapsulates the brand's mission, values, or unique selling proposition. A compelling tagline can reinforce brand messaging and leave a lasting impression on audiences.
- Brand Voice: Define the tone, style, and language used in communications to ensure consistency and authenticity. Whether formal, casual, playful, or professional, the brand voice should resonate with the target audience and reflect the brand's personality.
- Digital Assets: Design digital assets such as social media profile images, cover photos, email templates, and website banners to maintain a consistent brand presence across online platforms.
- Packaging (if applicable): If the brand involves physical products, consider designing packaging
Again this is a list of the bare minimum for a branding project. Some of the things in the optional upgrades are not always in the skillset of a brand designer. For example, if I was creating a brand and the client wanted a tagline or slogan and Brand Voice, I would outsource that portion to a friend of mine who is a copywriter.
My 10 step Web Design Process
- Goal Ideation: This discovery phase begins by brainstorming and defining the objectives and purpose of the website to ensure alignment with the client's goals and target audience.
- Scope Definition: Clearly outline the project scope, including features, functionalities, and deliverables, to establish project parameters and avoid scope creep. Below is a screenshot of a timeline calendar that I use to help keep me on track.
- Sitemap and Wireframe creation: Develop a hierarchical structure (sitemap) and basic layout (wireframe) of the website to visualize the navigation and content organization.
- Content Creation: Generate or gather relevant text, images, videos, and other multimedia content to populate the website and engage visitors effectively. This step is a collaborative effort between me in the client. It is their business and they know their audience so the content should come from them. If they want to take it a step further we can talk about SEO (Search engine Optimization) combined with Google Analytics to try to get some organic traffic from search engines.
- Visual Elements: Design the visual elements of the website, including color scheme, typography, graphics, and imagery, to create a visually appealing and cohesive user experience. This design phase is the fun part. This is how you brand your website. You take the branding elements from the branding process and apply them to the wireframe created in step 3. This step starts by creating a Style guide. A style guide provides guidance on various aspects of the website design, including typography, color palette, layout, navigation, imagery, buttons, forms, and interactive elements. A web design style guide ensures that all pages and components within the website adhere to the established design, and speeds up the design process.
- Development: The Development process is done in Webflow. at this step, I take the visual design created in the previous step and make it functional online. Webflow is a no-code web builder that allows users to build websites without using code. It speeds up the process cuts down on cost compared to hiring a development team and keeps just about all of the website functionality.
- Testing: Conduct thorough testing of the website's functionality, compatibility, and usability across different devices and browsers to identify and address any issues or bugs.
- Launch: Deploy the website to the live server, ensuring proper configuration and optimization for performance and security.
- Customer and client feedback: Gather feedback from both end-users and the client to evaluate the website's effectiveness and identify areas for improvement.
- Testimonial and Review: This is when I ask the client to leave me a review for my services.
So these are my thoughts on the Branding and Web Design process. If you want to see these processes in action stay tuned for updates on a design project I am working on for a friend and long-time client of mine. He runs an annual volleyball tournament and wants to update his brand and build a website. I created a handful of merch for his staff and players over the years, I will link that here once I put it online.
Check out that work and if you like the website, I am currently working on making it a template.