How to Make Brand Come to Life
An 8-step process for building brands (from idea to execution)
We hope you’ve never had this experience: you’re an entrepreneur, you’ve made something incredible, and you’ve hired an agency to help you share that thing with the world. The agency says, “Let’s talk about Brand.” For the next 30 minutes, you hear nothing but jargon (“...did they really just say unique authenticity at scale?” you might wonder), and end up with less clarity than you did at the beginning of the meeting.
Conversations about “Brand” can be confusing at best and incomprehensible at worst. But they don’t have to be. As a design agency, we at Coppergate Design Co. believe that good branding is hard work, but the process shouldn’t be an esoteric black box.
To shine light onto a good branding process (in our opinion, at least), we’re sharing the 8-step process that we’ve developed to make brands come to life (based on experiences with clients from Airbnb to Ox Coffee and beyond). While our agency focuses on the food and beverage industry, we find that this guide works for every branding effort. Whether you’re launching (or re-launching) a company, product, or service, this guide shows how a branding agency takes you from idea to execution in a straightforward timeframe with zero jargon.
Begin the conversation with well-defined goals
Before diving into the 8 steps with clients, we clarify why the process is important. Regardless of industry, company, or product type, the foundational goals of great branding are the same:
● Better communicate your vision and values
● Exude your true personality
● Connect meaningfully to your customers
● Create memorability through consistency
● Instill trust and promote loyalty
● Carve a niche in a crowded landscape
● Prove the value of your services
● Put your competition on the ropes
These goals could also be labeled “what good branding does.” Every company, product, or service has a brand (whether acknowledged or not). So it’s important to understand what it accomplishes and why it deserves attention.
STEP 1: Learn everything about the client and their goals
Whether you’re working with an external or in-house agency, it’s important to make sure you click from the beginning. During this discovery step, we meet clients to learn about their brand, customers, personality, history, and whatever other information is important to help us understand their essence. That’s key to doing great work.
During this step, we’ll also discuss the client’s most important goals for the project. At the end of this first phase, we deliver a design brief that puts the client’s goals, timelines, and any other strategic or practical considerations into writing. It’s all about clarity, structure, and setting expectations from the beginning.
STEP 2: Lock down a mood board
Once we’ve agreed to move forward, we begin by pulling together images of typography, photographs, illustrations, colors, and patterns into mood boards—collages of visual materials that convey a certain style, concept, or general vibe. Each mood board represents a broad direction in which we could take the design.
We review the (typically) 2-3 mood boards with the client during another meeting or two, then come to a consensus on which mood board to use to provide direction going forward. Once the chosen mood board is confirmed, we might add or remove items based on conversations with the client. Then, we lock it in as our visual target.
STEP 3. Define a master list of deliverables
Next, in collaboration with the client, we brainstorm all the elements that we’ll need to design for the brand and organize those elements into a concrete master list. From business cards to billboards, the master list enables a client to see the whole picture. If the list gets long, that’s ok. It’s important to see everything in one place.
From the list, we pick 5 items as the “core applications.” We then apply the “brand system” to the core applications to test the viability of the system. Do the elements make sense together? Are the elements on track and working together? If so, we move forward. (Note: we talk more about the Brand System in our What is Branding? [link] post).
STEP 4. Present initial directions
Once the visual target and the core applications are decided, we begin the exciting part of the process: design. Think of this, for lack of better terms, as the pitch scenes in Mad Men. (Keep in mind that we won’t drink martinis or smoke cigarettes in a client’s office).
We present 3 different design options (including logos) for the brand. Each provides a unique take on the design brief and the visual target. In our presentation, we point out the strengths of each approach. Next, we decide together on the option with which to move forward.
STEP 5. Make revisions
We recommend that our clients sit with the chosen direction for 2 days to really review the details. We think we do the best work when we get comments and revisions in one clear list so we can follow the client’s thinking (and avoid multiple back-and-forths). We repeat the revision process up to 3 times per project—from our experience, that’s enough rounds to truly perfect the brand design. Any more rounds and the project could drag on forever, with no meaningful improvement to the end result.
STEP 6. Deliver items on the master list
Once the initial 5 core applications from the list are perfected, we design the remaining items on the master list. We work together with the client to prioritize the items that are most important, whether that’s a homepage mock-up, bottle or can label, menu, tee shirt, or whatever else the client needs. Each item requires special attention and some may take longer than others to produce. We leave plenty of time to review and revise each item—again, repeating the revision process up to 3 times per item.
STEP 7. Create a brand guidebook
This step is key! It’s essential to create a brand guidebook to ensure that the brand remains consistent once our work together is done. We can provide clients with the complete rules to their brand system including typography, colors, logo usage, patterns, textures, brand voice, and photography direction.
Good branding evolves, and we aim to set our clients up for success. With a guidebook, clients can update websites, sales materials, or whatever else they need in a way that’s consistent with the brand they just put so much love into developing. We often stick with our clients even after the initial launch to continue to create new things and maintain the brand. But we make sure that they’re empowered to own their own brand.
STEP 8. Launch to production
Finally, we work with vendors to prepare the brand assets for production. At this point, we also discuss specific production needs—printing techniques, specialty inks, or whatever is required to deliver the final products. We’re always happy to attend a press-check to ensure the vendor meets the standards.
...that’s it. That’s the whole process.
We said it once, and we’ll say it again: good branding is hard work, but the process shouldn’t be a black box. By sharing this 8-step process, we hope that your next branding effort will be smooth sailing. Remember, when you work with an agency on any project, you should be able to focus your energy on the work itself, not on trying to understand something vague and confusing.
About Coppergate Design Company
I'm here to help brands find their voice, and translate that voice to products that resonate with a passionate audience. Our clients are our partners in crime: I measure success by how our work together helps your company grow. Want to chat about your company, products, or goals? Drop a line to michael@coppergatedesign.com
