What I do
I do two things efficiently helped by a process 👇 that’s scalable, fits each client’s unique needs, and ensures consistent results.
Working in close collaboration with clients helps scoping the project accurately and bringing ideas to life in a way that aligns with their customers and meets business objectives.
Brand Strategy
Discovery, research, insights
The most important aspect of your future brand is a great strategy behind it.
Here’s where I’ll help you understand, prioritize, and focus on a clear vision and a plan to help your business achieve its goals.
A complete Discovery and Research Phase results in a comprehensive Brand Strategy Roadmap document.
Positioning and purpose
Your startup’s brand should occupy a specific place in the mind of your customers, creating competitive advantage.
This is where I’ll help you discover and define your startup’s DNA. Why it exists, what makes it special and unique, and what it is trying to accomplish. Then we’ll establish its path in an engaging and differentiating way.
Brand architecture
Sub-Brands or Branded House? Endorsed Brands or House of Brands? Managing brands in a coordinated way helps a company to avoid confusing its consumers.
I’ll help plan, strategize, and design your startup’s brand architecture in a way that makes sense for your customers.
Naming and renaming
Everything starts with a name. A great one defines your brand, and it can shape the future of your business.
With your involvement I’ll help create a name that makes your business stand out and give it a potential competitive advantage.
Content strategy
Many startups today rely on creating content to educate and inform their customers. A content strategy is crucial for marketing efforts.
I’ll help you make sure how, when, and where your content should communicate to and connect with your audience in a meaningful way.
Brand Design
Visual identity
I’ll activate your purpose and translate it into a visual language that will make your brand unique and immediately recognizable.
The essential elements of your brand’s identity consists of a logo in various lockups, colour palette, typography and imagery.
Your new identity comes with a complementary brand book.
Brand messaging
Words matter. A brand should also speak in a way that connects, inspires and motivates its customers.
This is where I’ll help you define your brand’s messaging and tone of voice, which helps in building your brand’s personality.
Marketing matetial
Pieces that range from digital assets to physical printed materials that do a careful and well thought-out job of presenting and promoting your products and/or services.
Examples includes business cards, brochures, letterheads, banner ads, social media images etc.
Pitch decks and presentations
I’ll help you design strategic and eye-catching Presentations, Templates, and Pitch Decks that attract venture capitalists and give you a better chance in securing those funds.
From simple or interactive PDF documents, to animated Keynote or PowerPoint presentations.
Wayfinding and placemaking
If your customers interact with your business in a physical location, making that place feel like it’s part of your brand is another great way to further strengthen your brand’s presence.
Iconography
Sometimes simple text is too much. An icon’s primary goal is to communicate a concept quickly.
Depending on your needs, I will design a strategic icon set for both online and offline use. A basic starter set contains a minimum of 20 icons.
Brand books and guidelines
An essential document that ensures your branding looks and feels the same at all times, across different communication channels, both internally and externally.
These can vary depending on your needs, starting from a basic identity style guide, to comprehensive brand guidelines and online brand centers.
How I do it
The process has the Design Thinking methodology at its core, and starts by identifying the reason your business exists. Defining your Core Purpose helps guide your decisions.
Next, by using a combination of strategic thinking, design expertise, and project management skills, I’ll help you activate and design your purpose.
Phase 1
Discovery
The process starts with a two-day facilitated strategic alignment session, then goes through a full discovery phase where research and insight will inform the next steps.
X
Building a brand requires business knowledge and design thinking. This first step is designed to understand your business.
The goals are to uncover the essence of the company and to understand how your business fits into the larger competitive environment. This ensures the solution will be linked to business goals and strategies.
This phase produces a Discovery Brief that is used to accurately define the project’s scope, timeline and budget.
TOOLS and METHODS
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Research
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Business Insights
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Usability Testing
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Language Audit
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Market Trends
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Marketing Audit
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Competitive Audit
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30k Foot View
Phase 2
Strategy
Setting the direction and building the backbone of your brand. All the findings from Discovery are distilled into a unifying idea and a positioning strategy.
X
This phase focuses on analysis, discovery, synthesis, simplicity, and clarity. Agreement is reached on target markets, competitive advantages, brand core values, and brand attributes.
The deliverables here are a Brand Strategy Roadmap, Creative Brief, and depending on the complexity of the project, a comprehensive Brand Brief.
Key sucess factors during this phase are trust and mutual respect.
TOOLS and METHODS
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Brand Positioning
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Customer Profiling
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Brand Attributes
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Value Proposition
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Brand Core Values
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Differentiation
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Messaging
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Customer Journey
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Naming and Renaming
Phase 3
Design
The creative design process starts by building around the strategic direction of your brand. Design is an iterative process that seeks to integrate meaning with form.
X
Before opening the sketchbook I want to make sure that the visual language of your next brand is aligned with your vision. This is achieved by getting agreement on a design direction through the power of Stylescapes.
Then, the next step is where the magic happens. This is where your brand takes shape and where the intersection between strategy and design yields meaningful and beautiful results.
TOOLS and METHODS
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Design Research
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Stylescapes
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Creative Direction
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Typography
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Logo Design
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Color Palette
Phase 4
Implement
Refinement and design development are central for this phase. The brand identity concept has been approved and now’s the time to let it unfold through different applications.
X
A brand identity program encompasses a unique visual language that will express itself across all applications. The applications help express the brand’s personality and differentiate from competition.
There are plenty of possibilities here and they all reinforce your brand’s core purpose. Content creation, website development, icons sets, collateral design, stationery, and signage—just to name a few.
TOOLS and METHODS
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Prototyping
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User Testing
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Digital Marketing
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WordPress CMS
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UX Design
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UI Design
Phase 5
Manage
Your brand’s journey just began. Managing brand assets requires open-minded leadership and a long-term commitment to doing everything possible to build the brand.
X
Although the mandate to build the brand must come from the top, a good leader knows that change comes from within at first. This means that, for a successful implementations, your new brand should firstly ignite your employees. This is just the beginning.
Brand building efforts should also prioritise consistency. That is easily achieved with a thorough Brand Book, Brand Guidelines, and/or Online Brand Centres.
TOOLS and METHODS
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Launch Strategies
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Change Champion
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Employee Experience
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Design Guidelines
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Brand Books
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Online Brand Centers
Let’s talk about writing your next success story! Book a free, no commitment call using the link below and we’ll take it from there.
Ethos
Sustainability 🌍
Sustainability is at the core of my practice and I love sharing the same beliefs with my clients.
Hence, I’m only working with clients willing to build conscious brands that will have a positive impact and help move the world forward.
Collaborative 🤝
Your brand’s success story is written with your full commitment and involvement, that’s why I’m asking for a collaborative partnership.
Everything happens in small, iterative steps designed to keep you in the loop for every important decision.
Form follows function 📐
Your brand’s purpose should be the starting point for its design rather than its aesthetics.
Every design solution I’m providing focuses on creative problem-solving. You have a business problem, I’m here to help you overcome it.
On time, on budget ⏱️
It’s never too late. Except when it is and it costs both time and resources.
Assuming my clients keep their end of the deal, my commitment to them is to always meet the discussed deadlines while staying within the project’s budget.