At Avalon our graphic designers love doing branding work, from logo design to full corporate identity jobs. Whilst the work is great fun to do, it also throws up some of the biggest areas of confusion for clients. We’ve put together this short article explaining branding from a graphic designer’s perspective.
Branding vs. logo design vs. graphic design
There’s lots of terminology used in this area and to make it even more confusing for you, even the experts sometimes use it interchangeably or in the wrong place! Graphic design is the art of making things visually meaningful, coherent and attractive. Every bit of marketing collateral has (or should) have a graphic design element to it, from brochures to websites to business cards.
Branding is a concept to encapsulate every aspect of how what your company means and stands for is represented in public, from the colours to the logo, to the language you use to describe it. Branding helps order your graphic design so that it looks uniform and creates a visual identity for your business. Logo design is just one part of the branding process.
Working on branding with a graphic designer
When you begin developing your brand identity, your graphic designer will want to ask you some questions and find out all about your business. They’re not being nosy, this will help them understand who you are and what you stand for that they can then represent visually.
Branding should be a very open and collaborative process, your designer is the visual expert, you’re the expert on your business (so if you don’t think your graphic designer has fully understood what you’re all about then say so!) The end result should be something you’re both proud of and that represents your business perfectly.
Branding vs. rebranding
Developing great branding for businesses is something that is a pleasure for most graphic designers and your first brand development project is usually tonnes of fun for you as a client too. Things get trickier (and sometimes turn into a graphic designer’s worst nightmare!) when you get into the world of re-branding, primarily because people aren’t clear on when they should re-brand.
Re-branding should be done when your offering has changed significantly and no longer fits your previous visual identity or you are purposefully repositioning the company to achieve a specific business objective.
If you have any questions you’d like to ask one of our in-house graphic designers about a branding project, just get in touch and we’ll be happy to help.