How to work with a branding studio?

I guess every designer at least once had a client who offered him or her a job because a friend’s business or company had recently refreshed their brand. However sense of danger and ordinary human jealousy can motivate to take action and make substantial changes, there are many other reasons why you should consider hiring a specialist. What can you do to not lose the opportunity to be successful and make good use of a professional advice while launching your brand?

Take rebranding for example. There are many factors that influence the final decision. We will describe them in detail in separate article. For now, let’s focus on the basics. For some rebranding is the chance to present a brand in the best possible way and accentuate its values. For others, it’s a process of positioning a personal brand which is just as important as a well-tailored suit, expertly selected car, wristwatch or any other gadget. It all builds the owner’s image, their confidence, and market appeal, eventually informing their choices and consequences of their decisions.

While there are more and more pros of starting the rebranding process, there’s usually only why reason why some business owners continue to postpone the decisions – they assume that rebranding is not only a costly but also time-consuming process that needs to be „prepared for” and „thought through”. In effect, the decision is put off until next Monday, then another and another one.

In this article I will answer the question whether rebranding really is as demanding process as many business owners fear before making the decision.

Any design work is a great creative endeavour which is why clients who help create the right environment are usually the ones who gain the most.

How to accelerate work at the beginning?

Projects with deadlines for tomorrow or the next three weeks are the stuff of legends. They come with completion dates that are not very far from the time of message. Let’s focus on projects that can actually be done within the time limit. If a client wants to maximize the speed of work, attention to the basics is the best way to achieve that:

• detailed brief delivered within due time,
• meaningful answers to all questions about expectations
• efficient negotiation process and open communication
• all prearranged materials delivered before starting the project.

Putting effort into organizing the basic formalities bodes well for successful collaboration. Any design work is a great creative endeavour which is why clients who help create the right environment are usually the ones who gain the most.

Comfortable conditions for the design stage

After sending over all the necessary project information, the client must be patient and wait until the design studio comes up with first resolutions. Reality is different from memes and industry jokes and we can assure you that designers don’t wait with sharing results of their work until the last moment.

Most experts care about solving real-life issues and delivering their best work. If satisfying effects are achieved ahead of schedule, they can be send at an earlier stage. We always try to send the fruits of our work as soon as possible and avoid building up unnecessary tension. 😉

After receiving the first results, give yourself some time, don’t make any decisions, and hold on with giving any feedback. Just like you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, understanding your brand’s new image requires time. More than once we worked with a client who accepted and fell in love with a project after giving himself more time to appreciate it. No wonder – a new image is usually built to last long years and completely replaces that previous one that was in use just as long. As designers we respect the gravity of the decision and ask only one thing: give yourself a day or two to make an informed decision.

What does the client have the most influence on?

Patience that I’d discussed earlier in the article is something that one must work on – one way or another. But there’s more to the atmosphere of working with a branding studio that the client can help deliver. It can be brought down to a few important points:

• focus on the goal – preparing project expectations, requirements regarding the scope, and biggest priorities
• just one decision-making person – it will help make final decisions and the project what surpass its deadline because of difference of opinion or scattered responsibilities (i.e. „you were supposed to reply”),
• the right contact person – ideally if communicative (likes and respects people, is not afraid of asking questions in case of doubts), organized (follows deadlines on the client’s part, respects the team’s working schedule), and responsible (when we make arrangements, his or hers word is something that we can rely on),
• delegating as much as possible – some clients assume that they can do certain small parts of a project – website copy, for example – by themselves (usually to cut costs). In effect, the project extends its deadline and provided texts must be reworked and corrected. Small savings eventually result in large financial loss caused by delayed launch of a new brand,
• sticking to a response schedule – dates help us plan work for the whole team and anticipate our availability for all project, including your very own.

How long does it take?

Compared to tens or hundreds of hours spent on design, the client’s time investment comes down to just a fraction of the whole project. It’s normal for a professional studio or agency to optimize its work process in such a way that client’s engagement is minimal and helps him focus on daily business operations.

After all, busy company owners find sending proposals and filling out briefs the most daunting tasks. If you find yourself in a situation when „plowing through the brief” sounds like a devil’s plan, don’t put your business’ growth on hold, arrange a meeting and go through the brief with the help of a professional studio.

The brief is not a doctorate – there’s nothing wrong in writing it together. 😉