Everyone loves the iconic “Where’s the BEEF?” commercials from Wendy’s, which became famous in the 1980s. But here is a better question when dealing with your business:

“Where’s the Brief?”

First things first… what’s a design brief?

Meat of the Matter

Let’s take a closer look at what a brief is and what it does:

• Your design brief outlines the business objectives and corresponding design strategies for a project.
• Strategically, it gets everyone thinking about design solutions. In other words, a brief will encourage you to process what you really need from a project.
• Briefs also address your competition, current industry trends and timelines.

In fact, a well-prepared brief is truly a critical starting point for any design.

The Secret Sauce: 6 Characteristics of Every Good Brief

1. Keep it BRIEF.

Short and sweet, this document is an overview of your industry, market and product/service – summed up in just 1-2 pages. That’s why it’s called a brief.

2. Who are your competitors?

We need to know your top competition, so we can set you apart.

3. Who is the audience?

There is a big difference between talking to teenagers and talking to executives. Give us specific details.

4. State the budget and timeline.

Tell us what we’re working with, so we can deliver the most bang for your buck.

5. What’s your main goal?

Increase website traffic? Change a perspective? Sell a product or service? Let us know. It will help us create an obvious call-to-action.

6. What are the support points?

What’s going to make the audience believe what we are trying to say?

Now Let’s Make It Sizzle

Remember, a good designer’s job isn’t about just making it pretty. It’s important to know who and what you’re designing for – and a clear creative brief gives us all of the information we need.

So if a design starts to fall flat, stop and ask yourself: where’s the BRIEF? It just might be the best way to ensure your project turns out perfectly … wait for it … well done.

Mood boards. I love them. You’ll love what they can do.

Why? As a graphic designer, using mood boards is one of the best ways for me to find a design direction. But more importantly, they help our clients decide what they are looking for – and articulate what they really want.

Plucking images, layouts and colors from existing designs can give your entire team a better understanding of your desired look and feel. Plus, the process gives you tangible visuals and a clear concept direction – without anything getting lost in translation. Case in point: what I might think is sleek and modern, one client might describe as simple and boring. With a mood board, it becomes easier for everyone to speak the same language.

WHAT MAKES UP A MOOD BOARD?

• Texture
• Design elements / inspiration
• Lifestyle images
• Color palette swatches

REAL-WORLD EXAMPLES

Asking your graphic designer to create a mood board is a great starting point. That collection of images will offer objective visuals for discussion and create a unified vocabulary.

How does it really work? Here are a couple of layout options we recently shared with a client.

Option 1: Boxed Information

As you can see, this visual board spotlighted content with boxes. Splash colors helped enhance information and expanded a limited palette with a few fresh colors.

Large boxes were used to showcase fun or important messages.

Option 2: Forward Angles

This approach introduced an overlapping of color to create more variation within a limited color palette, using subtle hue changes to strengthen visual interest.

This technique was also a great way to bridge their services, which were currently perceived as separate by their customers. It visually emphasized how these services overlapped and enhanced an overall perception of collaboration.

NARROW IN A STYLE

Take notes! Scribble on printouts, “X” out the junk and circle the favorites.

One of the advantages of using mood boards is narrowing and focusing direction – for the sake of both your company and your designer. Meetings with mood boards are meant to be collaborative, so you can discuss why you like or dislike elements. You all get the opportunity to explain your thoughts without any guesswork.

After all, sometime it’s hard to explain what you want. As you point out the items you like (and don’t), your designer can also educate your team about design terminology to describe those elements and techniques – keeping everyone on the same page, using the same vocabulary.

KEEP EVERYONE ON TRACK

Need one more good reason for working with mood boards? They can be your compass for consistency.

Throughout the life of a project or campaign, it’s common for some clients to start changing or adding elements. Don’t get me wrong: there are times when it’s great to make revisions. But sometimes teams simply get tired of looking at same designs for a long time. When someone feels the need to add, break out the mood boards and go back to why you landed on this style in the first place.

THE BIG PICTURE

As a designer, there is nothing worse than creating a pixel-perfect design, only find out that it misses the mark. So if you’re excited to see your look evolve, give mood boards a shot. The results? Better design options for you. Better direction for your designer.

And whatever your style may be, that’s always a beautiful thing.

What is a brand voice? It’s your personality. Just like you or me, your brand will have traits that can be easily identified and recognized by your customers.

Finding your brand voice isn’t always easy, and it takes time to figure out what tactics work best for the messages that you’re trying to send. But your voice should always be consistent, personable and align with your company’s values.

Formal vs. Short & Sweet

Brand voice isn’t what you say, but how you say it. This not only embodies the words you choose, but their order, rhythm and pace. Companies like big banks or financial groups sometimes deliberately use heavy language as a way to convey a sense of intelligence and superiority, while your mom-and-pop coffee shop will talk to you like a friend with easy, informal conversation.

Brand Voice Examples

It’s as simple as:

Formal: “You wouldn’t happen to have a pen I could borrow, would you?”

Informal: “Do you have a pen I can borrow?”

Casually Talking to a Friend: “Pass me that pen.”

Example 1: Frank’s RedHot®

Think about who you are as a company. Are you cheeky, creative and fun? You can probably relate to Frank’s RedHot – a brand that embraces witty and hilarious advertising.

This hot sauce brand’s tagline is “We Put That Sh*T on Everything.”

They get to be “spicy” with their brand’s voice, and it goes with the charm of their irreverent brand. While their customers can be pretty much anyone, sweet little grandma and her foul mouth deliver the same kick you’d expect when you taste their product.

Example 2: The Marine Corps

Is your brand serious and inspiring? Does it strive to be the best? The Marines are a national source of pride, and their brand has consistently stayed the same. Since 1976, the United States Marines have used the tagline, “The Few. The Proud. The Marines.”

The Marine Corps is no joke. It’s a fighting force to be reckoned with. The Marines recruitment advertising has always portrayed strength and courage, and their voice has been consistent through the decades.

3 Tips for Building Your Brand Voice

1. Start by getting personal.

What’s important to you and your company? Why is your service better than the next guy’s? What buzzwords describe your business? Use your core values when you’re coming up with the right language. Align those words with your mission.

2. Find your audience.

Figure out who your customers really are. Use data and research (call us if you need a hand!), and use your gut. Now take those qualities, and build a persona of your typical customers. Think about how you would talk to them if you were standing face-to-face.

3. Be consistent.

Once you’ve got your voice down, keep it consistent. Make sure your team members understand your goals and your voice in order to build better brand recognition. And we aren’t just talking about advertising here, folks. Your brand voice should be part of your email marketing, social media and every conversation you have with your customers.

Remember, building your brand voice doesn’t have to be hard. Just give it the attention it deserves, and the rest will fall into place – including the right visuals that bring everything full circle.

Want to talk more about branding? Connect with us on Twitter @sundogtweets. We’d love to hear from you!

So many clients ask for a logo, and then think, “Great, I’m done! Here is my brand.” Not to be the bearer of bad news, but actually, no. Your logo isn’t your brand. Of course, it’s one aspect of it, but it’s really not the most important part.

The Designer Perspective

One of my biggest challenges as a designer is creating logos. “Hey, can you just whip up a logo for me quick?” is probably my most frequent request. A designer’s specialty is conceptualizing how to convey your brand. In other words, no – I can’t just “whip up” a logo. (And you don’t really want me to.)

The Bigger Picture

There is a bigger picture to creating a good brand, and it’s not just visual. If you don’t know what your brand is, a designer can only do so much for you. In fact, a great brand can actually have little to do with design. But let’s be clear here: great design helps a whole lot. That’s why, before even diving in, a designer’s first priority is doing research and understanding the market.

The 3 Questions to Ask Yourself

Here are a few questions that I want my clients to be able to answer:

1. What is the feeling of your company? What do you do? How do you want your customers or clients to feel about your business? This is a key point for selection regarding the right color and fonts for your brand (and likewise, the colors and fonts to avoid). Some markets are easier for me to understand than others. For example, I’ve worked with construction and healthcare companies most of my career and understand their customers. There is no way I’m going to create a healthcare logo with paint splatters and dirt, or a construction company with a curly font. Industries do lay the groundwork for a particular look and feel, but that extra feeling behind your brand will make it stand out.
2. What is your comfort level with design? At the end of the day, you need to like – or, better yet, love – your creative. Be proud of it. Share it. Logos can range from super simple to ultra complex. So how creative are you willing to get? This will also impact the collateral that goes along with your logo. We want design to reflect you as well as your brand, and we don’t want to veer too simple or too complex if that’s something you can’t accept. As professionals, we’ll make recommendations. But it ultimately is your brand.
3. Who are your competitors? It’s important to know who you are, who you aren’t and who you want to be. But it’s also important to know who you’re going head-to-head with. The American Marketing Association defines a “brand” as a: Name, term, design, symbol or any other feature … that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers. Clients have come to me with work from their competitors, saying, “I want it to look just like that.” While there may be parts of another design to take into account, stand out on your own. You’re making a fight harder than it needs to be if you match everyone else.

The Takeaway

Design is easy when the identity of your business is clearly defined. Most of the time after doing the research, I can visually see a client’s brand. So what’s the moral of this story? Don’t just ask for a logo and call it a day. Logos, colors, typography, written and visual language are easy when you’ve focused on what you are, how you deliver that, and how you blow everyone else out of the water.

The logo and look will come.