From strategy to design: A step-by-step guide to building your brand’s visual identity

But how do you ensure the new graphic identity effectively reflects your brand strategy? This requires careful planning, collaboration and expertise.

Step 1: Brief the design team

Your agency will need to thoroughly brief the graphic design team on your brand strategy (in our agency, the two teams aren’t separate, but in many agencies, they are). This step involves reviewing the groundwork and ensuring everyone is aligned on the strategic foundation.

The brand strategy briefing typically includes:

• Brand history and future plans: What’s the story behind your brand, and where do you envision it heading?
• Research insights: What did we discover about your competitors, customer personas, stakeholder feedback and market positioning?
• Brand positioning and strategy: How do we articulate your brand’s unique position in your marketplace?
• Brand personality and attributes: What are the traits, tone and voice that make your brand unique?
• Current brand touchpoints: What are your key assets, such as your website, social media, brochures, videos and any other materials?
• Key messages: How do you verbally communicate your brand benefits and features to your various audiences in a way that’s relevant and compelling to their needs?

(Haven’t done your brand strategy yet? Get in touch!)

Step 2: Translate strategy into design

This phase requires a combination of strategic thinking, design talent, creativity, intuition, patience, discipline, trust and, above all, experience.

The aim is to have the graphic design team translate your brand strategy into visual elements that convey your brand identity in a meaningful, cohesive and practical way.

They’ll do this by exploring:

• Your existing brand assets and how they’re working. What’s unique to you? What do your customers already associate you with?
• The tools that you’ll use to communicate the key elements of your strategy and messaging: a colour palette, a photography style, an illustration style, a set of typefaces, a mascot, etc.
• The practical requirements of your brand implementation. Do you have the resources to roll everything out at once, or should we create phases for different components?

Step 3: Find and fix weaknesses by creating prototypes

A logo on a page might look good, but it won’t give you enough information to make an informed decision on your brand identity. Prototyping a visual identity goes deeper, providing a proof of concept that shows you how robust and versatile a design system is.

When we create prototypes, we check each design concept to see how it:

• Works across multiple media (print, digital, advertising, social, etc.)
• Holds up in different sizes, from very small to very large
• Looks in colour and black-and-white formats
• Adapts to various materials, such as paper, metal, embroidery or signage

Prototyping also helps us refine the rules for how to use the identity, creating guidelines that are simple, clear and easy to follow.

Keep in mind, though: when you get prototypes from your agency, they aren’t the final designs for each component. Their purpose is to test whether the identity meets its strategic and functional requirements. Complex applications—websites, brochures, signage programs, etc.—are separate projects, created once your core graphic identity is finalized and approved.

What should you expect in the first presentation?

The first presentation represents months of effort, culminating in a critical decision-making moment. So, what will you see?

Before the design concepts are presented to your project team, your agency should recap the branding brief. This review should include a step-by-step explanation of how the team arrived at this point, because, after months of work, a reminder is always helpful.

As mentioned earlier, avoid assessing a logo on a blank sheet of paper—context is everything. The right way to evaluate your new brand identity concepts is by reviewing the application of each concept in context—in real-world scenarios that are relevant to your brand. This means viewing the prototypes, mock-ups or trial applications such as:

• Business cards
• Advertising (digital, print and OOH)
• PowerPoint sample slides
• Social media posts
• Website pages
• Packaging
• Apps
• Signage
• Swag

Choosing the final brand design

Typically, you’ll be presented with one to three design approaches. These will align with the design brief, and your team will debate the strengths and weaknesses of each approach. The recommended approach will then be fine-tuned, which may include:

• Developing additional prototypes
• Finalizing co-branding scenarios
• Exploring how the identity integrates with sub-brands

Once the refinements are complete, the basic identity elements will be produced, including:

• Logo artwork files
• Colour palette documentation (Pantone information, hex codes, RGB details, etc.)
• Graphic elements (patterns, supergraphics, favicon, etc.)
• Finalized licences for typefaces and photography

Decision-making is a process

Choosing a new identity is one of the most challenging tasks in the branding process. It’s tempting to rely on group consensus or committee decisions, but these approaches often dilute creativity and distinctiveness. Instead, listen to a range of opinions without succumbing to groupthink.

Certain phrases on your team can signal trouble in the decision-making process, such as:

• “I’ll know it when I see it.”
• “Let’s take a vote.”
• “I hate [insert colour].”
• “I’m not feeling it.”
• “It doesn’t ‘pop.’”
• “Let’s let the focus group decide.”
• “I’m going to shop this around.”

These approaches undermine the strategic foundation of the design and can lead to poor outcomes. Try to redirect them by referring the discussion back to the creative brief. And try to encourage people to offer concrete, objective feedback. Phrases along the lines of “I just don’t like it” need to be explored and gently challenged:

• “Tell us more about what you dislike.”
• “Our brand strategy is to create brand personality and tone that is [what you decided]. How does this not meet that requirement?”
• “Our brand research told us that customers want to feel [what you decided]. How does this not meet that requirement?”

Be careful not to ask defensively or aggressively; all input needs to be considered. Anyone who isn’t immersed in brand strategy and design might simply lack the vocabulary or confidence to express themselves concisely. Keep asking questions, and you’ll be able to uncover the design challenge at the heart of the objection.

And keep in mind that the final decision should be based on the identity that best aligns with your organization’s vision, goals and brand strategy, which are all typically based on your audiences’ needs, not the personal preferences of anyone on your project team.

Finally: Give it time

Once you’ve made your decision and launched your new brand identity, don’t expect instant universal approval. Most humans are hardwired to resist change. Building a strong brand takes time, just like building meaningful relationships.

Have courage, stick to your vision and trust the process, and you’ll reap the rewards: a well-executed brand identity that resonates with your audience and supports your business goals.

Need help with a brand strategy, brand identity or brand implementation? We’ve seen it all—reach out to see how our agency can help!