When creating a brand or new brand identity, the design agency you pick is of the utmost importance. Your brand is what defines your products and, ultimately, your business – no matter what size it is. Creating a brand is no longer just a logo; it’s about building a personality. This requires a great relationship with your chosen design agency, as well as concise ideas for conveying your brand’s message. So how do you find an agency that’s the right fit for you and your brand?
Often when it comes to selecting an agency to work with, businesses will choose a bigger corporate agency that works with a large array of clients. This alone does not mean that the agency is a successful one, or that they will be able to provide the brand identity you’re looking for. It can be easy to choose an agency because they seem more established, however, it’s important to remember that you need to be able to work well with them. Smaller independent agencies often have more time for each of their clients, and may be more likely to see eye-to-eye with what you expect from your brand.
When considering your brand identity, a key component to remember is that your brand should be unique – bringing something new to the table. After all, branding is about differentiation. In terms of a design agency, they should be able to recognise what makes you different to other brands in your market, and use this to establish your narrative – or to create content to support it.
Any visual content that they create needs to reflect the personality of your brand and express a business’ unique voice. The design agency must be focused on bespoke solutions directly regarding your brand and business, not offering solutions that ‘work for everyone’.
Many people and design agencies themselves will tell you to take a look at a portfolio, as this will give you an understanding of their ‘style’ and some previous work that they have produced. While this is good practice and can be helpful, do not let this alone determine your choice. Something to remember is that you want your brand to stand out and be different, which is why inspecting every piece of work that they’ve done for other clients may in fact cause more confusion.
By looking at the work an agency has done for another client it can be very easy to start to incorporate parts of different brand identities that you like. This can become a spiral, leading you further and further away from your unique and original ideas. This isn’t to say you shouldn’t look at their work, rather that you should simply evaluate the quality of the work objectively. However, one thing to keep an eye out for is whether their work across clients is repetitive. This is a sign that the agency does not take into account the unique aspects of brands and sticks to one form of design, rather than delivering what your specific story requires.
Your relationship with the agency is perhaps one of the most important parts of selecting a design partner. You need to be able to communicate with the agency in an effective and efficient way that doesn’t seem tiresome or exhausting. Realistically, you should be excited about the development of your brand identity, as being enthusiastic about a project such as this is the best way to generate the most creative and constructive ideas and strategies. You should be able to confer with the agency and be able to ask about any issues or inquiries that you have without feeling like your questions are silly, or that you’re bothering them. After all, you’re paying them for their expertise and service.
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