Let’s paint the scene.

You wake up one morning and decide you want to start your dream cozy coffee shop in downtown Seattle. You suddenly realize… There is a coffee shop on every single corner in Seattle, so what makes you so special?

This is where branding comes in. Branding is so much more than a logo and some fonts. Let’s talk a little bit about the Anatomy of Branding, shall we? Branding doesn’t just poof out of thin air, and you suddenly have a brand. There are multiple things you have to go through to get to the final product. First thing – you have to find your brand voice. This is the foundation of your business. This is where your mission statement will come from, where the base of your website copy will come from, and where concepts of logo design are spawned. This is the soul of your business. From the brand voice, we then go into Brand Strategy. This is where we take your brand voice and start analyzing how we can take that and make you stand out from the crowd. (aka all the other coffee shops in Seattle). I like to call this the FBI agent phase. This is when we, as designers, put on our detective gear and go researching all of your competitors. We write down the things that they are doing that are working, the things they’re doing that aren’t working, what their packaging looks like, what their logos look like, the color palettes they are using, etc. We do a little deep dive on everything. From there, we compare our findings to your brand and see what we can leverage from your brand voice to make you stand out from the competition. We start asking questions like “Are there similar areas in your brand voice to these companies?” “is there anything within the brand voice that we can reword or edit a little bit to make you stand out more?” “What sets you apart from the competition?” and then we get to work.

After the brand strategy has been established, the brand design gets to start. This is where you start to stand out from the crowd visually. A good brand designer will take your brand strategy and brand voice and come up with a brand that is so authentically you that there is no other choice but your business to scale up. Brand design is far more than just a logo. It’s the logo, the color palette, the patterns, the packaging… everything visual is the brand design. It’s the thing that’s going to get you noticed and make you remembered.

Once we have the brand voice, the strategy, and the branding established. This is where the website comes in. (Yes, your website is a part of your brand) BUT! Before we start anything on your website, we have to get your website copy written and get your brand photos done. Website copy? Brand Photos? Huh? I thought branding was just the logo on a sign and some colors and fonts?

NOPE!

It’s called a brand identity for a reason. For both your copy and your brand photos, they both come down to your brand voice and brand strategy. Having me as your designer means I will help coordinate with a brand photographer for you, with the vision of the brand. I’ll send them over a PDF filled with what your brand voice is and what direction your images should take. I will also do the same thing with your copywriter – whether you decide to use me for copy or to hire out, everyone will be fully prepared to make your brand the absolute best that it can be. Once these have both been completed, then we can go and design your website. Your website will also what? You guessed it. USE YOUR BRAND VOICE AND BRAND IDENTITY. While your copywriter is hard at work making your copy SEO optimized and ready to sell what you got, your web designer is going behind the scenes and making everything on your website SEO friendly so that your site can pull in allllll of the new customers. This is how you make your website work. For. you. SEO is constantly working in the background for you, bringing you up in search results based on the keywords we established in YOUR BRAND VOICE!

With all that said… If you have ever asked, “why on earth are brand and web designers so expensive?” It’s because we care about making your dream career goals come true.