How to create your best ever branding

Long gone is the era when a branding project involved the agency receiving the brief, traipsing off to the studio to design in isolation, and then handing over a perfectly formed piece of branding to a satisfied client. It is clear to any agency worth its salt, that design work – and branding design in particular – requires a more collaborative approach these days. “Without a collaborative relationship, based on mutual trust and respect, clients are only ever going to get a studio’s interpretation of their brand, rather than communication that has been informed by essential dialogue from within a client organisation,” says Simon Elliott, partner at design studio Rose, which won Best of Show at last year’s Computer Arts Brand Impact Awards. The nature of branding work itself means that a collaborative approach to design is a must. Branding projects tend to support or convey organisational change within a business, says Jon Hewitt, creative director at Moving Brands, winner of a Brand Impact Award in the Entertainment category. “People within the business that you’re working with need to feel that their voice is being heard. So branding projects tend to have lots of inputs from lots of different people, and the nature of it means that you have to find ways to get people involved. Share regularly, and listen to their point of view.”

Branding design is not about creating a brand in isolation and then handing it over, agrees Karen Hughes, creative director at True North, winner of a Brand Impact Award in the Culture category: “It’s about co-creating something that people can get behind and champion.” Having the input of the people who live and breathe the brand on a day-to-day basis, will ensure brand design that is meaningful, inspiring and practical for those with the responsibility to deliver it.

Branding as a tool for change

Branding design today also means that if done correctly, it should make the senior management think about all aspects of their business and how it can be improved. “If you have a good relationship,” says Gareth Howat, founding partner at triple Brand Impact Award winner hat-trick. “This can be a really powerful tool for the organisation for change. It’s not always straightforward, so you need to work closely together as you go along.” Design consultancy johnson banks also picked up three Brand Impact Awards in 2014, and often works closely with clients’ in-house design studios. In fact, many clients have bigger design studios than the johnson banks outfit itself, founder Michael Johnson points out. “We learned a long time ago that setting up a good dialogue between us and the in-house teams is fantastically useful. They have a plethora of insights and knowledge that we could take months, if not years, to fully understand.” The scale of some of the branding work also demands that the work be shared, he adds.

“And crucially, a good brand idea stands and falls on its implementation, and that is where in-house teams really come into their own. If they like it, have been involved, feel part of the process, then things just run a lot more smoothly.” A recent client, The Cystic Fibrosis Trust, for example, took the brand idea and toolkit and really ran with it, says Johnson. “All very encouraging.”

Complex relationship

But the actual process of forming successful collaborative relationships between design studio and client is complex. Collaboration can work on various levels, and establishing the optimal balance can be tricky. There should be some degree of collaboration on any project, but the extent of this depends on the culture of the organisation, Hughes observes. For example, True North works extensively with the Wellcome Trust, where collaboration is a value that runs through everything. “For an organisation like this, consultation and co-creation is the only approach that we would ever consider taking,” reveals Hughes. “Collaboration is particularly important when working with an organisation with a large amount of stakeholders and decision makers, which these days is becoming more and more the norm.” Moving Brands also works extremely collaboratively with a number of its clients and their in-house teams. One such client is the BBC’s User Experience and Design team. “We physically mix up the Moving Brands and BBC design team so that we’re all in one space,” says Hewitt. And this approach has worked well: “It helps to run the decision-making process,” he explains. “Sometimes it takes as long preparing a presentation on a piece of work as actually doing the work, so [the collaboration] strips that away and makes the whole process a lot more efficient.”

Meanwhile, at johnson banks, client input into writing a brand’s narrative is key, and the strategic stages of a project always involve multiple workshops. “The next stage, the design stage, we often do on our own, although we have sometimes worked in parallel with client teams,” adds Johnson. “We find the best way to collaborate is once an overall route is agreed, and then we can jointly work out how to best implement it. That often involves client teams coming to us ‘on placement’ to get under the skin of an idea and help us work out the best way to roll it out.” During johnson banks’ work with the Science Museum, for example, members of the in-house team took it in turns to come to the studio and spend time there working on live projects. This “helped them get into the design idea”, says Johnson, “and also helped us understand the requirements of certain ‘tricky’ clients at the museum.” However, while some clients really want to be completely hands-on at all stages of the design process, others might prefer to keep agencies at arm’s distance, Howat points out. “You ideally need something in between, so you can get involvement from the client, but you maintain some perspective on the project.” But even on a more ‘collaboration-lite’ level like this, regular contact and communication is the foundation of a successful studio-client relationship. Finding the right channels of communication is key, Elliott points out. There’s no sense in expecting constant face-to-face meetings with clients on the other side of the world. But finding ways to engage them in the process at critical stages – via phone, email or Skype – is the best way to ensure success. Nonetheless, where possible, face-to-face is still the preferred option for many. “There is no substitute,” says Howat. “Especially when you are in the research and concept stages – you just can’t get a feel for things if it’s done remotely.” Careful planning is also essential, advises Hughes. “Avoid lots of shorter meetings and try to cover things in fewer longer meetings.” It’s also important for the branding agency to visit the client and get a feel for their business or organisation, and the environment they work in, she adds. “But at the same time we also like our clients to feel at home in our studio. Many of our clients enjoy leaving their office and coming to the studio. It allows them to focus on the creative for a few hours without the distraction of their other projects and responsibilities. Also, by leaving their place of work and coming to our studio they often find it easier to take a more objective approach to their projects.” For another triple Brand Impact Awards winner,R/GA London, collaborating successfully with a client is all about balancing the studio’s and client’s ways of working, according to Lucio Rufo, group creative director and head of visual. “Ultimately we don’t want to impose a very rigid structure, and always try to be open to different approaches and ideas.” Many successful studio-client relationships are nurtured over years. Rose’s relationship with Art on the Underground is “a good example of a client having the confidence and belief in us to fight for our ideas, within an enormous British public institution,” says Elliott. “[They] allow us to become genuine long-term partners, rather than suppliers, on their multi-award-winning projects.” But building a good collaboration from the start is important too, and a few common-sense tips can make this easier. “Learn to become good listeners,” says Elliott. “Equally, recognise that clients buy us for our experience, expertise and advice. But in order to offer or create anything of value to your client, you have to be able to stand in the shoes of your client’s audience, to be able to connect with them.” When embarking on new client relationships, johnson banks often mentions the fact that it is a studio happy to be collaborative. “Then it depends rather on the client to ‘pick up’ on that cue,” says Johnson. “Some have entered the branding process looking for an ‘external voice’ and want to keep it that way. Others, once they find out that we’re happy to ‘share’, as it were, become more energised by the process.”

Pear-shaped projects

Despite the clear advantages of collaboration between studio and client, the relationship can sometimes turn sour, or communication can break down. For this reason, picking up on a potential downturn in relations can head off far bigger problems down the road. For example, Johnson says that he has seen a few things go pear-shaped when a newish in-house team member sees a project as a chance to make their mark. “One of our ex-collaborators merrily redesigned our whole scheme within a year and airbrushed us off the project,” Johnson recalls. “That seemed a little extreme, but perhaps we should have seen that coming.” One collaboration warning sign for Howat is “when the client says they are too busy to talk to you at the beginning of the project”. “If they don’t engage at this stage, it’s pretty unlikely it will work,” he explains. “As soon as there is no dialogue, you know you are going to be in trouble.” In another scenario, a client might start to try and fix design problems with very specific, detailed instructions and amends, rather than telling an agency the problem and allowing the creative team to come up with the solution.

“This can be a sign of a lack of trust or confidence in the work,” says Hughes. “If this starts to happen, try to go back to dealing in ‘problems’ and reassuring the client that you understand the issue and will come back to them with some solutions.” Sometimes, it might also be best to cut losses and exit a relationship. “Some clients start believing they don’t need you as much as they once did,” says Elliott, for example. “Or that the level of quality – and resulting success – you have helped create can be achieved cheaper elsewhere. Sometimes you can turn this around. But generally, it’s a sign that the dynamic in the relationship may be shifting, and that the trust and respect as key drivers in the relationship may be waning.” Elliot goes on: “When this happens (and it happens to all studios at some point, if you’re in business long enough), we don’t tend to fight it. Not when there are enough people who continue to recognise the value in what we do for them.”

Pleasing everyone is impossible

In fact throughout the relationship, it’s important to remember that “collaboration doesn’t have to mean compromise,” as Hughes points out. “Trying to please everyone is impossible and if you try to with a branding project you can end up with a very confused brand.” “By trying to please too many people, you may end up pleasing nobody. The key is understanding which audiences and stakeholders are your priority, who are the key people who we need to be communicating with.” Also, don’t confuse client-studio collaboration with ‘decision by committee’, cautions Elliott. “They are entirely different things. Always agree on a single client contact if possible. Or a spokesperson who will consolidate and feedback group or committee comments as one voice.” Being extremely clear about people’s roles and responsibilities, who is giving direction, especially in close collaborations where studio or client is embedded with the other, can also avoid a number of pitfalls. “Often things can fall in the gaps between parties,” says Hewitt. “You have to be very clear about who’s responsible for what.” After all, studios should see collaboration as a help, not a hindrance. Listen carefully to what a client says, advises Howat – “it’s an underestimated skill.” But it’s also worth remembering that clients want to be challenged. “That’s what they have come to you for,” says Hughes. “Don’t tell clients what you think they want to hear, give them your honest, considered opinions. Be pro-active, don’t wait to be asked.”