The Creative View 01
’On-brand’ Refresh & Evolution
As part of 'The Creative View', conversation our newly created series of interviews and articles around the subject of design and marketing coincides with the launch of our refreshed website.
This ‘On-brand’ series will focus on brand refreshing and evolution. The aim is to join-in the online conversation with a series of blogs with interview style questionnaires. Here’s what I had to say on all of that…
What does a brand mean to you?
A successful brand is multiple assets both visual and typographical that work in harmony and complement each other. Visual cues create an ownable and consistent visual style. You might say that without seeing the logo you should recognise the brand.
What comes to mind when you think of refreshing a brand?
Refreshing your brand is honing-in and developing ownable assets. As you develop, your visual communication evolves with you. A good brand should always reflect you, your business today, and the immediate future.
On a broader subject, I’d like to add that brand evolution has many different meanings depending on the history and meaning of a brand to different people. I enjoy the different responses people experience when discussing historic brands, and this loosely refers to brands we have grown up with. The diversity of responses is what I enjoy the most about being a designer. There is always a new idea, a fresh perspective and the challenge is to bring all of these together to form a uniformed whole that will allow for its ongoing evolution is why we do it.
How do you approach your own refresh?
It’s about clear messaging for us. Growing your audience, targeting and working with your ideal client is important and I believe that if you are doing what you love your ideal clients already exist in your environment and your reach will grow from a strong foundation. Visually I am interested in the best way to present the work I do with my clients. I am also interested in creating a platform for dialogue about the design process with them.
What would you say is the most vital part of the design process?
Be upfront about the way you work and be consistent in your approach. It is much easier to adapt and be flexible when you can apply it to a clear process. Even when working with seasoned creatives there is always, an element of individual working style and this should be an asset to the creative process.
It’s crucial that clients gets involved and the more time you spend getting to know each other the better. Some of the best working relationships take the extra time in the beginning. This has a lot to do with communication and responsiveness as it does ideas being presented. I am a firm believer that a great idea can come from anywhere or anyone involved in the project. Keeping your ears and eyes open is essential.
The challenges?
Communication. It’s been said a thousand times and I like to think about this a slightly different way. Trust in the reason you and your client came together. It is vital that trust exists and ensuring this is just as much a part of the client as it is the designer. Notice when your clients stop talking to you, no news is not always good news! Good designers welcome involvement and dialogue. In my experience, clients do too even when their time is limited. It is about building a creative partnership that is open and structured. When a client is a good fit I think people relax and enjoy the process and they should!
I have a tendency to overthink and obsess about the detail in much the same way as anyone wanting to present themselves in business. I get around this by asking as may people around me to have a look at how everything is working and I value feedback, this keeps me focused and relevant.
Jed Harrison, Co-Founder and Creative Director
Jed Harrison Design
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