Logo design in a day? Madness!
Why I believe in offering a budget-friendly branding service
I strongly believe a proper, in-depth branding project is the gold standard for a product brand that will last the test of time. But at the same time, I understand that monetarily, that level of service is out of reach for many, in this economy! When it comes to graphic design, hiring a professional designer is worth every penny. Sure, you could hop on a Fiverr-style crowdsourcing site and find someone who’ll whip up a copy of someone else’s logo for you at rock-bottom prices, but let’s be real: the results are often hit or miss. With a brand, you’re not just paying for pretty pictures; you’re investing in someone who understands branding, color theory, and how to communicate your message visually.
Introducing: the Logo-in-a-Day Branding Starter kit!
My “Design Day” service is a one day intensive workshop, at the end of which you’ll have a professionally designed logo, and a mini brand guide, for your startup business. I’ve taken the best bits of my strategic branding process, and scrunched it up into a single day. You’ll still get to enjoy the benefits of a pro designer, and the strategy, creativity, and skills I’ve gathered over the years, just in a streamlined process.
I’ve spent decades designing – that’s why I can do this in a day. It’s a win win: you get what you need quickly, and I can still deliver big results in less time.
Design isn’t just about pretty – it’s about communicating ideas.
Strategic branding is about crafting a unique identity for your business that resonates with your target audience. It goes beyond just slapping a logo on your products or creating a catchy tagline. Instead, it’s about understanding who you are as a brand and what you stand for. It will be the “big idea”, the guide for everything you create for your company going forward, the north star that guides everything. Think of it as the roadmap that guides how you communicate with customers, how you present yourself in the market and talk about yourself, and most crucially, how you differentiate yourself from competitors.
Pros: deeper brain power of strategic branding
The best parts about working with a professional designer? They bring on the creativity and expertise that can elevate your brand beyond what you’d get from an amateur. Design isn’t just about pretty – it’s about communicating ideas. I’ll take the time to understand your vision and goals on a deeper level, ensuring that the final product truly resonates with your target audience, and communicates what makes your company special.
Ultimately, strategic branding helps build trust and loyalty among consumers. When people connect emotionally with your brand story, they’re more likely to choose you over others. So whether you’re just starting out or looking to refresh an existing brand, remember: it’s not just about what you sell; it’s about how people feel when they think of you.
At its core, strategic branding involves deep research into your audience’s preferences and behaviors. It’s about identifying your brand’s mission, vision, and values—essentially the soul of your business. From there, you can develop a consistent message that reflects these elements across all touchpoints—be it social media, packaging, or customer service.
How can you fit this all in one day?
How my process typically works, is that I have the clients fill out a questionnaire beforehand, this primes them to think about goals and style. I also have clients make a quick moodboard of how they want their brand to feel like, because most of my clients aren’t very skilled in describing style with words, showing pictures usually helps a lot to narrow things down. Then we get on a call, where we go through a condensed version of a full brand strategy workshop, this aligns the design into the goals, the target audience, and away from personal likes and dislikes (although we do talk about that too, because humans are human!). Then I shoot back a moodboard for a quick check-in that I understood the vibe correctly, and then we make a logo based on that. It’s always been a “one and done” kind of process, front loading the creative process so we’re on the same page. Also, I’m really good at reading people and understanding what they mean.
How can I be sure I’ll get what I need?
Since this project is based on my strategic branding framework, there’s goal setting and creative exercises at the core of the project to ensure we know what the vision is. This strategy work happens first, before any design, colors, fonts, or anything like that is discussed. To maximize our time together, I will have you fill out some of these worksheets beforehand. These fun, and easy exercises are built to help you think about what makes your company magic. I promise it won’t feel like homework!
Process: Kickoff meeting
We’ll start with a Zoom meeting, where we go over the homework together, and dig deeper into all of it. This is a collaborative process, where I will lead us through a quick strategic branding sesh. The clearer your company value proposition and vision, the easier our work together will be. But don’t worry, you don’t have to be a “creative person”, the exercises are built to be easy enough for anyone to work on, left-brained, or not. And if you’re stuck, that’s where I come in – I am really good at “digging deep” and helping you figure out what makes you amazing!
Show, don’t tell: inspiration gathering
Because it is hard to describe design things with words, during the homework you’ll have gathered up a moodboard. It’s one thing to say you want “elegant” – for some people that means antique furniture and gold, and to others, it means an Apple store look. That’s why I always have people put together a visual “scrapbook” of pictures showing the vibes they mean when they say elegant, or fun, or natural. It’s a cliche for a reason, a picture says a thousand words, and most of us aren’t very good at describing visual things using words anyway. On a more practical sense, it also helps me figure out what kind of design style you like. There’ll be instructions, so don’t worry about this part, there’s no wrong or right answers and I’ll guide you through it! The next step is one where I create my version of this brand’s moodboard of visual inspiration. This is to make sure we’re on the same page in terms of visual mood and vibe for your brand before I start designing.
Working Session – letting me do my thing
Now it’s finally time for the good part! DESIGN. I’ll start sketching a logo concept for you, based on all the prep work we’ve done together. This is where the true magic happens, condensing all those ideas into an actual design. Delving deep into working on your logo design, sketching, drafting the actual custom design for you. There’ll be a check-in, where I’ll share a quick sketch of the concept first for your approval, then continue on the concept.
In the second check-in, I’ll be presenting the logo design and the brand visuals – typically colors, fonts, maybe a pattern or set of photos, depending on your unique needs. There’s usually time for a quick round or two of minor revisions, but typically honestly, not a lot.
What if I don’t like it?
It’s okay to give me feedback – while there isn’t room for endless back and forth, there is time to make changes and pivot. I do often get this right, or 90% right on the first go – and that’s not a humblebrag. With negative feedback, I always try to frame it into a sense of curiosity on my part: reiterating what the mutually agreed on goals and vision was in the start, and how this fits those goals. In my experience, clients who aren’t happy even after multiple changes typically means there is something deeper going on with the business. Maybe it’s an unclear goal of the business, or lack of confidence, and the client needs reassurance on “this is the right direction for the goals you want to achieve, trust me”. Gentle persuasion on trying to get to the bottom of the problem, it’s usually never about the design – endless revisions and tries doesn’t achieve the best results. Then again, I’m not a hoity toity artiste – I’m in the customer service business, and the goal is to make the client happy. And so far, I’ve had a 100% success rate in delivering results!
And yes, it truly is same day delivery
Yes indeed! At the end of the work day you’ll receive the finished design, the logo files in multiple file formats (CMYK, RGB, web, print, and a couple of different layout versions), and a mini brand book with guidelines how to use your logo, your colors, and fonts, and what file to use where.
