Developing a Solid Creative Direction
Making your creative direction do the hard work for you — my creative direction approach
You might ask: "What is creative direction?" It is the foundation of the brand and an in-depth outline of how design will accomplish your business goals. Creative direction helps articulate how we use design to solve problems, stand out from competition, and attract your ideal customers! It sets the tone before I create any design work.
Why is creative direction important?
Because brand design is less about how something looks and more about how something feels! Design elements are meant to meld together to create a cohesive experience for your viewers and potential clients. When designing a brand, we're creating business vibe that is all rooted in deep strategy and connected with customers on a deeper level.
In the first week of any project, we dive deep into your origin story, your dreams and big vision, core values. We also think about your target audience — what their needs and problems are. Digging into this helps give us a full understanding of what we’re workin’ with so we can create a solution that stands for a clear emotional idea.
"The brands that people love the most all stand for a clear emotional idea that's greater than the product's benefits. Everything that brand does and everything that a consumer experiences is influenced by this core idea" - Emily Heyward, 'Obsessed: Building a Brand People Love from Day One'
Above all, we want your brand to stand for something greater than yourself. To solve a problem. To be more than just the design.
Then, once our strategy is inline, I present each a visual direction that showcases design style and intention. It's basically a mood board on steroids (or a style-scape) and it's blown beyond a few aesthetically-pleasing squares. This visual direction is a well thought out collection of many different examples that present options for the direction of our logo and brand.
From here, we chat it over and you let me know what you love and what we'll leave behind.
My clients tell me they love this, because it allows them to be a part of the conversation and talk through what feels right for their business before I deliver any creative work. And I personally love it because it streamlines my design!
At the end of our meeting, I have a clear design direction to go in! This leaves less room for back/forth, scrapping of ideas, and restarting design. Instead, I’m able to present work that actually STICKS, which means more time dedicated to perfecting your brand.
A solid creative direction allows us to spend more time refining all the feelings together. That’s what it’s about at the end of the day!
