Creating On-Brand Design.
“Brand is the story. Design is the storytelling.” – Susan Sellers
Any avid readers of our Wired articles will know by now that a killer brand identity is key when selling your business to the modern diner and drinker.
From ‘Telling Tales with Cocktails’ to ‘The Power of Storytelling’ , the fact that we humans use stories to make sense of the world around us is no groundbreaking revelation.
People do not buy products, even really delicious ones. They buy into a story, enabling them to connect with the brand behind it.
Instead, we will focus on the visuals.
One thing that brands often forget when crafting the way they want to sound to their audience, is how they want to look. The two are symbiotic and design should be a key consideration in any story you choose to tell. It covers everything from your logo to your menu, your website and even the aesthetics of your social channels.
Here are some ways to bring design into the narrative, in a way that elevates the concept on every touchpoint:
Springboarding from Keywords
Consider the core principles of your new concept. Are you luxurious? Rustic? Refined? Humble? Local? By collating these words together in your mindmap, you can then start to think about how each of those words works visually by finding examples.
A luxurious seafood restaurant might look towards the feel of a coastal oyster house in Brittany, the typography and stylings of a 19th-century seafood restaurant in Boston or even the shapes and textures of the marine life itself.
A rustic grill house might look towards the ranch with its rolling plains, open sky and wooden fences or even towards other brands outside of your territory that specialise in the ‘American Dream’ such as Levis.
Create mood boards of visual references but remember two things. One, we are not looking to directly lift other people’s work and use it as our own. We want to use these examples as a guide as we creatively explore what OUR brand looks like.
Secondly, look beyond the obvious. Just because you’re branding a restaurant, does not mean that inspiration can only come from that industry. Look to history, look to nature, look to your own experiences, look to culture, art, and music. Leave no stone unturned.
Mocking Up Routes
Whatever direction you take is going to inform the look and feel of everything
from your website to email footers so you need to make sure its the right fit.
The best way to make sure you make the right choice is to give yourself options. Explore up to three routes with fonts, shapes, colours etc which could work and see which one feels the best, and fits closely with the concept and narrative.
The Chosen Route
The next stage is exciting because it’s when you see your vision come to life before your eyes, discovering how it will look across the various touchpoints mentioned earlier in this article. But it doesn’t need to stop there, it could well be that these designs might find their way into levelled up digital experiences like apps, games and even augmented reality.
Our last word on this is that without design skills, it is nigh-on possible to elevate this work in the way it should be elevated. That’s what professional designers are for.
To explore options for designers, check out our guide to In-House vs Outsourcing <add link here> to find your perfect master of the visual.
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