Brand Identity Design Process Part 1: Client Brief, Research and Strategy

Some links below are affiliate links. If you buy through them, 4 The Creatives may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

Get Adobe Illustrator (affiliate link): https://adobe.prf.hn/click/camref:1100lumF2/pubref:SFXyZM31lAs/destination:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.adobe.com%2Fproducts%2Fillustrator.html
Part 1 of a complete brand identity design process: reading the client brief, researching the audience and competitors, and building the strategy before any design work.
Part of How to Graphic Design: The Course of Brand Identity, free on YouTube. Course outline: https://4thecreatives.com/course-brand-identity?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=backcatalog&utm_content=SFXyZM31lAs

In this lesson from How to Graphic Design: The Course of Brand Identity, we begin a complete brand identity project for a fictional boutique bookstore called The Reading Nook. This practice brief gives us a pretend client so we can walk through the brand identity process from start to finish.

We’ll start by reading through the client brief and understanding the business, audience, brand personality, values, goals, competitors, and deliverables. From there, we’ll move into research. You’ll see how to research the target audience, understand the bookstore industry, collect useful insights, review social media, study competitors, and start organizing the research into presentation templates.

This video is perfect for beginner brand designers, freelance designers, entrepreneurs, small business owners, startups, personal brands, and anyone learning how to start a brand identity project.

By the end of this video, you’ll understand how to read a client brief, collect research, study the audience, analyze competitors, and start building the strategic foundation for a brand identity project.

Chapters

00:00 Intro
00:32 Project Brief
05:00 Target Audience Research
17:39 Competitor Analysis Research
31:05 Target Audience Template
39:47 Persona Research Template
59:38 Competitor Template

In this video, you’ll learn:
- How to start a brand identity project
- How to read and understand a client brief
- Why the client brief matters before designing
- How to research a target audience
- How to collect industry insights
- How to look at social media for audience clues
- How to begin competitor research
- How to organize research into client presentation templates
- Why research should guide brand identity design
- How to prepare for positioning, mood boards, and visual direction

This video is part of How to Graphic Design: The Course of Brand Identity.

Watch the full playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdHyNrkiFQPrQ2fl4VhirRYS1KpNhw_Le

Previous lesson: https://youtu.be/eEpMtEajDig

Next lesson:
Brand Identity Design Process Part 2: https://youtu.be/oAHmpG5Qi8Y

Resources:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/r6lof5hsdh5jgsle12c0c/ACcpvuNcw1JXb9XqahQ_3-Y?rlkey=u0vhdfheuuqw3dudlj8tdjcos&st=2olvte34&dl=0

Subscribe for more lessons on brand identity design, logo design, Adobe Illustrator, typography, color theory, brand strategy, client presentation, and building a professional design portfolio.

KEEP LEARNING WITH 4 THE CREATIVES
Blog: Navigating the Realities of Freelance Design: https://4thecreatives.com/realities-of-freelance-graphic-design?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=backcatalog&utm_content=SFXyZM31lAs
Blog: How to Use Instagram to Get Graphic Design Clients: https://4thecreatives.com/how-to-use-instagram-to-get-graphic-design-clients?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=backcatalog&utm_content=SFXyZM31lAs
Blog: How to Create an Elevator Pitch That Gets Design Clients: https://4thecreatives.com/elevator-pitch-for-graphic-designers?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=backcatalog&utm_content=SFXyZM31lAs
Design Radar: Freelance & Business: https://4thecreatives.com/tools/category/freelance-business?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=backcatalog&utm_content=SFXyZM31lAs
Not sure where to start? Take the Learning Path assessment: https://4thecreatives.com/learning-path?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=backcatalog&utm_content=SFXyZM31lAs
Join the 4TC newsletter: https://4thecreatives.com/tools?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=backcatalog&utm_content=SFXyZM31lAs

❤️ 4 The Creatives helps designers navigate the future of the profession – with structured courses, the Learning Path and Design Radar. If this video helped you, you can support our work here: https://4thecreatives.com/support?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=backcatalog&utm_content=SFXyZM31lAs
X: https://x.com/4TheCreativesHQ

#BrandIdentity #BrandStrategy #BrandDesign