I typically get two sets of clients - the people who are all in, and those who aren’t. I can tell who is who from the very first email and I bet you can guess which ones qualify as my favorites.
The most important thing to me (your Brand Designer) is that you know what you want to represent. You don’t need to know what your finished product will look like. You don’t even need to know what you like, and what you don’t. I only need you to take the design process seriously and give me the tools I need to tailor a brand to you. I want you to see this brand as an important representation of you - because I certainly do.
My initial email is a long one, and frankly, I expect an equally long response back. I ask about how you plan on using your brand (either digitally or as a physical brand). I ask about what you want your brand to mean to you (your personal stories and deep conversations). I ask about the symbols, letters, and numbers you’d like to incorporate (essential brand elements). I ask about your Brand design preferences (modern vs. traditional).
Each one of these questions gives me incredibly insightful information about you, and the design I am building for you. Every ounce of information you can give me makes your brand more personal, more tailored, and more uniquely you.
Oftentimes, my customers skip a lot of these questions and simply tell me that they want a unique brand. But what is a unique brand? What is your interpretation of unique?
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Every single brand that I’ve ever made is unique. Each brand means something different to me, which is why feedback and clear direction is so incredibly important to me as your brand designer. I NEED to know your backstory, your inside jokes, your quirks, your favorite things. Every single sketch that I bring into the world is different and new. They’re all unique. Even if we’re talking about a super basic, traditional brand, it’s still unique. It’s uniquely you, it has a story.
Unique doesn’t mean ANYTHING to me until you empower me with your story. Unique doesn’t mean modern, or traditional, or a twist between the two. Unique doesn’t mean never-before-seen.
“Unique” is such a broad, non-descriptive word. It’s a throwaway term. It doesn’t require or provide any insight, direction, or inner reflection. When you’re consulting with your designer, I strongly encourage you to bring more to the design table than a desire for something “unique”. When you’re paying me to pitch 20 of my best brands to you, I want you to get exactly what you’re looking for. Don’t waste those first set of sketches on me guessing who you are and what you’re into. 🙅♀️ After all, I can’t represent you *uniquely* if I don’t know your story.
Other throwaway words that tell me essentially nothing? “Punchy”, “Western”, “Detailed”, “Fun”, “Creative”, “Fresh”, “Funky”…. Sure, they give me a vibe but they don’t give me a direction. And guess what? I guarantee that if I asked 5 different people to describe one brand to me - I would get 5 entirely different responses. Your definition of these words, my definition of these words, and the cowboy-down-the-road’s definition of these world is ENTIRELY different.
When it comes to your Livestock Brand, I want you to look at it as more than a throwaway graphic. I want it to mean absolutely everything to you. It’s a part of your business, a part of you life, and I want to encourage you to look at it with deep, significant meaning. I want it to tell your story. I want it to represent and pay tribute to something substantial.
So to get to the good part, the actionable part, I’ll leave you with this short checklist to go over before you start your Brand Design journey with Western Identity. And frankly, if you can’t answer these questions … you might not be ready for your own Livestock Brand yet.
#1 - What parts of your life do you want this brand to represent? What aspects can we visually represent?
#2 - What symbols deeply call to you, and go deeper than simply “looking good”? What symbols or objects in the world make you reflect back on your life, your story?
#3 - What style of Livestock Brand best represent you, and your business? Are you looking for a traditional brand that encapsulates and represents the past & the history of the western world, or are you looking for modern and contemporary, a mix of old and new, as an ode to your future?
your dream and that visual representation. It’s that connection that gives your brand the longevity that is ESSENTIAL within a Livestock Brand. I am not here to create a random image you won’t connect with, a meaningless graphic that you will end up tossing to the side a week, month, year, or even a decade down the road. I am here to create an image that will be handled down, with its meaningful stories, through generations.