Brand designer for wonderful businesses

I work with entrepreneurs and small to mid-size businesses who need stronger brand design to reach the next level. My focus is logos, identity systems, and patterns that become the visual hallmarks of wonderful brands.

A freelance graphic designer

There’s a pile of independent graphic designers out there. How should you decide who to hire? One approach is to decide what kind of thinking your project requires. Let’s say you need a logo. Many independent graphic designers (and companies offering cheap logo designs) are glad to dive in and come up with logo concepts for you. But sometimes designers get caught up in executing a design and can’t see the forest for the trees.

They fail to ask questions like “How is your company positioned among others in the marketplace? Who are your ideal customers? What appeals to those people? What are your goals? Why are you doing this business anyway, and how is that purpose connected to your brand’s design?”

If questions like these are important to you (and they should be), not just any freelance graphic designer is a good fit for your project. You might need bigger-picture thinking.

A large branding agency

Maybe a full-service agency is what you need. Agencies have more resources at their disposal than an independent designer does. For branding projects that are large, complex, and require many different skill sets, consider hiring an agency.

In-depth market research, copywriting, motion graphics, web development, SEO… all sorts of specialties might live under one roof. Tasks will be better coordinated than if you were to hire separate specialists. A larger budget will be required to cover an agency’s greater overhead, however, and in general, turn-around time will be longer.

Be clear on the outcomes you’re looking for. Months of meetings about brand ethos can be useful for some companies, but they can bog down others who need deliverables quickly. (Not every logo update requires a 27-page rationale like the infamous 2008 Pepsi document that referenced the earth’s magnetic fields. I like big picture thinking, but outer space goes a little too far!)

In general, the more risk an organization faces if they get their branding wrong, the more likely they are to allocate a bigger budget and hire a large agency. For some businesses, this might be overkill.

Best of both worlds

I serve small to medium-sized businesses and funded startups who need big-picture thinking to shape their graphic design. In other words, let’s look not only at your “tree,” but the forest where it’s growing. But I also believe in doing only what’s practical to get you to the next step. I value working quickly and efficiently. I want your investment in good design to start having immediate impact, and I believe I can help make your organization more recognizable and admired.