If You're Not Running Brand Workshops, You're Missing the Secret Sauce
Revolutionize Your Process with Simple, Effective Workshops
Early in my career, when I started a logo design project, I’d fire off my little logo questionnaire for the client to fill out. It was a big list of adjectives and questions about colors and so on. I’d use the clients’ input as direction and start ideating. But the deeper I got into branding, the more I realized this was a pretty shallow approach and the true brand was still hidden deeper within.
Then I discovered brand workshops—and it was a game-changer. I started to host workshops for branding projects and the results were like night and day. Branding projects were not just running smoother, but the clients became educated about their own brand, were able to articulate proper feedback, and they even became evangelists, championing the brand internally.
A brand workshop’s goal is to get stakeholders on the same page and agree on the brand’s foundation. And it does this by taking everyone on the same journey of discovery and logic.
Clients agree what the brand should be
Why are these workshops so amazing? Well, a few things are happening here. These workshops bring everyone together to hash out their brand’s core as a team, creating a unified vision. Everyone comes with their own ideas, and every stakeholder is invited to give input, but they leave united.
The workshops’ exercises become a shared journey. Imagine you are a group of cooks and you decide to make a big soup. First you start with the base, each of you has a chance to give your input on what you think the base of the soup should be. And as a group you all decide it will be chicken broth. Next you decide on the first vegetable, with each cook discussing and in agreement on what it should be.
As you get to the last ingredient and the soup is finally done, each of you knows exactly what the ingredients were and why the team chose them. Each cook has a mental idea of what the soup should be and how it should taste and be plated. And when an outside cook comes in and says let’s add lima beans, they will all say, no way that won’t fit this soup!
Compared to the questionnaire method. Probably one single person filled out the questionnaire and just answered surface level questions about the brand. I’ve been in situations where the marketing team hired us to make a logo and then the CEO comes in and burns everything down because he likes blue.
More clear direction and feedback for designers
Once the team is on the same page, then designers can work on identity or logos, and the team will be able to gauge: ‘does this design execute the brand strategy correctly?’, ‘Does this copy feel like something our brand would say?’ If you don’t have this common foundation then things like logos and colors often become disagreements based on personal preference.
As you can see, I’m pretty hyped on running brand workshops because they educate, empower and get the stakeholders on the same page, which also benefits the design side of things by having clear concise direction and parameters to follow. Designers are trained to justify every design decision and nothing brings us more joy than being able to explain why we chose this or that, and the client totally understanding and on the same page!
You can offer more services
The great thing about running workshops is that it’s another service you can offer. I’ve never had a client thrilled to answer a logo questionnaire, but I’ve had many clients profoundly moved and changed after going through a brand workshop.
Branding is very difficult to grasp and articulate, and you’d be amazed to see how common it is for a group of teammates working on the same brand for years to have wildly different perspectives on it. I usually host two-day workshops consisting of four hours each day. And we go deep into the brand and the company, and people come out feeling enlightened with new clarity. It’s pretty crazy, it’s like brand therapy.
The clients love it and it’s a “win-win” for the designers to have educated clients in agreement.
What’s the catch?
Well, the catch is that after you run a brand workshop, you need to put together a brand strategy. That might sound scary but if you’ve been designing corporate identity and already applying design thinking and rationale to justify your design decisions, you can put together a strategy. It’s basically rationalizing design decisions from the input you received before you start designing :)
Don’t worry, we’ll cover brand strategy in future emails.
Your next steps
If you’re thinking about running a brand workshop, but you’re not sure where to start, or if you don’t have the budget for a brand strategist or agency, don’t worry! It’s totally possible to run a successful brand workshop in-house.
In the next newsletter, we’ll go through the actual brand exercises in a workshop. There’s quite a few that you can pick and choose from depending on the client and their industry. There are some fast and easy ones to run when people get tired, and some deeper ones where the clients need to write and think more.
See you in next week’s edition, where we’ll get ready to start cooking.