VRD Brand Workshop: All you need to know

We, at VRD Studio, know the importance of starting right. Whether you are starting a new business, wanting to revamp your current ecommerce website, feeling as if you need a brand overhaul, or launching a new application.  The importance of building on the right foundations is undeniable.  

Years’ of experience in design and marketing have highlighted a few fundamentals that most overlook when wanting to establish a brand that will last:

• A brand identity helps with the strategic positioning of your products and services in the hearts and minds of users, and therefore needs to be linked to the overall marketing strategy of a company
• Designing digital products is not a matter of taste, but a matter of meaning
• Decisions can’t be made on how pretty something looks, but rather what the message is that you want to convey to your target market
• Design, copy, development,  marketing – all works together to create impact
• The more designers know about a client’s long-term strategy, the better the designs will be
• Thorough briefs considering all facets of the proposed brand, will inspire and spark powerful design ideas

A brand identity is an instant recognition, a mark, a symbol of the specific message that a company stands for, that gets communicated day-in and day-out on different platforms.

The more a client communicates with consistency using visual cues that are unique and different, the bigger awareness will be created for the brand.

The Solution

We’ve developed a multi-faceted approach to “think strategically” about design. 

Our Discovery Design Workshop consists of key questions that need to be asked to build a brand machine that will work powerfully from the get-go. This brainstorming session helps consolidate and add a new dimension to not only the brand image, but the long-term marketing strategy of a business.

The workshop sheds some light on:

• Marketing Strategy
• Brand Identity 
• The Design Brief Style
• Brand/Copywriter Messaging

Some (not all!) key questions we discuss in the workshop is:

• What are the pain points you solve?
• Who is your target audience?
• What is your value proposition?
• We drill deeper into all the components of the brand identity (name, persona, tone of voice, look and feel)
• We clarify key brand messaging for future communications strategy
• We explore the UI/UX journey 
• Discuss key functionalities of  the digital product
• We also ask the question: “What will success look like?”

What will you get out of the workshop?

• A summarised marketing strategy
• A design brief that everyone is happy with
• A well thought out brand identity
• Key brand messaging points to build a communication plan around
• A better understanding of the UI/UX journey 
• Solutions to marketing or design conundrums
• A summary of all the information designers will need in order to complete the project

How we solve the biggest problems with our Discovery Design Workshop:

The Discovery Phase for projects, which is included in the workshop, serves as an information gathering session to understand the scope of the project. The technical requirements are fleshed out on an Invision White Board, which will lead to a well thought–out plan and execution within budget and time-line.  

Although the discovery phase is an essential phase in any critical project plan, it is quite often overlooked in the design process. The lack of sufficient ground work causes a lot of delays in the agreed timelines.  Some project managers/consultants might argue that if a client’s requirements are accurately identified in the early stages, there will be no need for additional information gathering or briefs. The constant to and thro of emails which might lead to misunderstandings will be replaced with clarity, single-mindedness and excellent designs. One can actually not stress enough the importance of the discovery phase.

Common design process problems we solve during the Discovery Workshop

• We get consensus on how success looks. Success may differ from stakeholder to stakeholder so it’s important to agree on final product
• We eliminate the constant changing of minds when it comes to the overall design direction
• Clients can contribute and participate in the shaping of the design concept. It is a collaboration, rather than a “one agency show”
• There is a framework from which everyone involves works. This means that there will be less wastage with either over communication or lack of communication. Communication will be process driven, vision driven and also time-line driven
• The workshop also highlights and resolve conflicting priorities of stakeholders

We provide our clients with a  PDF. summary document of the session, as well as a recording so that all can be on the same page. This document  facilitates design decisions. 

The session is a collaboration of all the key decision makers and VRD Studio. It is an information spit-balling meeting where we creatively explore how we can use the information provided to come up with design and marketing solutions that will add value. 

The session typically lasts 2 hours