Get Hired for More Than a Logo
Last year I had the pleasure of working with Verono Homes on their rebrand. The beauty of this project (well, really all projects that start off with brand strategy) was that the ideas we came up with in the strategy session went so far beyond just a new logo.
When the owners approached me for the rebrand, their vision was to attract a certain type of customer that would follow along with their brand and wait expectantly for their new home and apartment projects. They wanted to be more than just home developers—they wanted to become THE brand of homes in LA for their target market of young, creative millennials. Since they’re originally from LA too, they wanted to make their city beautiful while building a strong community.
Sure, a logo was part of it the list of deliverables, but the plan needed more than just that for their vision to come to life. They had this big goal but they needed someone to help clarify everything and create a plan of priorities moving forward to reach said goal. As you can imagine, this got me VERY excited. Not only that, their homes are b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l!!! Having clients with great taste definitely helps. ;)
Here are some of the fun ideas that came out of the brand strategy phase that they ended up implementing and running with:
1. Community events
When they start construction on big projects, they’ll sometimes have groundbreaking events to kick off the start of construction. For one of their events earlier this year, they brought in a local artist to paint live on the barricade that was around the construction site. They hired local musicians, had a local food truck, coffeeshop, and bakery involved and invited the community to attend.
2. Swag!
When people love a brand and what they stand for, they want to sport their swag. So we not only created T-shirts for their sales people and agents, but pins, beautiful brass keychains, towels, blankets, and even custom Verono keys for homeowners. Talk about a dream project! These are the type of things I’ve always wanted to do for clients when I was just an identity designer. I had no clue how to actually pitch these ideas until brand strategy. Since clients now come to me to help them build a relationship with their customers and not just come in for a logo, they are thrilled with these types of things that delight their customer.
3. Fluid brand identity design
The whole brand strategy process gave me so many insights to use in the brand identity process. I had all the information I needed to design something that would fit all the different uses of the brand identity. When I first started doing identity (before strategy) I didn’t always uncover ideas that would lead to identity like this. But chatting with my client for 2 days in a workshop sparked so many creative ideas.
Here’s a secret: Outlining a Customer Journey (the whole relationship the customer has with the brand) is an essential part of the strategy workshop to uncover projects beyond just a logo. It’s the pathway to open up projects you never dreamed possible.
-Melinda
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