Why You Shouldn’t Do Design without Strategy
By Levina Kusumadjaja
“Just design me some kind of logo. Make it look good.”
Good?
According to who?
Who gets to decide what makes this logo “good”?
Be honest to yourself. When you are stuck in the endless loop of subjective feedback and unclear revisions, have you ever asked yourself this question: what really makes your design good?
It’s frustrating to be working on a project and never really knowing what defines the success of the project. The value of your design isn’t determined by you as the creator, rather it is determined by the value it brings to the client. However, this value is closely tight to the goal and success metrics that your client wants to reach. Without strategy, this goal isn’t clarified, and as a result, the value of your design cannot be determined. This is exactly what you will experience when you attempt to design brand and visual identities without brand strategy.
A design is only as valuable as the value it creates.
Deep down, your clients don’t just want something good. They want to solve problems. When they come to you asking you to rebrand the business, chances are that’s not the fundamental goal that they are trying to accomplish. Perhaps they believe that the “outdated” look of the brand contributes to people not buying from them and moving to their competitors. If that’s the case, they are not looking for you to bring a new and fresh look to the business, they want to increase their sales. This means that eventually, the visual identity you create for them will only be as valuable as the sales created as a result of the new visual identity. Without the sales, the visual identity gives the client little value.
Design without strategy is purposeless.
This is what you get when design is done without strategy. If you just want to design something for the sake of designing it, what’s the purpose? Designs that produce results and solve problem are designs that are created to produce results and solve problems. In other words, you need to know what your designs are trying to accomplish—it needs to have a purpose, and that purpose is discovered and clarified through strategy.
Strategy makes design measurable, which then gives your client a reason to invest in your creative work.
Think about it this way: you can’t make your client care for something that they can’t see the value in. If they know what problems your designs will solve, they will care. When your client understands that the logo you create will help them save their business, they will see the logo not as an expense—but an investment. Do you see the difference now? This is the power of strategy behind design. It eliminates the endless loop of subjective feedback because both you and your client now anchor every effort towards a clarified goal. With strategy, you transform a design from just a pretty picture, into an impactful and valuable instrument.
“There is no reason to have design if you don’t have strategy.”
- Fabian Geyrhalter
Cheers!
Levina
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About the author:
Levina is a writer based in Indonesia. Because of Melinda Livsey, she recognized the power of brand strategy for every creative. She is sharing about her learnings as she goes to help creatives have fun in their growth and journey of building brands. Connect with her on LinkedIn and say hi!