A bit like doctors who specialise in different things, designers have their specialisations too. Graphic Designer versus Brand Identity Designer
These terms can get so muddied. There is overlap in what a graphic designer does and what a brand identity designer does, but knowing their specialities can save you anguish and confusion.
Things people say that shows they are confused about designers:
🤨 I was really disappointed in my final branding – my designer completely missed the mark.
🤨 My designer asked me what I want. I have no idea. I thought that was their job!
🤨 I was quoted a fortune for branding by a designer! I need branding at an affordable price. Are there any graphic designers who can help?
Here’s a quick checklist to see which type of designer you need.
You need a graphic designer if:
✍️ You already have a brand identity with a brand strategy, a brand guide, brand assets, logo, colours, typography, imagery style etc.
✍️ And then you need branded materials created…. a brochure, labels, business cards, social media templates. Your graphic designer can use your existing brand identity to create the specific graphics you need.
✍️ You have a one-off design job that needs doing.
✍️ A graphic designer will often follow your direct instruction and produce exactly what is requested. This can be a disadvantage when creating a brand identity because you possibly won’t fully understand branding or have solid design knowledge. Which means your brand identity might not turn as well as it could.
You need a brand identity designer if:
💎 You have no structured brand identity or you have DIY’d your branding until now. You need a branding professional to take you to the next level.
💎 You need a clear brand strategy, a business objective for your branding, an aesthetic to appeal to your market position and you need all the brand assets and templates to action your brand & business strategy.
💎 You need a full design service. They won’t do one-off graphic design jobs.
💎 A brand identity designer will have experience in brand creation for business and lead the design process. You don’t need to have any design ideas yourself, which means your brand identity will be optimised to do the job it needs to do. It’s not just your personal taste.
It’s easy to think that a designer, any designer can do everything. But within the design world there are specialists and generalists. And your business needs to know who to use and when. Knowing this will save you time, money and heartache.
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