Creativity vs Structure: The Brand Design Process

What parts of your job are creative and what parts are structured?

This was a really interesting question that I received from a lawyer the other week.

I want to answer this question for a few people though, to hopefully uncover some of nature of a creative job. So, here are the creative parts of a structured brand design process.

Connecting with people that need your service - Structured

This is marketing. Every business needs to do it, but you can have a creative approach to getting others attention. It’s a creative process in itself.

Closing Clients - Structured

This is sales. As long as you’ve got a couple of methods of walking through this process, you don’t really have to be creative with this part.

Diagnosing the business problem - Structured

This is really structured. There’s a few videos you can watch on this process, and  there are often only a handful of questions that I need to get to the core of a problem. Resources are in the comments.

Coming up with a solution - Creative

This involves various levels of creativity. Look for inspiration everywhere you can. Not just within your discipline. Ideate visually, because words don’t say everything, and visual communication is how designers best get their visions out.

Communication - Structured

Weather you manage your client relationships through a phone call, email or carrier pigeon, what you say is governed only by your intentions and just like diagnosing the problem, there’s usually only a handful of relevant questions to ask when you’re reaching out for feedback.

Development of a creative idea - Creative

Here’s usually where the disciplines split across different designers. As a brand designer, I develop a concept into a cohesive visual identity. There’s a lot of creativity involved

Testing - Structured

As much as I can test for usability / versatility / relevance, it’s important to remember that none of this is regulated. There’s nobody governing me to make sure a logo works everywhere. It is a structure than each designer develops and is one of your best differentiators between who you choose to work with.

Asset creation - Structured

This is another structure mastered through creativity. Once developed, the creativity involved is really focussed.

Rollout - Structured + Creative

This is the application stage of placing all of my visual assets into a brand’s touch point with a customer, and make something usable for marketing. Since I prepare my assets properly, the creativity in this stage is in developing options.

Hopefully after reading this, you have less fear in the process of a creative (or at least a brand designer).

If you’ve just read this and you’re also in the creative, I’d love to know where your process differs. Leave a comment and let me know.

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