You’re searching for someone, a pro, to take your company’s branding and design to the next level. But where do you start? Well, if you’re like most people, you may have hit up Google or relied on a referral from a trusted source.

But once you have a few candidates in mind, what should you look for to ensure you and the agency mesh well?

First, they understand what you want to accomplish

It’s one thing to understand how branding and design intersect. But it’s another to pair this knowledge with business and use it to get results. For any design partner you’re considering working with, they’ll have to fully understand your KPIs and your short- and long-term goals.

Most of this information is revealed during those initial meetings with the creative agency. And it’s when they’ll ask lots of questions to get clear on your needs. Your answers to these questions help designers get on your level, so each design iteration aligns with what you want to accomplish.

Second, their expertise matches your industry

When a designer knows your industry, there’s a shorter learning curve to understand your business and its products or services. But this industry experience also needs to include working on the types of campaigns you have in the queue. Here are a couple of ways to vet the agency’s background beyond looking at their client list.

– Check out their portfolio of work

Do you see anything similar to what you’re looking for?

– Look for case studies

Are there results listed for the projects?

And when it comes to style, the right design partner for you will be able to capture the essence of your brand.

Third, they have processes in place and use ‘em

Processes. They’re the one thing that keeps everyone aligned, efficient, and productive. And it’s how they’re able to move your project along.

But before embarking on any new partnership, you’ll want to know what a branding and design agency’s process is before, during, and after the project. If you’re unsure about how to find out this information, here are a few questions to ask:

Who will be the day-to-day contact?
In many cases, you’ll have a dedicated client contact, usually a client services representative or even a creative director, depending on the organization. When you have a question, you’ll have a direct line to this person.

What is their discovery process like?
As part of the design and branding process, there’s a gathering of insights known as ‘discovery.’ Discovery happens before anyone begins working on the creative part of the project. It includes getting information about direct and indirect competitors, delving into customer perceptions, and analyzing the current market landscape.

This work is done upfront to prevent the team from delivering something way off from the original project brief. And it’s important to know if this is something built into the agency’s process.

How will projects be delivered?
Before moving a single pixel or brainstorming meeting takes place, you’ll work with the agency before the project to establish timelines, review sessions, and implementation (if needed). If there are any specific requirements for delivering the final creative design (file type, size, format, etc.), your agency contact will also address this.

Fourth, they’re organized

The one thing you don’t need to worry about while working with an agency is hunting down your contact. To keep all of those projects running smoothly, design teams communicate openly with each other – and with you.

Even though many agencies have their own internal tools in place, it’s not uncommon to work with a client’s internal software. For example, we use a project management system to communicate internally, but in the past, our team has also worked with clients using Asana, Basecamp, and other applications.

These apps create transparency for everyone and cut down on emails flying back and forth.

Bonus: They prove their value to your business

‘Aha!’ moments happen when people can collaborate and build on each other’s ideas. When you work with an agency that’s invested in your success, they’re always going to come with their A-game, presenting new ideas and approaches to move your business upward.

For these creative thinkers, us included, it’s the opportunity of solving a business challenge using design that gets us out of bed in the morning.

Conclusion

The right combination of brains, creativity, and a clear understanding of your business goals is what takes your branding and marketing to new heights.
Getting there means partnering with a branding and design agency that does more than flex its creative muscles. The right creative partner will also have the intellectual chops and business savvy to help you build a brand gains–and maintains–traction.

Styles or brand guides are truly helpful documents. They set the rules for how the visual, messaging, and other elements appear to the world.

But when is the right time to create one for your business?

In our opinion, you don’t need to look for an exact date, but instead, keep an eye out for some of the following warning signs.

Businesses need style guides to maintain brand consistency

Many companies have a set of existing brand guidelines. It’s one tool businesses should have — and follow — to keep their brands consistent. But for those with a style guide, 27% of these businesses don’t enforce their use regularly.

Small details get overlooked — or ignored — leading to more significant problems maintaining brand consistency.

And with 77% of company’s reporting off-brand content going out into the world, it’s a big deal.

Some of the most egregious issues we’ve seen with brand inconsistency are with logos and font usage, and include:

Incorrect color usage

Often, color shifts occur when someone is unfamiliar with the various formats (RGB, HEX, CMYK, and PMS) and how to use them (in print or digitally). Changing these color conversions, even slightly, can cause your final design to look wildly different from what you expected.

Unapproved changes to the logo

When there are multiple versions of the logo floating around without use case documentation, it’s a recipe for unauthorized changes to get pushed out onto different marketing pieces and internal documents.

Improper font treatments

For those creating materials on the fly who aren’t professional designers or work with them regularly, it’s not unusual to wing it. Instead of using a branded font, it’s easier to choose a nice-looking one and slap it on a brochure or flyer. This lack of attention to detail makes businesses appear erratic with their brands.

These transgressions might sound like minor nitpicking, but they’re jarring to audiences who expect the companies they buy from to have a solid, consistent presence.

Brand style guides mitigate the issues mentioned above. They give people without any formal design knowledge guidance about using their company’s assets.

But this isn’t the only indicator of needing to create brand standards.

You need a brand guide when your messaging is “off”

Brands have a specific personality, voice, and purpose they express to the world. And when the company goes off-script in its messaging, it sounds like a painfully sharp record scratch to your audience.

There’s such a thing as going too far in one direction, and when this happens, it can feel like your company isn’t, well, the same one your audience knows and loves.

To stop this from happening in the first place, you’ll need good messaging standards to show content writers and copywriters the correct tone and cadence to use. Mozilla is a company that has an established brand personality, and its incredibly detailed style guide tells you exactly what the company represents.

But the internet browsing corporation also explains what this looks like in reality. Marketing teams and writers have real-world examples showing what they should and shouldn’t do with the Mozilla brand.

Businesses need brand standards as they grow

Brand consistency contributes to around 10-20% of revenue growth. As companies produce more digital and printed marketing content, it becomes challenging to maintain quality control without a style guide.

And since we’ve talked about a few of the problems affecting external campaigns, let’s talk about the internal ones. Some of the most common issues we’ve seen due to a lack of guidelines – or improper usage – are:

– Inconsistent email signatures
– Incorrect email headers and logos
– Wrong assets on company intranets

These internal oversights will ultimately seep into other parts of the business, affecting future earnings for the company. And it’s why your company needs to have brand standards that are accessible and easy to reference as it grows.

Brand guidelines also increase efficiency with external contractors
As more people work on the brand, keeping things cohesive becomes even more important. Businesses with a set of brand guidelines reduce friction with outside contractors.

Once they have them in hand, designers, developers, social media managers, and others can efficiently produce what you want without a ton of back and forth about colors, fonts, or photography usage.

Stay consistent & save time with brand style guides.

People build perceptions about companies based on their interactions with them. And naturally, you want those first, second, and third impressions to be positive.

As more channels open up, making it easier for businesses to reach audiences, brands need to deliver the same experience each time, especially as marketers produce more content than ever before.

Businesses need to use style guides to keep their brand voice and visual identity consistent. Incorporating these guidelines into your marketing workflow reduces the number of hours it takes for teams to crank out campaigns and keeps the brand unified — online and off.