One of my biggest learnings as a brand designer has been nothing to do with design. It has been about the work I do with my clients, that has to happen before any of the designs. This part of the project has a lot of names including brand clarity, brand strategy, business plan, brand mission etc. But for now, I’m going to call it brand clarity.
So what does clarity mean to me?
Clarity to me means a clear sense, an un-muddled idea. It’s an all-encompassing feeling. It’s not just a definition that you can put into words or a simple tagline. It’s a 4-dimensional picture that builds the foundations for the brand you’re trying to create. Its impact is the way it makes someone feel. It takes into account the textures, noises, tastes and smells that are all experienced. When a brands’ unique world comes to light and is uncovered, then the brand design work is made much easier. We know exactly how we are going to make your audience feel by using design tools, one of them being clarity.
Like Marty Neumeier said in his book The Brand Gap “A brand is not a logo. A brand is not a corporate identity system. It’s a person’s gut feeling about a product, service, or company.” That is a brand. A brand is how you make someone feel.
Starting your business and brand design journey with a strong sense of clarity is an extremely powerful tool. It gives your business longevity and confidence.
There are many areas of brand clarity that I could go into but to save time I’m going to talk about the parts I have found most powerful.
How have I noticed brand clarity make the biggest difference?
It gives you the opportunity to think big
The best thing about brand clarity is that there is no judgement. It’s a chance to leave all your preconceived ideas about what is and isn’t possible at the door and to speak out your wildest dreams without judgement.
It makes you think about the world beyond yourself
Thinking about what kind of impact your brand will make when you’re no longer around. Thinking like this is a great way to break any habitual thought patterns that are so easily used in our everyday lives.
Brand clarity makes us think differently
It’s natural for our minds to think small because it keeps us safe. We have a habit of putting up barriers when we begin to think out of our comfort zones, we come up with excuses that stop us from achieving what we really want. We build a wall of excuses and negative though that talk us out of our big ideas. But building a business is about going after what you want, it’s about taking risks, without letting your insecurities hold you back. And facing that head-on whilst working on your branding in a safe and creative space.
It helps you to reconnect with why you are doing what you are doing
When everything about your brand is in alignment with your values as a person, it has tremendous strength. It will motivate you as a business owner in the tough times and connect you deeply with your target audience.
It gives you a chance to work out what isn’t right
An extremely important part of the process that is sometimes overlooked. As business owners, we don’t put much value on working on parts of our business that we know we probably won’t use. Understandably time is precious and we want to make the most of the precious time we have. But when you whittle out what you don’t want is powerful and refines your vision. It also makes you more secure in the ideas that are right, giving you motivation and confidence in the long run.
This also gives you the chance to go wrong
By exploring the wrong ideas at the beginning of your journey can save you a lot of time further on down the road! In fact, I encourage you to go wrong. Explore the ideas that you thought were right for your business, see how they feel and if it doesn’t feel right then change it and move on.
Creating a super focused brand clarity builds excitement
Part of building a brand is about creating a vision that can and will come to life. If you’re anything like me you’ll love a good plan and brand clarity is like planning but with flair. Author Elizabeth Cairns writes in her book The Empowered Entrepreneur “For a vision to work best you have to be able to call it up at will and make it tangible. This is what makes it motivating and bridges the gap between thought and action”. Words are the starting point but they can only get us so far. If we use clarity to create a tangible vision it gives us so much motivation. It creates an exciting essence for your business. If you’re a visual thinker this can be one of the most exciting elements of using clarity for your brand.
A brand designer can be the perfect person to work with to not only get a beautiful brand designed for your business but to get a crystal clear understanding of what your business is about. And with that comes so many positives.
If you would like to dive deeper into your brands’ clarity, I recommend you download my Brand Clarity Questions.
There you’ll find prompts and questions that will make you think clearly about your business, get laser-focused on what you want to become and understand what makes you stand out from the crowd.
Have a wonderful day! x
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