nudenotes on Building a Brand
Image courtesy of @timothycdykes via Unsplash.
Here at NSC, we love The Futur!
For those not in the know:
"The Futur is an education platform where creative professionals learn business principles. From freelancers to creative entrepreneurs, we have the tools, courses, and content designed specifically for you. Our mission is to empower one million creative entrepreneurs to establish successful, sustainable and fulfilling businesses."
Recently the team at The Futur produced a video series called 'Building a Brand', in which the team worked on a rebranding project for Hamilton's Family Brewery.
Hosted by The Futur's very own design and branding gurus, Ben Burns and Matthew Encina, the series documents every step of the process in an honest and insightful way.
It’s a must-watch for anyone keen on building their own brand in the creative industry.
In this article, I’m going to share my nudenotes on this video series, complete with my key takeaways, plus a sprinkling of my insights.
As an added bonus, I’ve also embedded the videos from this series, so you can watch them and read my nudenotes – to help you get as much from them as I did!
Let's get started...
Episode 1: Starting the Branding Process
How do you rebrand a company?
How do you find your unique edge?
What role do designers play in all of this?
The goal any branding or brand should be differentiation.
“Standing out in a crowded marketplace is more important than ever. The best way to accomplish that is to build a meaningful, recognisable brand for your business; one that creates a memorable experience, generates a gut feeling, and leaves a mark in the consumer's mind.”
The Futur Team are masters at doing just that.
So, strap yourselves in – it’s gonna be a good one!
Episode 2: Defining the Customer
What is a discovery session?
How do you stand out from a crowd?
What questions do you ask a client?
Thanks to The Futur, my eyes have been opened to the benefits of a solid discovery session.
Discovery is the foundation on which you build your creative work – it defines every decision you make moving forward.
This video is a game-changer for all you creative professionals out there who struggle with getting good quality creative direction from clients at the beginning of a project.
A discovery session is a facilitated meeting with clients or stakeholders in which you:
Define goals
Identify pain points
Identify customer challenges
Define brand attributes
Episode 3: Getting Your Creative Team Aligned
What is a creative brief?
How do you translate strategy into visuals?
It was fascinating to see how creative directors Matthew Encina and Ben Burns navigate the beginning of a project, taking the insights from the discovery session and developing clear direction for all the creative work to follow.
The keys to a good creative brief are:
Goals and success
Highlight discovery insights
User/consumers needs and desires
Design challenges and parameters
Brand attributes
Tasks for each team member
Do your creative briefs have these keys to success?
If not, this may be what your design process is missing.
Episode 4: Visual Aesthetic
How do define the look of a brand?
How do you translate the clients vision for your creative teams?
It's time to curate stylescapes !
"This is a crucial step in the branding process as the team turns the insights from the discovery session into a visual direction for the brand."
Stylescapes are moodboards on steroids!
They’ll help you decide the look and feel of your brand, as a whole.
Episode 5: A Better Place to Present to Clients
How do you pitch your ideas to clients?
Last time, we looked at developing stylescapes – this time, it's all about presenting these to clients.
Leaping from words to images or a design brief to design concept is tricky, but essential to setting the direction of any project.
"Clients don't always know how to express what they are looking for when it comes to visual concepts."
This is where we step in as creative professionals, this is where our value truly shines through.
I love how concise, clear, compelling and god-damn cool Ben Burns and Matthew Encina are presenting to clients.
Top tips for presenting ideas to clients from The Futur:
Give context
No need to have all the answers
Have conversations, not presentations
Episode 6: Logo Design Process with a Client
What is logo design?
How do you make a good one?
A logo’s job is to identify, not explain.
It's one of the most important parts of a business – the face of your company.
A good logo must match these criteria:
Memorable
Versatile
Relevant.
In this episode, we saw how The Futur team make the leap from stylescape to design – really interesting to see how the team develop new logo designs.
As a side note, I’m also super jealous of Emanuele Ricci lettering skills – I can’t help but imagine what my nudenotes would look like with those skills!
Episode 7: When Clients Change Their Mind
How do you deal with client feedback?
It is part of every project, sometimes it's positive or constructive, but sometimes it's out of the left field, a curveball that can change the direction of the project at the 11th hour.
Client feedback is inevitable, and can be incredibly useful – it's how you deal with that feedback that can back the difference between a happy project and a sad one for everyone involved.
Adapt and overcome.
It's the only way – Ben Burns and Matthew Encina have some amazing insights in facilitating the process of dealing with feedback.
Episode 8: Building a Client Website from Scratch
What does it take to create a website?
Everything is online now, and a website is an important tool to reach out to your consumers.
Now, you don't need to be a computer whizz to create a gorgeous website that engages with your audience.
Watching Ben Burns, Matthew Encina and the team create a website without coding or developers was amazing – Webflow seems like an amazing tool, and the finish looks amazing.
Episode 9: Making Beer Stand Out on the Shelf
How do you make your packaging stand out on the shelf?
How do you and consumers choose one product over the other?
When 70% of buying decisions are made on the shelf, you realise just how important good packaging design is!
As a Packaging Designer, I found this episode particularly interesting, especially how objective the process was.
When you're deep in the fog of the design process, it can be difficult to remain objective, but leveraging the research and discovery insight lifts that fog, making the process more efficient and effective.
It reminded me a lot of Chris Do post about remaining passionately detached:
“Passionate while creating,
Detached during the critique."
It’s definitely a phrase I’ve uttered to myself a few times at work!
Episode 10: Making the Perfect Beer Commerical
How do you make the perfect video commercial?
I have no idea – but that thanks to this video, I’ve gained a lot more insight on this process.
You need a video full of story, taste appeal, and heart.
Video communications are ubiquitous in modern life – they both inform and entertain us.
Video can be a powerful tool to persuade consumers to do all kinds of things.
This was a great introduction to this kind of film-making, and now I really want a beer!
Episode 11: Launching a Beer Brewery Brand
Can design have a positive impact on a business?
Short answer: hell yes!
With all the rebranding process complete, The Futur team hand over to Hamilton Family Brewery for the big reveal, and what a reveal it was, it looks amazing!
You can check out the rebrand for yourself: Hamilton's Family Brewery.
Be warned – you will crave a beer!
This mini-series hosted by Matthew Encina and Ben Burns is incredible.
It's packed full of amazing, honest and insightful information, and I firmly believe that every creative professional should watch it!
I've learned so many lessons from this show, I can't even list them all out.
But I know these notes will ensure those lessons aren't forgotten – I hope they help you remember this content, too.
I hope The Futur team get the opportunity to make a second series of this show, the design world needs it.
Come on, Netflix – surely there is a little room for this show?
Please make another series!
Want to own a copy of all the nudenotes in this series?
Now you can – head over to our shop and you can grab a high-resolution copy of all 11 spreads of these nudenotes in a handy printable PDF. The best bit is it’s completely FREE!
Don’t miss out!
All the money collected from the sale of these nudenotes booklets will all go into developing more exciting resources and content for you to digest.
Dull packaging copy, uninspiring design, and, worst of all “I just don’t like it”.