KR8 bureau has been planning brands and identities for companies, projects, products and start-ups for almost seven years. During the initial requests and interest inquiries, we noticed that there is a general consensus: companies wonder how and where to start with their own brand.

This little guide is intended to answer your first questions on the way to a brand identity, and also to raise much more and deeper questions.

“logo, typeface, color” is one approach to branding, but it actually raises so many more strategy questions than giving answers: What is the overall concept that brings these three parts to life?

That is the question of the "method" of branding. Before deciding on the method, a strategy must be created. And strategy is based on a thorough market analysis, quantitative and qualitative data, trend analyzes — and very important: also surveys within the company to determine what the capacities and requirements are to actually raise a brand.

Branding and design should never follow a purely visual idea. After we have collected our data, we take the time to lay the foundation for the brand with our customers: in a brand workshop. We mediate between personal ideas of our customers (which are mostly based on personal preferences and experience) and compare them with current markets and contemporary developments.

Our goal: to create something that does not yet exist and represents the future goals of the company. Something that raises dialogue and conversation, and simultaneously creates new value for projects and products.

What's the brand method in practise?

DESIGN GRID
More than just "logo, colors, fonts" there is an abstract core function that runs the identity. Certain elements that are related, a play of shapes, form, and representations, a construction kit that creates holistic recognition.

PERFORMANCE
As in the fine arts, everything starts more with an act of performance. An installation, an object, a disruptive PR / marketing action that lays the foundation for dialogue. This is then being converted into design in an abstract form which will become a flexible design grid: the media representation of the brand.

BRAND TOUCH POINTS
Via the strategy, we know which brand touchpoints (social media, print, sales, shop, etc.) we need to access in order to achieve the desired effect. Asking the question of how we can address target group milieus in a meaningful and unique way gives us clues as to how a visual implementation must happen.

MEDIA IMPRESSION & EFFECT
Sometimes you just need to shake things up with a fresh idea. Provocation, omitting certain things, actively initiating topics, a special media or artistic implementation that ticks the boxes. With the evaluation of the previous analysis, we get a good impression of which direction we have to take in order to establish a brand in the long run.

PRODUCT & POSITIONING
Products and services, as well as the brand itself are often shaped within one brand workshop. First ideas get their reality check with our analytic studies. Forming business and brand together is always great: Everything springs from one source.

So why not just start with the logo anyway, and see what happens? This is actually like designing a vehicle for a journey without knowing exactly where you are going.

As our office practice shows, the initially designed logo often poses more obstacles than opportunities. Because the entire design ideology is then being manifested into one symbol without giving space to the entire design infrastructure to breathe. Entrepreneurs often don't even know what to do with the logo, and how the media context will work in all the touchpoints needed.

How are partner companies being adressed with your brand, subsidiary brands or the flow of complex information? Leaving these questions to be randomly answered needs a better understanding of how a brand identity VS a simple logo designs performs.

Branding needs to delivier function regarding image, flow of information flow, business potential and innovation. It needs to give guidance on copy, image, video, overal emotional value and direct production decisions.

Branding is a holistic guide that will give inspiration to answer everyday business questions, corporate culture, brand promises and cultural values. Simultaneously, it provides consumers with the desired experience in order to identify with the brand in the long run.

There is no cheat for the "Quick Brand" because branding is an ongoing process. A company will grow with its brand. Ideally, the brand is a symbolic world that surrounds the company and develops further iteratively. And this world must be felt and perceived by employees, potential applicants and customers.