Here’s How We Collaborate With Our Clients

Every graphic design process will look a little bit different. It’s important that when you are starting a branding journey you find a designer or brand strategist whose process you like. Maybe you want to be hands-on, or maybe you don’t. There should be some synergy between you and the person or team creating your brand. It can be a long process, and you want to make sure you enjoy every moment—branding should be fun!

Today we wanted to go over what the Paper Lime Creative logo development process looks like. First, it’s important to know that we put your customers first, not you. That might sound a bit shocking but bear with us. When you put your customers at the heart of your brand you do a whole bunch of things:

• find the best customers, faster
• build trust with them quicker
• lower the cost of acquisition to convert them to paying customers
• increase customer loyalty and engagement

Our businesses are our babies and it can be hard to separate something we want to see, from what our customers truly need—especially when it comes to aesthetic choices. The example I always give is of a local middle-aged, male wedding photographer. What he likes visually or in his messaging probably won’t attract his clients (brides being typically 27-year-old females). He will do all the points mentioned above if he tailors his branding to those 27-year-old females, as opposed to his personal taste.

Think about a brand you like. Is their messaging/visuals *us us us* (the brand) or *you you you* (the customer).

We have a 5-step graphic design process that helps both us and you get into your dream client’s shoes and tailors your branding directly to them. 

 

Discovery Session

This actually might be Katie’s favourite thing. Discovery sessions run anywhere from an hour and a half to 2 hours. During this time we dive into your business (what you do, and how you do it differently), your dream client (most of the time is spent here), and then how you marry those two together (who you need to be for your dream client). 

We ask that you bring any and all decision makers to this discovery session! We call it the “Say Yes to the Dress” syndrome. You want to make sure that anyone who will have a final say, has an initial say, too. 

 

Research

A lot of information comes out of the discovery session, but we are always seeking more. We spend a bunch of time doing research based on the findings of the discovery session. Sometimes we interview people, check out censuses or scholarly articles, and we look to parallel industries for inspiration. Parallel industries are industries with the same dream customer, but are in different fields (ie we would never look to a photographer for inspiration if you’re a photographer—it’s already been done!) 

 

Collaboration

It’s your brand, you get a say. At the end of the day, we want your fingerprints on it, not ours. We want a brand that you are proud to show off to the world and understand all the details of so that you can truly own it. The greatest business growth comes from when you can walk the walk and talk the talk with your brand, you shouldn’t be unsure of anything after you’re finished with us. 

 

Creation

A brand needs some deliverables, and we love creating them! We put together your brand story, logos, secondary visuals and messaging so that you know exactly how your business should look and sound each and every time.

 

Revisions

We’re not happy until you’re happy. Want to see a slightly different shade of green? Or a couple of different font options? If you need to see something to feel confident in your decision, don’t hesitate to ask!

And that’s it! We’ve developed this branding process over years of trial and error, with many tweaks and adjustments. Honestly, it’s still changing all the time to serve our clients better. It’s important to go through all the steps to get a 360 view of your business and brand. If you skip steps and try to take shortcuts, you will miss crucial strategy and understanding of the brand and customers, and honestly, you’ll end up paying more in the long run, too. 

 

Like Our Graphic Design Process?

Does this sound like exactly what you need? We would love to talk about your goals in a quick intro call to get your project started.