“What happens after I hire you?”
That’s a very common question when someone gets in touch with me to develop a visual identity.
The person understands they need to change the brand, receives a proposal, sees a series of stages and deliverables, but can’t always picture what happens between the first conversation and the final files.
And I think it’s important to understand that before starting.
A visual identity project involves a sequence of decisions. Each stage exists to answer some questions, reduce uncertainty and prepare the ground for the next one.
Let me show you how this process usually works in the projects I lead.
How does a visual identity project work? The short answer
I start by understanding the business, the company’s moment and the problem the identity needs to help solve.
Then I organize this information into criteria for the project, explore possible visual directions, validate those directions with the client and move on to developing the visual identity.
From there, the system is tested at the brand’s main touchpoints, refined and organized so other people can use it after delivery.
The process can change depending on the company, the challenge and the scope.
The logic behind it usually stays the same: each decision prepares the next.
Everything starts before the drawing
A company usually looks for a visual identity project because something is happening.
Maybe it’s starting out and needs to present itself to the market.
Maybe it has grown and the brand no longer represents the company very well.
It might be entering a new market, changing its audience, raising its ticket, creating new fronts or trying to organize communication that grew without much direction.
That context matters a lot.
Before thinking about a symbol, color or typography, I need to understand where the company is and where it intends to go.
That’s why the first conversations usually cover the business, the audience, the competitors, the differentiators, the goals and how the company would like to be perceived. The deeper we go, the more authentic the result.
I also try to understand the brand’s main touchpoints.
A business that sells mainly through sales presentations has different needs from a company whose brand shows up all the time on packaging, apps or physical stores.
The visuals will need to work in that real world later.
If you’re still trying to figure out whether this kind of project makes sense for your company right now, I also wrote about when investing in visual identity is worth it.
The briefing is the starting point
Receiving information is relatively easy.
The challenge lies in turning all of it into parameters that help make decisions.
Imagine a company says it wants to look “modern, professional and innovative”. On its own, that helps little. Practically any company would like to be perceived that way. It doesn’t differentiate, and it doesn’t position.
I need to investigate what those words mean in that context.
- Professional in what way?
- More technical or more approachable?
- More institutional or more expressive?
- Which traits need to show?
- Which ones need to be avoided?
- What exists in the market today?
- Where is there room for differentiation?
In my process, this first stage ends with a synthesis.
The goal is to be able to answer more clearly things like:
- Who is this company?
- What has changed?
- What is the current challenge?
- Who are we building this brand for?
- What perception do we want to strengthen?
- Which differentiators need to show better?
- Where will this identity be used most often?
These answers become criteria for evaluating the next stages.
It’s an important shift.
The conversation starts with scattered opinions and information. After the synthesis, we have a foundation for discussing decisions.
Moodboards help you see possibilities
With clearer criteria, I start entering the visual territory.
A tool I use a lot at this stage is the moodboard.
Moodboards bring together references for typography, color, composition, photography, graphic language and other elements able to explore different atmospheres for the brand.
The goal here is to talk about perception. The same challenge can be solved by very different visual worlds. We may find that a certain direction feels too cold. Another may be too close to the competitors. A third may have the right combination of structure and personality, but need adjustments in its image language.
This kind of conversation is much more useful before I spend weeks developing a complete identity.
Moodboards help identify affinities, rejections and limits.
After that, I can move forward with more clarity.
From references, a direction of its own is born
Once the moodboards have done their job, I start interpreting what we learned.
Here, external references give way to studies developed specifically for the company.
I explore how typography, colors, composition, images and graphic language can work together within an original direction.
This stage matters because it builds a bridge between strategy and visual identity.
There’s still room to adjust behavior, intensity and perception before the whole system is developed.
I like working this way because each validation reduces a little of the uncertainty of the next stage.
The client can also follow the reasoning.
Instead of receiving an unexpected solution at the end of the project, they understand how we got there.
The visual identity starts to take shape
With the direction aligned, a very exploratory phase begins.
This is when I draw, test, compare, discard and redo.
Symbol, logotype, typography, color palette, graphic elements, composition and other components start being developed as parts of the same system.
I test a lot. I stress-test as many ideas as possible
Some ideas look promising at first and lose strength as they’re developed.
Others start out modest and become more interesting as I find new relationships.
It’s all part of the process.
My concern at this stage is finding a solution that answers the criteria defined at the beginning and, at the same time, has enough personality to belong to that company.
The logo plays an important role in this, but it lives alongside many other elements.
If that difference still raises questions, it’s worth reading the article on the difference between a logo and a brand.
Applications put the system to the test
An identity can look very good while it’s organized in a presentation.
I need to find out what happens when it’s put to use.
That’s why I start taking the system into situations close to the company’s reality.
- A website.
- A sales presentation.
- Packaging.
- A social media profile.
- A uniform.
- A storefront.
- An interface.
Touchpoints vary from business to business.
This is the stage where I look at legibility, flexibility, recognition, contrast, hierarchy and consistency.
Sometimes a choice works very well in a large application and struggles at smaller sizes.
A composition may work in horizontal formats and need a different logic in vertical ones.
A color palette may seem sufficient until the system needs to organize more complex content.
These tests help find problems while there’s still room to solve them.
Applications also help the client picture how the identity will exist outside the presentation.
The client takes part in the process
I like to validate the project gradually.
There’s a simple reason for that.
The client knows their own business deeply.
I bring my repertoire, my experience and the outside view of someone who has been through this process many times.
When these two perspectives talk throughout the process, we can make decisions with much more confidence.
It also avoids a dynamic I find unhealthy: the designer disappears for weeks, comes back with a completely finished solution and expects an immediate reaction.
I prefer to build understanding along the way.
- First we validate the diagnosis.
- Then the visual territories.
- Then the creative direction.
- Then the visual identity system.
Each stage creates context for the next. Feedback helps polish the work.
Instead of a conversation based only on “I like it” or “I don’t like it”, we can go back to the criteria we defined at the beginning and ask whether that decision is helping build the desired perception.
What do you receive at the end of a visual identity project?
The scope varies from company to company.
A startup launching its first product may need different things from an established company going through a rebranding.
In general, my projects can bring together four groups of deliverables.
Strategy that guides the project
This records the context, the audience, the differentiators, the desired perception and the criteria that guided the decisions.
This material helps preserve the reasoning behind the visual identity.
Visual identity system
This is the set developed to visually represent the brand.
It can include a logotype, symbol, typography, color palette, graphic elements, image language, composition rules and other components needed for that project.
Applied visual universe
I also develop applications that show how the system works at the touchpoints most relevant to the business.
Besides presenting the identity, these pieces serve as a reference for future applications.
Files and usage guidelines
At the end, the files are organized for different usage needs.
Depending on the project, there’s also a brand guide with guidelines so teams, partners, suppliers and other designers can keep using the identity consistently.
Some projects may include additional needs, such as naming, a tagline, brand architecture, launch materials, a social media kit, a website layout or other applications.
That’s why I prefer to define the scope after understanding the company’s moment.
A visual identity project and logo design are different things
This difference also helps explain why proposals called “visual identity” can vary so much in price, timeline and depth.
There are services focused solely on creating a logo.
There are projects that include a logo, colors and typography.
And there are projects that start with a diagnosis, go through visual direction, build a complete system and follow its application.
They can all appear in the market under similar names.
What’s behind the name is what needs to be compared.
I wrote a whole article on how much a visual identity costs and what makes the price vary so much, because this difference in scope explains much of the variation in investment you’ll find.
How do you know if this process makes sense for your company?
I would start by looking at the business’s moment.
- Does the company already know what it sells and who it sells to?
- Is there a change happening?
- Does the current perception keep up with the level of delivery?
- Is the communication consistent?
- Can the brand work at the main touchpoints?
- Is there clarity about what needs to change?
When these questions start coming up often, there’s usually a bigger problem behind the logo file.
A well-led project helps organize these decisions before reaching the final form.
And, for me, this is still one of the most interesting parts of this work.
When the identity appears at the end, it carries a whole sequence of conversations, research, tests, choices and discards that will probably never be noticed by the people who meet the brand for the first time.
That’s fine.
The role of this process is precisely to make the result feel natural when it reaches the public.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to come with an idea for the logo?
No. You may have references, preferences or perceptions you’d like to avoid, and that’s part of the conversation. The visual direction will be built from the context and the criteria defined during the project.
Does the client take part in the creation?
Yes. I lead the design decisions and the client takes part mainly at the moments of alignment and validation. Their contribution is especially important to confirm that we’re correctly interpreting the business, the audience and the company’s moment.
What happens if I don’t like the first direction presented?
The process has checkpoints precisely to identify misalignments before finalization. Feedback is evaluated against the criteria defined at the beginning, and the direction can be adjusted based on what comes up in the conversation.
Does every visual identity project include the same deliverables?
No. The scope depends on the business, the company’s moment and the touchpoints that need to be covered. That’s why I run a diagnosis before defining exactly what goes into each project.
If you want to keep reading
I wrote other articles that can help you better understand some decisions before hiring a project:
- Is investing in visual identity worth it? The honest answer
- The difference between a logo and a brand: why a logo alone isn’t enough
- How much does a visual identity cost? What makes the price vary so much
Want to talk about your brand?
I have worked in design since 2012 and specialized in visual identity and brand building throughout this journey.
Today I lead projects for companies at different moments, from businesses organizing their first identity to brands that have grown and need to keep up with a new phase of the company.
If you feel there’s a gap between the business you’ve built and the way it’s being perceived, you can tell me a bit about your company’s moment.
I want to talk about my project
