KAARS Identity Brief
Lead by Aidan Nolan
6 min read 16.04.24
This workshop was given to us by Aidan, a local graphic designer with years of experience in the industry. He introduced us to the process surrounding a client presentation and how we can go about pitching and selling our ideas to clients. He began by running us through his research phase, showing us how he breaks down different briefs and what specifics he looks for when opening up a project. In addition he taught us to gather inspiration specific to these extracted ideas, resulting in a more informed development of ideas and ultimately more sellable and accurate design outcomes.
He then moved onto showing us how to develop concepts through a brand presentation, outlining how we can contextualise our ideas into mockups and presentation slides, ready to sell to clients in convincing manner. He told us about the importance of appropriate context, and how clients are more inclined to be convinced on an idea when they can see it in a visual context similar to its real use cases. We looked at various brand presentations to gather inspiration for our own before moving onto our given briefs for the workshop.
Aidan briefed us on 3 different identity projects, one of which we chose randomly. I received the candle brief project for a premium candle brand in Amsterdam.
I began the project by researching thoroughly, 3 different directions to take the brand identity in. I outlined these in my R&D so it was clear which directions and ideas I wanted to execute on in my process.
This was followed up by a full development of each direction accompanied by mockups, visual identity cards and colour presentations to give full context for each idea, and show it in a light which is both convincing, professional and clear.
From this presentation I was instructed that my second idea was the strongest and that I should carry out some refinements to improve it, as you can see from the image above.
Overall this project was a big learning curve, discovering what its like to work in a real client situation, as well as how to present work in a convincing manner to a prospect.
Research
Research is the most important part of the creative process as it allows us to gather ideas, styles and visuals that speak to the style of work we want to create. They help to inform our future design decisions as well as bring the client onboard with our ideas as they can clearly see the direction we want to take and if that aligns with their vision for the project.
Concept Development
Concept development is mostly a rough ideation process involving a range of sketched and quickly developed ideas to expand on our agreed and researched themes. From these ideas we can confine the best and most fitting outcomes, refining them into digital, professional looking concepts. This stage is known as the expansive stage in the project where any idea with potential is being explored, nothing left behind.
Concept presentation
This is the most important part of the design process as we have to present our work appropriately and confidently to the client in order to convince them to invest in the idea and progress with it as a solution for the project. To present my work I used a range of bento grids to clearly lay out each section of the visual identity process along with relevant mockups to make sure I can clearly present each element and show it in a relevant context to the project brief.
Featured Artist: MadebyJames
Profession: Identity Designer, Entrepreneur
James is a designer I discovered a while ago when looking for identity designers to emulate and learn from. His book goes into depth on how to present work to clients and how to craft identities that will always get accepted and be fitting for the clients needs. His process uses focus and detail to extract everything he can from a brief, only presenting one direction at a time in order to help his clients through the design process, letting him convince them on his ideas and present a strong and valid identity for their business.
