Why creative development is so hard.
Being a business founder is no walk in the park. They’re saddled with, quite literally, endless responsibilities.
Luckily founders often have a fair amount of knowledge about their field before starting their business. While that knowledge doesn’t always make the work of building the business easy, it certainly helps as they can draw on their past experience to inform their approach to new situations along the way.
Though what about the branding? Unless it’s their professional background, the branding of their firm is where many founders find themselves thrown an unexpected curveball.
No longer are they dealing with issues and experts with whom they share a common language and understanding, they’re suddenly dealing with “creatives” who have been tasked to develop subjective solutions to objective challenges. A process that’s hard enough for the creative experts to get right, let alone inexperienced founders.
The primary challenges founders encounter usually revolve around 3 key issues:
Not knowing what they need
Not knowing who they need
Not knowing how the work should be done
We’ll discuss each of these points and get to the root of why working with creatives to build a brand is a process that should not be taken lightly.
What they need.
Inexperienced founders, through no fault of their own, are often the downfall of their own branding projects as they seldom know what work needs to be done.
It’s incredibly common for founders to approach their branding projects from a utilitarian perspective - simply targeting specific assets that they think should be made - e.g. a promotional flier, a logo, a website, etc. The problem with this approach is that oftentimes founders jump directly to a narrowly defined solution without having a complete understanding of the needs of the project at hand.
Let’s examine the scenario of creating a logo. While it’s true that most businesses need a logo, it’s rare that a founder understands that what their business needs isn’t just a logo, but a comprehensive visual identity system. This system includes the logo, as well as a specific color palette, a selection of fonts each used in particular ways, and rules for how the brand appears in a consistent visual style across multiple platforms and for varying situations.
However, as founders/businesses don’t generally know that what they should be asking for is a visual identity system, they will only ask a designer for a logo. Therefore what they typically get back is a visual symbol which likely includes the business name. Nothing more, nothing less. Now, sure! The client has a logo they’re hopefully happy with, but they lack the other resources which will ensure their business looks professional and feels authentic to their brand. This means businesses are slapping logos on documents with a random assortment of fonts, colors, and images. More often than not they won’t realize that this can look highly unprofessional and be severely detrimental to their brand image.
It’s also quite common that these standalone logos barely function as a logo at all. The designer will often make it exclusively in full color, meaning it can’t be easily adjusted to black and white, which is often needed. Or they will only send a flattened image file making it impossible to be scaled for various production needs. We could go on and on detailing the various downfalls of this approach, but we think the intent is apparent.
Again, the fault here is not that of the founders. It is unreasonable to expect a new business owner to know what’s necessary to meet their needs when asking for something as straightforward as a logo. After all, it’s not commonplace to know everything that goes into creating a visual identity and most founders recognize that they need a logo without understanding what else goes into defining their brand. Furthermore, unfortunately many creators don’t know how to, or simply don’t take the time, to educate their clients on the larger needs of their projects, and will simply take on assignments at face value.
Who they need.
The next challenge founders face in their brand development process is figuring out who they need to do the work of bringing their brand to life.
Let’s say a business wants to build a complex project like a new website. Most founders will find a web developer or a designer to build the site. While this seems like the catch-all move, it’s unfortunately not the case.
What most inexperienced people don’t take into account is that building a website - especially a good one that has a great user experience, compelling messaging, great visual design and imagery, as well as a reliable backend infrastructure - usually requires a multitude of skilled people as well as a big-picture strategy to ensure a truly functional result. Because of this, it really matters that the founder hires the right people for the needs of the project, especially if they expect them to build the project from top to bottom.
Unfortunately, many creators that founders will approach often don’t realize their own limitations and offer to take on tasks that are well outside their wheelhouse. A web developer who specializes in coding will also claim to be capable of design, even if that’s far from their area of expertise. Or a graphic designer will take on the job of writing the copy and planning the messaging, even though they have no background or skill in marketing communication.
Though to the inexperienced founder this all sounds great - they’ve found a multi-talented person who can do everything! - they, just like the creators, don’t have the experience and insight to realize these capabilities have been significantly over-promised, and subpar work will frequently get sold through without a second thought.
Of course, this doesn’t encompass all founders and some are experienced enough to know that they will need a multitude of vendors to build their brand. Though regrettably, this doesn’t necessarily make things any easier. Let’s say they recognize they need a copywriter, designer, photographer, and developer to build a new website. Who should they hire? How does one vet these people? How can one know they’re the right specialist for the job? It’s a lot of work and can turn into a headache finding and managing the right people. Because of this, many founders will turn to a creative agency or studio.
Agencies and studios are usually a safer bet, but the limitations and biases they carry can still be significant. It’s an open secret in the industry that these firms only focus on selling things that fit their company’s personal priorities, not what’s in the best interest of their client. They’re also limited by the people they have on staff. If the agency’s designers and developers are only good at a few different kinds of executions, then the website might end up being more a reflection of their capabilities than the client’s actual needs.
This is why we highly advocate for building custom-curated teams that are selected specifically to fit the needs of each individual client and project. Too often we’ve seen businesses work with the wrong people who grossly overcharge for the improper solution. Our frustration with this practice is one of the core reasons we started Outsiders.
How the work should be done.
Even if a founder has identified the correct project and right people for the job, how can they ensure it’s executed using the right process for their needs? This is the final key issue that founders face and truly the most daunting - the act of defining and managing the process of brand asset development. Not only is this totally outside the experience of most founders, but also something many creators struggle with themselves.
A good process sets the project on the right course from the beginning and keeps it on track. Even the most simple projects can be elevated to great heights by putting in a small amount of extra work to ensure the project is developed with rigor and care.
Let’s examine the scenario of developing a promotional flier. It sounds simple enough - slap some copy on a page with a few visually compelling elements and call it a day. This sounds good in theory, but in the end, it leaves a lot of important details unaccounted for.
A more effective process would utilize a consistent and thoughtful methodology to ensure the asset being developed meets the fundamental needs of the business as well as the technical requirements of the production.
The development process for a quality flier should have several steps that build upon each other. It should start with an onboarding phase where the designer helps the client define the parameters of the flier - how big it is, how it’ll be printed, where it’ll be placed, and any other key requirements. It will include a copy development process with a messaging specialist who will ensure the big idea is clear, logical, and compelling. The designer should then take the copy and develop a few initial design directions based on their understanding of the client’s needs and wants. Once the final design direction is chosen the client must then, if applicable, acquire usage rights for any imagery or special fonts used within the design. Once the final design is proofread and signed off on, the designer will need to finalize the files for print production.
This is just an example of a simple promotional flier. We’re sure one can imagine how more complicated projects require more complicated and expanded processes. The challenge is that most clients are unfamiliar with what a proper process looks like, and therefore are likely unable to judge how fitting a proposal might be. Thus they may be perfectly content with, or even prefer, the person who has a simplified process and hence a cheaper estimate.
Worst of all, of course, is that many creators, unfortunately, don’t put a lot of stock in process themselves because they approach their work from the perspective of creativity and craft, not big picture project management. This results in clients receiving subpar work that may look good on the surface but doesn’t truly function as intended. In some cases, when the creator must do more work than planned, it may even require expensive change orders based on an incomplete estimate of the scope of work. Either way, the client loses and often doesn’t understand why, which becomes incredibly frustrating for all involved.
Final word.
All the scenarios outlined above are things we consistently see happen to businesses both large and small. At the end of the day it often boils down to management problems within the creative industry that sets creators and clients up for failure. Despite all these issues, creators do have invaluable skills that can and should be leveraged to the advantage of their business clients. Their creativity and problem-solving skills can transform businesses into vibrant and irresistable brands. It just requires the right support to guide the process along.
We know many great creators with whom we have wonderful working relationships. They understand and value our rigorous process and the importance of meeting big picture needs. We’d love to help bring your brand to life and take on the responsibility of ensuring these projects are executed with the care and attention they deserve.
