This article is the follow up of the Branding 101 series tailored to Topcoder. We’ll learn how to apply techniques and tricks to hit the right cables in a practical scenario. Welcome to part two. In part one, we decomposed the psychology behind the importance of providing accurate branding.
In the previous article, we learned a very important insight about branding. Branding is not just a logo. A brand is an emotional association, a set of impressions that a person has about something (product, person, and so on). We also learned that providing accurate branding gives us an advantage in design challenges, as well as the importance of the first impression and providing the illusion of control to clients. That’s all interesting in theory, good to know, but how do we do that?
Being practical, we’ll focus on the most common Topcoder design challenge archetypes. At the moment I write this article, digital experiences: web / tablet / mobile applications, combined with open to idea branding. There are challenges that ask for applications open branding. It’s very likely that you’ll know better than me how to apply a proper existing branding to design, so we’ll focus on those types of challenges where the sky is the limit regarding branding, which I consider way more difficult, because of the untold desires of the client.
Bear with me to read about how to use the right mind tricks to extract key information and the best timing to discover what the client wants.
It’s very likely you read or will read this type of line in challenge description pages:
“Use modern colors and typography that make sense”
“Branding is open to ideas”
“Branding open to suggestions”
This means two things. One, as you may guess, there is no branding at your disposal to extract logo, colors, and typography from. Two, this screams out loud “We don’t know what we want” or “We do not care too much” in terms of branding from the client team. So it is transcendental to determine what is happening so we can measure and apply the appropriate amount of time to this particular item.
How do you come up with a practical example of a branding application if neither you nor the client knows at this moment? It’s a challenge, but not impossible. We start with the basics, a cycle of insightful research through questions in the forums, developing a practical branding toolset and sending proposals to the client. But wait, Luis, we do not interact that much with a client during the challenge workflow. I know some tricks, let us smile.
For our exercise, let’s keep in mind the following conditions of our archetype challenge:
We are required to solve a design problem, not a branding specialization challenge.
The client wants to see good branding in the application.
In the challenge workflow, we don’t get the chance to interact directly with the client.
We want to deliver a practical branding identity (colors, typography, logo) that gives us an advantage.
Using our psychology justification, we want to make a great first impression and provide the illusion of control.
Where do communications happen in Topcoder challenges? In forums, that’s right. That’s the place we’ll use to squeeze our mind-reading questions in, to get some answers to what the client wants and how important it is for her. Once we know this we will be able to set a proper amount of effort toward this branding.
In this survey, we should also uncover the target audience (if it’s not specified previously) and pick up the values that make the client’s product different or unique. As an example, these open-ended questions can help:
What makes this product/service unique compared to X? Be bold. Proposing “X”, a competitive existing product, you’ll trigger the pride instinct which is going to make the client speak out loud! You pick up values of the product that you can translate into fonts and colors. Let’s say you hear this product will stand out because of its financial upheaval, so now you know you can use some colors and fonts that suit finances.
Can this be considered a white label product? A product that is not going to be used by the client but others to put their brand on. This means the branding expectations are low because it has no deep meaning to the client, so you can drop your efforts (be smart).
Are there any preferred moods for the client for branding (e.g. fun, warm, serious, whimsical)? This will help you set a start path to explore options for colors and fonts.
Is there a plan to expand the use of this application to other domains other than digital? It helps setting up scope. You know if you must use flat colors, gradient colors, etc., in case they reveal that they plan to, for example, print out some material with this branding.
Why do your users need this product? Easy question to make people spill out who their user is instead of actually justifying the need. Now you know who you are designing for.
With this information, you should know who your target audience is, how important branding is to the client and have a solid foot on the ground regarding the identity that best suits this product.
Besides applying colors, fonts and strategically placing the logo in your design work, we will deliver an asset (branding toolset) in our submission. This is not a formal branding identity documentation but a short version that can work to make a great first impression. It consists of colors, typography, and a pseudo-logo (if needed) that the client can use as a starting point for branding development.
With the permission of branding purists who would kill me for this, I’ll synthesize these items into what I consider relevant within the context of a Topcoder challenge workflow. I wouldn’t dare to force you to execute formal user research, focus groups, or quantitative techniques to hit on branding in a phase where the client typically doesn’t know what she wants and the focus of the challenge is solving a design problem not a branding identity exercise. I’d rather take a bullet for you from the purists to help you save time by playing smart.
🎨 Colors
Include the color palette with some variations. If you have the chance to include the color codes, way better!
🔠 Typography
Setting the fonts you’re working at an early stage can also give you an advantage. Design faster by removing the typical decision-making process for fonts during the design phase.
👁🗨 Logo
At this stage, I wouldn’t add too much energy. Remember, being practical is our tenet for this smart approach - a good-looking placeholder with a font aligned to the typography system should do the work. If it happens that there is extra free time and I already solved the design problem, then I’d add more efforts to a logo, it’s up to you.
Your toolset should look like this. Source: Cupi Wong | dribbble.
Now that you have this asset, it will help you design faster. You already made some decisions that can be mind-boggling for designers during the creative phase. Now it’s time to wisely splash all these colors and assets over the UI application - deploy!
Alongside your screen files, let’s send proposals. Yes, you read correctly, plural. This is where we apply another mind-trick. You will send not one but three branding toolset options. Apply one option to your UI but send two other branding screens as options two and three with either slight or dramatic modifications.
With this smart move, we provide the illusion of control to the client. That’s what options do in our brain, they give us the power of free will, and with power comes control, with control comes calmness. That should be convenient for our smart efforts and purpose. It also works as a mechanism to detect whether the branding is really that important for them or not. If you don’t get any feedback about which option they prefer then simply drop the expectations with the feedback and apply more time and energy in the design problem. There won’t be a waste of time using this approach, there’s value in the proposal feedback, even if it’s silent.
The cornerstone of our exercise. Here we will receive our precious validation which will help us make decisions. Assuming the challenge has a checkpoint phase, this is the best time to use this branding approach, or the checkpoint review.
Now the day comes when they publish the checkpoint feedback. What happens next? There are two possible things that can happen based on the type of feedback you receive:
🤐 No comments about the branding options
in my opinion, silent feedback means that the client is not very interested in having accurate branding at this stage. I’d just drop the expectations and try to crack the session feedback to pick up preferences.
🎉 Preference over an option
Jackpot! The strategy worked. You made a great first impression, you’re heading in the right direction with branding, and believe me, the client will think of you as a great designer (advantage).
To summarize this long story, we can say the approach cycle is the following:
Research: Ask the right questions.
Create a practical branding toolset.
Deploy the branding on the design.
Create two extra alternate branding toolsets.
Provide extra screens in your submission files with the toolsets.
Wait to receive checkpoint feedback.
Take action depending on the validation: silent feedback or selection.