Why branding needs digital-first design thinking

A rebrand is an intense period of change for a business of any scale. Which also makes it a vulnerable time. The inwards looking; addressing the story of the brand thus far and balancing it with future aspirations. And the outwards looking; assessing market demands and trends. The successful metamorphosis of your business it seems, sits firmly in the successful partnership with a brand agency.

Except, that’s not the whole picture.  The experienced brand designer will determine your strategic direction of travel, effectively thinking about how your brand can relate to people’s lives at street level — walking, talking and living in the real world. Only now of course, the real world includes digital spaces, as well as the physical ones. More than that, the real world is increasingly dictated by the culture of digital spaces. Which is why for many brands, the ultimate outcome of a rebranding project is a new website.

At Mud, our digital design expertise is increasingly informing the early stages of rebranding strategies for our clients. Too often, the digital development of brand ideas comes along at a later stage, once the brand guidelines have already been signed off. Our long-standing partnerships with well-established and highly-accomplished branding folk has shown us a different way of working. We’ve found a more collaborative approach that promotes more joined up thinking, and brings in the potential of the digital space into the brand thinking.

So why should you make the case for both digital and brand design expertise for your rebrand partnership?

Brand designers vs. Digital designers

What makes a brand designer different from a digital designer?

Brand designers are experts in strategy and storytelling. They’ll define the make up of your brand, from its personality traits to its social context, and produce a visual identity that captures the momentum of the brand — what the story is.

Digital designer’s expertise lies in creating a successful product design; a digital interface that engages users and guides them from the homepage to the end goal to fulfil the businesses objectives. They’ll translate the brand identity, apply user research and design hierarchy to determine the user experience from beginning to end — what the product is.

Bringing brand and digital together

Here at Mud, we work with trusted partners to make every rebrand digital-focused. Why? To determine how the story is told online. 

The customer brand relationship has evolved in an online dimension — the primary point of interaction with a brand is digital. Social platforms have bred a new powerful, interactive way for followers to engage with their favourite brands, cementing digital spaces as the prime place to connect with target audiences. According to a report on social data, customers spend 57% more when they feel connected to a brand and are 76% more likely to choose them over a competitor.

If the key outcome of a rebranding project is a new website, a strong digital design influence in the early stages of brand development can identify opportunities for storytelling and test how they could capture the imagination of the audience in question.

By prototyping ideas and exploring how the brand elements can be seen or understood by the target audience through a website, a business is risking less in developing a brand that not only speaks to their audience, but can be deployed to maximise engagement online.

Digital design to create a good impression

By developing ideas into a digital space early on in a rebranding journey, digital designers can quickly establish whether visual ideas and elements work to connect with customers in the online spaces where they are the most engaged. From developing the tangible emotion of a brand narrative to spotlighting key messages, design elements can be tested to make sure the brand’s intentions match customer perceptions. An energetic identity will fall flat if the digital experience doesn’t interact with the user’s behaviour in a lively manner. Digital designers can maximise potential to support the user experience of the brand with motion devices, subtle colour contrasts and responsive elements, giving brand designers a clearer picture of how their ideas can be interpreted.

This approach gives both brand and digital designers the time to collaborate on the same goal; defining the brand experience of every customer or client who shows up on your homepage.

Digital design as brand expression

Outside of big budget out-of-home campaigns or in-store activations such as pop-ups or events, few touchpoints can offer an immersive experience of your brand in the way a website can. In this context, a website can be the main expression of your brand; a space which you can own and plan out to the smallest detail how it looks, feels and behaves.

This is where brand thinking can push the digital realisation beyond the practical prototyping for user experience and into the realm of something more emotive and memorable. In return, testing how these ideas work in a digital environment reveals whether elements scale in both smaller and larger contexts. Ideas can then evolve with tangible product outcomes in mind, as opposed to idealistic ones (think tote bag renderings). The result? Less shoehorning of brand ideas into a digital space, and the ultimate proof to the design team and the client that the new brand identity works in practice.

In short…

When there is a regular exchange of ideas between brand and digital in a more iterative process, a brand takes on a new life of its own. Where projects have seen us partner up with branding folk in a collaborative relationship, and the digital environment is part of strategic planning; more resilient, adaptable and futureproof brands are realised.

…can we help you?

If you know your website is the central asset and outcome of your rebranding project, why not speak to the Mud team? We flex our capabilities and, guided by the needs of each project, reach out into our network to assemble teams of talented individuals. Needless to say, these partners share our team’s belief in the value of digital-first thinking when balanced with belief in brand thinking. Take a look at our recent work for NVB, an architecture and landscape design practice, or the digital rebrand of Rochester Independent College to explore just how we bring brand and digital together to resonate with your audience.