Unlock the Secrets to Design Your Brand's Foundation for Growth
In the bustling culinary landscape of Lagos, a new restaurant aiming to stand out needs a clear and compelling brand. Take Trib3 Lagos, for instance. What started as an idea for an open-air amala spot evolved into an Afrocentric, entertainment-focused restaurant lounge offering a premium experience at affordable prices. This transformation is a testament to the power of strategic branding. Let’s delve into the process of how you can achieve a similar feat for your business, from ideation to execution.
Step 1: The Discovery Call
The journey to design my brand's foundation, begins with a discovery call—a session to understand the essence of your business. During this call, we engage with key players, encouraging them to describe their vision beyond common terms like affordability and quality. We probe into the unique aspects of your business, the problems it solves, and the target audience. For Tribe Lagos, this meant emphasizing Afro-fusion cuisine and creating a vibrant community space.
Step 2: Crafting the Creative Brief
With insights from the discovery call, we draft a creative brief. This document captures the core of your brand, including its unique selling points and target audience. For Trib3 Lagos, the brief highlighted its Afro-fusion cuisine, entertainment vibe, and need to exude a community of togetherness with every meeting. This brief serves as the foundation for all creative efforts moving forward.
Step 3: Developing the Brand Strategy
Brand strategy is the roadmap to design your brand's foundation. It encompasses your brand voice, messaging, customer experience, and company culture. Over several weeks, we analyze competitors, study the target audience, and incorporate the founder's vision. The result is a cohesive brand persona that guides all subsequent decisions.
Step 4: Creating the Stylescape
A stylescape transforms the creative brief into a visual theme. It’s like a mood board but more detailed, showing how all visual elements come together. Having a stylescape ensure alignment and prevents misunderstandings. For Trib3 Lagos, this step was crucial in visualizing the brand’s Afrocentric, luxury and community theme.
Step 5: Designing the Visual Identity
Visual identity includes the logo, colors, typography, patterns, and other elements that define the brand's look and feel. While not the most critical part, a logo is a vital identifier. We start with sketches and refine the design based on feedback. For Trib3 Lagos, the initial sketch ended up being the final logo after some exploration of other options. The chosen logo was then adapted into various formats and colors for different uses. For Trib3 Lagos, we chose colors inspired by mud clay and skin tones, serif fonts, and abstract patterns symbolizing connectedness. These elements were applied to the interior, website, and other touchpoints, ensuring a consistent brand presence.
Step 6: Building the Website
Website development involves creating a sitemap, wireframes, and the final design. For Trib3 Lagos, we used Figma to show the final design after sketches and placements and then used Wix Studio to integrate features like space bookings for events, and online orders cost-effectively. The website was designed to be user-friendly, flexible to use in the areas of viewing sitting arrangements and ensuring that the team could manage the website effectively.
Step 7: Designing and Printing of Packaging
Effective packaging design requires ensuring functionality, appeal, and error-free production. We developed mockups for containers, bags, and stickers, supervising the production process to maintain quality. For Trib3 Lagos, this meant creating packaging that was both attractive and practical and to ensure every production was up to par we supervised to the “T” what needed to be done.
Step 8: Creating Signage
Signage is any printed material used in a store or public place that provides guidance or information to customers. This includes posters, identification signs, often utilizing graphic designs, symbols, or words for clarity. Considering that it was our first time handling this, we collaborated with production partners well versed in this area to create clear, impactful signs that align with the brand’s visual identity. For Trib3 Lagos, this included a large entrance logo and pylons, ensuring the signage fit seamlessly with the interior design.
Step 9: Organizing a Photoshoot
A professional photoshoot captures the brand’s essence. A shoot helps to provide authenticity for visual presence such as social media, the website etc. We planned the shoot meticulously, capturing both planned and spontaneous moments. For Trib3 Lagos, this meant a day-long shoot to gather high-quality images and videos for the website and social media materials.
Step 10: Handoff and Training
The final step is handing off the brand assets and this includes detailed guidelines on using the brand elements and training sessions on managing the website and social media. For Trib3 Lagos, we conducted a week-long training, ensuring the team was well-equipped to maintain the brand.
Conclusion
Branding is a multifaceted process that transforms an idea into a cohesive and compelling brand. Becoming a known brand can be achieved by consistently following and executing your brand strategy while making sure the brand guidelines are adhered to and thereby stands out in a crowded market, just like Trib3 Lagos. If you’re ready to embark on your branding journey, reach out to us. Let’s make your brand the next success story.
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