As this section illustrates, brand design is not a single discipline, nor does it relate to a single aspect of a client’s business.
Instead, brand design reaches far and wide into an organisation, pulling together all the touchpoints and processes that contribute to the experience of that particular brand. This scope is illustrated by the ‘experience map’ produced by brand consultancy 'i-am' associates, which lists the following contributors to a brand experience:
- Business strategy
- Brand strategy and identity
- Physical and virtual environments
- Products and services
- Sales process
- People and culture
Because it covers all these areas there are a lot of routes into a career in brand design. Some are via training in specific design disciplines, such as graphic design, whilst others are roles that are complementary to the design processes, such as project management or marketing.
The setup at I Am Associates illustrates the varied and numerous roles that may be found inside a brand design consultancy. Here is consultancy partner Tim Jeffrey’s breakdown of the staff composition there:
- 2D design – the core of this is brand identity, but there is also signage and navigation, which requires different skills.
- 3D design – people here are either from a furniture design background or an architectural design background and will either work on interiors (retail or office) or sometimes just designing equipment, such as furniture.
- Marketeers – people from a marketing background who understand all the principles of marketing.
- Project managers – people with experience of managing 2D print projects and those with experience of managing building and construction projects.
- People and culture (at client businesses) – people working in this area are usually from a human resources background, possibly with qualifications in sociology
‘So we have a range of people with different skills and backgrounds and then there are the partners who take a strategic overview for clients – their position in the market, the competition, their point of difference, perceptions of the brand, the brand essence, their objectives and aspirations and so on. To get to this level you need to have worked with a number of big businesses to learn how things work, the issues and processes involved, the timings, practicable solutions and so on. To be a brand consultant you need to have experienced different angles on business issues and you can’t get those skills overnight,’ explains Jeffrey.
These different aspects of brand design will appeal to different people. More information about careers on the specific design disciplines can be found in each of the discipline sections on this site. The Careers overview section also discusses careers in the design industry that support the core design disciplines – roles such as project management, design management, copywriting, research and so on.