Role
As a design director, I identified the need for a brand guide at remx and saw it through from concept to fruition.
Problem
When I joined remx, their brand consisted of a logo, a very simple website, and some social media posts. We were able to get by ok internally but as we brought on external partners to help us with marketing efforts, it was a challenge keeping them on brand when.
Approach
A logo and some screens could be enough to establish a visual language but in order to be more effective at leading teams of people with better outcomes, I believed that it needed to offer a little more. I began my efforts be evaluating a number of brand guides to see what was included in them.
This isn’t the first brand guide I’ve put together but it’s not something I do regular enough to have my own template so I thought the work was worthwhile. I came away from it with some really good ideas like including a vision, mission, and values. I also liked the guides that included tone of voice and messaging pillars. Lastly, I thought it would be really helpful to have a section on our audience, product, and competitors.
To get the ball rolling, I scheduled a number of internal stakeholder interviews to get better acquainted with the vision for the product. We also ran an internal workshop to align on our values. I was very lucky around this time to also go on a work trip with the leadership team and spend some personal time with them. It really helped me get a sense of what we were all about.
Outcome
I was able to put the first version of our guide together fairly quickly. I was happy to see that it eased the pain of working with outside of collaborators almost instantly. The quality of work we were receiving was much better and closer aligned with what we were doing internally.
It also became a good source to point back to for decision making. I remember feeling really proud when one of my developer colleagues referred back to the guide for their decision making as we were working through an issue together.
Over time we made adjustments to the guide as our product offering evolved and we got to know our customers better. At one point, I completely revamped our customer profile based on a round of interviews we did with our ideal customers.
I’m glad we undertook this effort and continue to evolve this document. It is something we all refer to regularly and base our decision making off which I believe results in more consistent outcomes for the company.
