3 Tips to Getting Started as a Brand Designer

When you become a graphic designer, there are so many avenues you can go down. I became a brand designer because I love helping other businesses establish a voice and an identity in order to grow their business.

If you love branding as much as I do and you want to figure out a way to design branding for businesses, I have some amazing tips to help you get started.

But first…

What is a Brand Designer

A brand designer creates the overall look and messaging for a business. This includes everything from the color palette, logo design and marketing collateral to defining the business’s mission and their voice.

Brand designers are often trained graphic designers or sometimes they may be self-taught.

How to Become a Brand Designer

Once you’ve decided you want to become a brand designer, you’ll want to get going and book some new projects! But how when you don’t have much experience with brand design? Here are three steps you can start with for becoming a brand designer.

1. Educate Yourself with Courses + Articles

Courses are the most meaningful way to learn how to become a brand designer. Being taught by a professional can get you started off on the right foot. Look for courses that teach the basic principles of graphic design, logo design, typography and brand storytelling. Skillshare and Lynda are great resources for courses.

Pinning high-quality articles about brand design, being a brand designer and brand development is another way you can educate yourself on becoming a brand designer. There are so many amazing business owners that are willing to share their knowledge and experience in order to help others learn how to become better brand designers.

2. Join Facebook Groups for Business Owners

This is such an important part of my business. Back when my business nearly died after taking a year-long maternity leave, I was desperate to find new work and Facebook groups saved me.

I joined a lot of different groups, all focused on bloggers, creatives and entrepreneurs. Some were better than others I soon learned, and the ones that I participated in the most, lead to booked projects.

Engaging as much as possible, answering questions and offering genuine advice will most likely result in you booking a branding project.

Some of my favorite groups I belong to are Goal Digger Podcast Insiders, Savvy Business Owners, The Rising Tide Society and Business Boutique.

3. Create a Website That Sells!

Without a website, clients won’t take you seriously. If you don’t have a website yet, just having a single webpage will at least give potential clients enough information to consider hiring you. You should include examples of past projects, testimonials and your packages (including your rate and time frame).

If you don’t have any projects to show, consider creating some mock projects that are fictional. It’s still your own design and an example of your work, just be sure to disclose that it’s a conceptual project.

Testimonials are really important, but if you don’t have any from a branding project yet, consider using one from a previous employer or someone who knows your work ethic and would vouch for you.

One HUGE mistake I see a lot of brand designers make is the messaging on their homepage is all about them, rather than being about what their clients would want to hear.

Put yourself in your client’s shoes and think about what they would want to hear that would make them hire you. What can you do for their business? How can you change their life? What’s going to be unique about their experience in working with you?

When just starting out as a brand designer, it can be confusing to figure out what packages to offer. Be flexible and open to opportunities.

I’ve learned so much with my business by being open and also learning from the mistakes I’ve made.

Conclusion

Jumping into the world of brand design can be overwhelming because there are so many brand designers out there. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for you and your talent. Start out with an open mind and know that one project can lead to another, and another, and another, and so on. You may need to start out doing projects you aren’t that in love with, but it’s all a learning experience. Every brand designer you look up to has taken on projects like those at some point in their career too.

I wish you a ton of luck and am here if you want to ask me any questions! xo