When you’re an expert in your field, you know there is so much more to your artistry, your product, or your service than what meets the eye. While your customers and clients often see only the final product or final service, you know how much planning, preparation, and strategy is needed behind the scenes to offer a complete and cohesive experience. While we can’t speak for all brand and web design businesses, today, we want to share what we’re really thinking when journeying through the brand and web design process with our clients — so perhaps, as you journey through your upcoming design process with a professional designer, you can do so from a place of peace of mind. 

What Your Web Designer is Really Thinking

Every brand and web design is unique, approaching the brand and web design process in their own, one-of-a-kind way. For nearly a decade, we’ve been honored to walk through the brand and web design process alongside thousands of creative founders from all over the world — creating an engaging, collaborative design process, through which clients come away with a brand and web design rooted in connection, purpose, and business success. For us, our step-by-step design process lays a strong foundation for us to be able to think creatively and strategically on behalf of our clients along the way. So, here’s what we’re really thinking during the design process:

1. First, we hope we have your trust. In Episode 130, we share how trusting your designer can make all the difference with regard to the success of your design process. When you trust your designer, your designer can create confidently and freely on behalf of your business — pouring strategy, purpose, and intention into every detail of your design. Maybe you’ve discovered something similar within your own business. When we kick off our design process, we hope our clients have hired us because of the quality and caliber of our work, our tried-and-true design process, and the business-changing results our past clients have experienced. It can be challenging to outsource for any part of your small business — but we can confidently say trusting the process can make a meaningful difference. 
2. Next, we hope you value our perspective. Something really exciting and valuable about outsourcing your brand and web design to a professional designer is gaining a new, outside perspective about your business. Your brand and web designer is looking at your business through a fresh, new lens — and therefore, they are able to see what your unique selling proposition is and to determine how to showcase your unique style, personality, and approach in a client-connecting way. When working with our clients, we hope they value our perspective and point of view — knowing we truly care about their business and will pour every ounce of strategy, expertise, and purpose we can into their design.  
3. We hope you feel encouraged and supported when sharing your feedback with us. While every design business is unique, we believe communication and collaboration are central to a successful brand and web design process. That’s why, in every step of our design process, you’ll use a fun tool for providing feedback, and we’ll create a collaborative revision process. We hope our clients feel encouraged and supported when providing feedback — knowing we deeply value receiving feedback.
4. We hope you’ll be patient as the details come together to create a big picture. We also believe foundation-building is essential for creating a meaningful, long-lasting brand and web design. Therefore, every step of our design process builds upon the previous step. It can be frustrating to see small details come together piece by piece before finally seeing the big picture — your completed brand and web design — but we’re hopeful our clients will be patient as very essential, foundation-building details take shape early in the design process. Behind the scenes, though, we agree that seeing your brand design lead to a fully-developed web design is such an exciting step.
5. We hope you avoid comparing your business to other businesses — and instead celebrate your unique strengths as a business. One of the biggest barriers to success we see not only for our clients but for small businesses overall is doing what another business owner has done. We wholeheartedly believe there is something so powerful about creating a business aligned with your unique values, approach, and strengths. We believe, when you focus on your unique strengths as a business, you create a sort of ‘tunnel vision’ that allows you to focus wholeheartedly on your unique definition of success. During the design process, we hope our clients avoid comparing their businesses to other businesses — and avoid suggesting design features from others’ brands or web designs. Within our provided questionnaire, we specifically ask for our clients not to share final color palettes, brand designs, or web designs with us, so we have an opportunity to design freely and ensure every design detail we present is really rooted in their unique success. While many creatives are visual and value having visuals to refer to, trusting your designer to create something one-of-a-kind on behalf of your business will yield better results. 
6. We hope you’ll keep your preferred clients in mind along the way. We often say your brand and web design should be a blend of what you love and feel connected to, what your preferred clients will love and feel connected to, and what is forward-thinking in your unique field. When we keep your preferred clients in mind, we mean we’re designing with your business success in mind — knowing your brand and web design need to connect with, serve, and be remembered by your preferred clients in order to build a foundation for growth and success. As small business owners, it can be challenging to balance our own preferences with the preferences of our audience — but it’s essential to do so if and when you’d like your brand and web design to help your business grow.
7. Lastly, we hope you’ll have fun and engage in your design process. We believe the brand and web design process isn’t simply about us sharing our expertise with our clients — but about creating a fun, engaging process where your preferences and vision are shared, your voice is heard, your collaboration is valued, and where a lasting relationship can be formed. We hope you’ll feel engaged in your design process and come away feeling supported and encouraged — not just leading up to your Launch Day, but also as you move forward. 

Today, we shared what we’re really thinking while journeying through a brand and web design process alongside our clients — and how a trusting, encouraging, engaging experience can yield business-changing results. 

About Brand It, Build It Podcast, Hosted by Kelly Zugay

Hosted by Kelly Zugay, co-founder of With Grace and Gold, The Brand It, Build It Podcast is a leading small business marketing podcast for small business owners, creatives, and founders. Weekly, brief, actionable episodes will equip you to build a successful, sustainable small business.