Image Courtesy of A Britton Photography

On Tuesday and Wednesday, we uncovered 6 VERY good reasons why you should hire a designer to create your brand identity. I was just tweeting with Lindsey Meager Samm of It’s a Date Design.  Guess what?  She’s a graphic designer and hired someone to do her branding!  I love it!  Very smart lady.  I myself design stationery.  I don’t do a lot of graphic design work so when it comes to the important stuff I leave it to the pros.  For example, I do the work on Sage Wedding Pros’ logo and tiles.  This was only because I stumbled on a graphic that I liked.  However, when it came to do the books for The Simple Plan there is no way I could handle that on my own!  John Livas, owner of John Christopher Photography, is highly skilled and experience in training manuals and he designed the gorgeous books you see.  We sometimes try to be the master of everything in our businesses and it’s just not wise.

Reasons Why You Should Hire a Designer

7 – Designers KNOW Business.

I often chime on and on and on and on about core ideology and mission statement and values and identity.  Well, you’ll be happy to know that these are the topics with which designers are INCREDIBLY familiar.  Yes, they can tell you a thing or two about PMS color swatches and CS4 vs CS5, but the strength of their design ability is being able to translate what your mission, values, and ideology are into visual aspects of your brandKelly Ashworth provides clients with a branding questionnaire to help determine how the brand should look and feel. In many cases, the client has not really spent a lot of time thinking it through. A designer will make a much more thoughtful approach.

Cathy Olson of Love-Inspired states, “Hiring a professional will ensure your branding is not just trendy. Professionals design with other things in mind than just making it pretty. This will ensure that branding is researched, marketing strategies are established and that a solid CONCEPT is consistent in everything that is created.”

Designers can also get into the nitty-gritty of your marketing strategy.  They can help you further focus your niche and further define your target market.  Not only do you get a beautiful logo, but also a marketing strategist.  Nikki Nuckols, owner of Doodledog Advertising describes her approach: “Strategic branding enables you to target your precise market segment. Whether it is the $10,000 DIY bride or the $75,000 bride.”

8 – The Wedding Industry is Driven by Image.

Beauty sells in our industry.  And if your brand identity is lacking, it is a poor reflection of your talent and ability.  There are some incredibly talented individuals out there who are selling themselves short because their branding doesn’t reflect their product and/or service.  Whitney Speir, owner of Brown Sugar Design Studio acknowledges, “If your brand is not well executed, people will automatically associate poor design with the quality of your name, service, and/or product.  The wedding industry specifically has a strong focus on style and design.  If your own brand isn’t styled well, what would lead a prospective bride to believe you could effectively style any aspect of her event?”

9 – Designers are MAGICAL.

Cathy says, “Professionals can get the design ideas OUT of you. They are mind readers if you need them to be! Our clients have been amazed at our ability to know what they want without having to specifically spell it out. All we need is your motivation & your inspiration. We are inspired by what inspires you!”  I don’t know how many times I’ve talked to a wedding pro about their positive design experience and they tell me, “They knew exactly what I wanted!”

10 – A Designer Will Save You from Making Poor Font Choices.

C’mon, admit it.  You once loved the font Papyrus.  Yes, it was 1993 and some people thought it was a fabulous font, but anyone in the design world will tell you it is a bad font choice.  Kari Becker Beard, Owner of Sugar B Studio comically adds, “You should hire a designer to define your brand because we love paper and fonts and we will never use the font comic sans.

Have you worked with a designer to develop your brand identity?  Why did you hire one?