This document provides a summary of key points about visual design and branding. It discusses [1] why branding and going through a branding process is important, [2] what makes a strong brand, and [3] why a brand book is useful. It also covers [4] why research is crucial for design work, [5] how color and human psychology impact design, [6] why budgeting for design is important, and [7] common mistakes made in choosing a design partner. Finally, it outlines [8] why mutual excitement between client and designer leads to good results, and [9] what is required to achieve good design and manage timelines.

3. 6 Awards Winning Visual Communications Specialist
Founder & CCO (www.yangrin.com)
Partner & CCO (www.dogma.co.il)
Worked with such international brands as:
Microsoft, Volkswagen, Deloitte, SAAB, Baskin Robbins, RE/MAX,
and many others
Shareholder and advisor of 4 start-ups in Israel and US
Member of:
Design Council of Australia
Freelancers Union of America
Graphic Designers Association of Israel
Official Team Member of SpaceIL
Supporter of:
Greenpeace, WWF, The Prince’s Rainforest Project, Flying Kites

4. Table of contents (subjects covered):
Branding Choosing the right design partner
• What is branding • Freelancer or Agency/Company?
• Why it is important to go through a brand process • How to find a good design partner
• What is a strong brand • Common mistakes companies do in choosing a
• Why brand book is important design provider
• Mutual excitement is key to successful and well-
designed end-product
Research and analysis for design purposes
• Why research is important
• What to research
• Color & human psychology in digital design
Designing successful end-product
(web/mobile)
• Why good design is important
• How to achieve good design
Budgeting • Design process and time tables
• Why budget for design is important
• Common mistakes companies do when planning a
design budget

5. Branding
Is a common process of creating a brand, which is translated
into a logo, slogan, name, and or design scheme representing
a company, product and/or service.

6. Why it is important to go through a brand process?
Brand/Branding process is a core definition of how and why
your brand will look the way it will look at the end of the process…
Brand process is in-depth research of your industry, target
market and your potential user/consumer.
Analysis of color and human psychology, end-usage of the logo,
slogan and other brand materials for the future.
Designing your logo, creating your slogan and all corporate identity.
Writing and preparing a brand-book.

7. What is a strong brand?
Strong brand is a visual element that represents your business activity, your product and/or
your service combined with a good product/service, good customer service/support, and
well made marketing which will keep the brand in people’s subconscious.

8. Why Brand Book is important?
To make your life much easier in the long run!
Brand book is simply a manual to your brand, style and visual elements.
Brand book is a guide to usage of your brand through many different
outlets of advertising, marketing, promotions, design, info-graphics, etc.
It will save you allot of money in going back to your initial design partner
for them to explain to any other agency or company every time you’d like
to run a campaign, promo, marketing efforts, etc.
It will guide future agencies you will work with on how to use your branding
in such a way that it will be only beneficial to your company and not harmful.

10. Why research is important?
Research will allow you and design partner to understand better the market
needs and how to approach the visual elements of the company, product
and/or service.
It will also allow you to understand which design agency will be best fitted
for your specific needs and how to create the brand or any other designed
materials.
It will save you money and time in your future approach to any advertising,
marketing and sales materials.

11. What to research?
You should research the following:
• Your competition
• Your target market
• Your demographic
• Your end-user needs and/or desires
• Your own team/partners desires
• Yourself!

12. Color & Human Psychology – WTH?
Most people don’t understand what exactly that means…
That’s alright, most people are not supposed to understand what it means 
This is science, this is the scientific part of the design process… yes, yes, there is also science in the
creative field… I know, it sounds odd, but true!
People and/or agencies that specializes in this field and do conduct such analysis are more likely to deliver
you the results that you need (note, I didn’t say “want”, I said “need”) this scientific process helps to
understand how people may react to different colors in different mediums, whether it’ll be online, mobile or offline.
See, 99% of world’s population don’t really understand why they like a specific restaurant, company, brand,
product or even house or just some random place… it is all due to carefully planned and mastered color palette.
Colors influence our daily life throughout our entire life, colors are always a major factor of our choices in
clothing, product, food, leisure, etc. it dominates our choices in brands when we see them…
So if your brand, website, app, advertising, marketing materials, etc. are carefully planned and based on this
science, then you have a much better chance to be remembered, chosen and even talked about.

14. Why budget for design is important?
• Your investor or financial dep. Will love you for it!
• It will keep you structured
• You will know exactly how much you can spend
• It will help you understand and manage well your
yearly marketing and advertising budgets
• It will help you determine which design agency
you can choose from…
• It will right away make your search for good design
partner easier
• It will help a design provider determine what
exactly you can get for the amount you have.

15. Common mistakes companies do when
planning a design budget
NOT
PLANNING
IT!

17. Freelancer or Agency (Company)?
I think this is the most common question most companies ask themselves when they decide to design or redesign something…
Well, here is the reality of our modern days… there is endless choices both in freelancers and agencies, locally and abroad, and in our tech-
wired world, you can work with anybody or any company you’d like…
However, here are some benefits and downfalls of both sides of the coin:
FREELANCER AGENCY
• Low cost • High costs
• Shorter time frames depending on freelancer’s work load • Longer time frames
• Working nearly around the clock • Working only business hours
• Might disappear at some point • Will always be there for support
• No future support • Have a team of people to provide nearly every possible service
• Very risky • The only risk is, not liking the results
• Can’t provide absolutely every possible service • In 95% of the cases, strict on time with deadlines
• Might charge deposit and never do the job… • Will also create a networking between clients
• Not always might be on time with deadlines

18. How to find a good design partner…
Well, I wont say its easy, but I also wont say that its impossible…
You should start by analyzing your friends who have businesses, look at their websites and ask who did their site and if they
were pleased with the agency and the results they got.
Also it is a good idea to find your leading competitor online, scroll down to the footer of the site and in 95% of the time you will
find a logo of the agency that did this website.
Once you did your research, found about 10 or so agencies that you think can be a good fit, start meeting with them, talk to
them, tell them about your project, and look at their portfolios, very important is to look at what they already did, and see if
they are any good at what they do, see if they have big names in their portfolios, trust me, big brands wont choose a crappy
agency, their look is way more important to them than spending less…
Once you narrowed down 2 or 3 final agencies, talk to them, explain in as much details as you can, what you need to be done
and what is your budget, the combination of knowing your needs and budget will help agencies determine if they can deliver
on your budget or not… and don’t forget, meet with them in person, see if there is personal chemistry…

19. Common mistakes companies do in choosing a design provider
1. Going for the cheapest option
2. Going for my friends cousins nephew
3. Going for good sales pitch without even looking at the agency if they are ay good… anyone can promise you
mountains of gold, there are only few who can actually deliver it…
4. Going for anybody or anything because it is too urgent and no one cares about anything, just a hype to put a site
online or app on app-store
5. Thinking that print designer can design a website or mobile app, sorry people, car engineer cannot engineer a
bridge just because he/she called an engineer…
6. Thinking that a designer is just this dude who downloads images from Google and puts them around in
Photoshop, which should not take very long, so lets do it quickly and cheaply…
7. Thinking that there is no difference between a $50 template and a $50,000 website... They both have images and
buttons…
8. Thinking that design agencies are a factory that just charge too much on something that costs them peanuts
9. Not listening to professionals
10. Thinking that you know better

20. Mutual excitement is key to successful and well-designed end-product/result
There are several types of agencies… the ones who are just about business and making money and the ones who build
their success together with their client’s success…
Always, and I repeat again, always choose the ones who are as excited as you are, or at least will put their efforts for
you to succeed eventually, and wont leave you hanging alone when you really need them.
I know its hard to spot such agency, but you have to try… yes, all agencies talk well, and sell the dream in a nice pink
packaging… yet, ask them if there was even one client that they took from start to finish that achieved any success due
to their specific work, or help or advice…
Worse case scenario, you can always hire for just a few hours a professional designer with credentials, who can help
you find that one agency that will be excited with you!

22. Why good design is important…
We all live in the hype of 21st century, no one has time anymore to just sit down, enjoy art or design and try to understand it as it used to
be in early 20th century, today, we want everything to be delivered to us in timely manner, we don’t want to think too much, we want to
see and make a decision as quickly as possible.
BE WARE OF USERS!
Users are all too quick to judge… all they need is 1.5 – 2.5 seconds to identify if they like it or not, this is the exact time you have to capture
attention of your potential user/customer/client.
So, that should say it all… your website, web application, mobile app, advertising, etc. must be high quality, appealing and stunning!
Otherwise, you risk to loose your potential to your competitor especially if you’re a new and young brand on the market.
Also, keep in mind that simply beautiful design is not enough, it might be great in your eyes, but your eyes are not the target, your
potentials eyes are the target!
A great design is not necessarily must be beautiful, but it must be done in such a way to appeal to the majority of the crowd, otherwise
that was a waste of time and money…
Another rule, you should keep in mind, no one cares about your personal taste when it comes to designing your website or app or
ad, professionals care about creating something that will drive your potential customer/consumer.
I know it sound heartless, and maybe even just bad to say to you as a client, but, at the end of the day, if you have a website or app that
you absolutely love how it looks but does absolutely nothing to your business growth, then trust me, with time you’ll come to hate it…
yes, you may get involved and express your opinion and likes, however, if a designer considers it as not good, be fine with the fact that it
will not be used.

23. How to achieve good design:
1. Find a good design partner
2. Research & analysis
3. Good planning for the project and knowing maximum of potential bumps on the road ahead
4. Color & human psychology analysis
5. Knowing your customer/consumer
6. Putting your ego aside
7. Understanding that design must be functional
8. Keeping in mind that design must appeal to the majority of the targeted public
9. Knowing your market
10. High attention to details

24. Design process and time tables
The biggest mistake allot of companies do when it comes to their project, is taking lightly the actual design process
and miscalculate the actual time tables…
Just so you understand, design process is a creative thought process and not as you expect of a designer to sit in-front
of the computer for hours upon hours and create and over create and recreate… it doesn’t work that way…
In designing something, is always about 80% of the time is spent on just thinking about it, researching, analyzing,
imagining, creating broad pictures in the head and trying to understand if they will work or not… another 15% goes
into actual work time, sitting in-front of the computer designing and trying various options that previously was drawn
in designer’s head… and the final 5% goes into finishing the last touches, adding some minor details, polishing and
finalizing the end-result.
Time-tables: BE REAL ABOUT THE TIME TABLES!
You can’t expect facebook to be done in two months… be real, understand that things take time and you can’t do
things in a rush, otherwise it will be screwed up and wont be as planned…
Also, your feedback times on the design is also taken into consideration, if you don’t respond fast enough and it takes
you months to decide on something, do not expect your project to be done on time!

25. This lecture was prepared by Yan G.
For the lecture at Startupbootcamp (Haifa, Israel) – January 2013
For more questions, consultations, or other needs, you may contact me:
- yan@yangrin.com
- yan@dogma.co.il