Why Brand Workshops Matter More Than You Think

What Happens in a Brand Workshop? From Discovery to Brand Identity

There’s something we love about that first proper conversation with a new client.

It’s when we get to meet the people behind the business, hear the stories that don’t appear on the website and start getting a feel for what makes the whole thing special.

Now, don’t get us wrong. We love a good logo, a beautiful typeface and a colour palette that makes you look twice. But none of that means much if we haven’t got a clue what makes your business tick.

Because a brilliant brand identity needs to reflect the people and personality behind it. Not just look the part.

That’s where our brand strategy workshops come in.

So, What Actually Happens in a Brand Workshop?

First things first, we get everyone together.

A brand workshop is a collaborative session where we explore the personality, values, audience and character of your business before making decisions about how the brand should look, sound and feel.

We’ll talk about everything from how your business first got off the ground to the people who keep the wheels turning and the customers you’d love to win over.

Nothing too corporate or complicated. Just a proper chance to get to know the business and uncover the things that make it different.

All of which gives us something much more useful to work with when it comes to developing your brand strategy and creative direction.

Getting to Know the People Behind the Brand

Some of the best things we discover about a business come from the people who know it inside out.

Ask someone why they’ve stuck around for the past ten years, or what made them want to join in the first place, and you’ll often hear something far more interesting than anything written on the company website.

Maybe it’s the way everyone looks out for one another, or the pride people take in getting the little details just right.

And those are exactly the things we want to bring out in your branding.

After all, if your team is full of lovely, down-to-earth people, the last thing you need is a brand that sounds like it’s been written by a room full of corporate robots.

Finding the Values That Actually Mean Something

Every business has values. Or at least a few nice-sounding words tucked away on the About Us page.

But there’s a world of difference between having them written down and actually knowing what they mean to your business.

One exercise we use in our brand workshops is getting people to jot down the values they feel best represent the business.

Then we group them, look for common themes and start exploring what those words mean in practice.

Take something like quality. Lovely word. But what does it actually mean to your business?

Does it mean using the best materials? Taking extra time to get the details right? Being the sort of company that would rather turn down a job than put its name to something it isn’t proud of?

Those are the bits we’re interested in.

Because once you understand what a value looks like in the real world, it becomes much easier to express it through your brand.

Take our work with Pasture for Life, for example.

Through a series of brand messaging workshops, we helped the team get to the heart of what made the organisation different. Two things kept coming through: collaboration and a pioneering spirit.

Rather than giving them a nice font and calling it a day, we used them to shape messaging that actually had something to say.

New Traditionalists, Boldly Transparent at Every Turn and Championing The Power of Pasture became part of a much bolder way of communicating what the organisation stood for.

Those ideas then helped shape everything from promotional materials to website design concepts.

Just goes to show that company values can be a whole lot more useful than a few lovely-sounding words tucked away on your website.

Giving Your Brand a Personality

Every business has a personality, whether it’s been deliberately thought about or not.

Some are bold and outspoken. Others are quietly confident. Some have a edgy sense of humour, while others are much more comfortable getting straight down to business.

There’s no right or wrong answer.

The trick is finding a personality that feels right for the people behind your business and resonates with the customers you’re trying to reach.

We’ll get into how you want your brand to come across, the sort of language that sounds like you and, just as importantly, the things you’d rather steer well clear of.

Turning Conversations Into Creative Direction

Of course, there’s only so long you can sit around talking about your brand before somebody has to actually design something.

And this is where all that groundwork starts earning its keep.

The stories, values and personality we’ve uncovered help us make decisions about your brand identity.

Take our work with Glaze, for example.

They already had a rather lovely product. Beautifully crafted ceramic coffee cups that made your morning brew feel a little more special. But the branding wasn’t quite telling the whole story.

Through our discovery process, we explored how Glaze could become more than just another reusable cup. We wanted to capture the little rituals, adventures and memories that come with taking your favourite coffee along for the ride.

That thinking led us towards a Modern Retro identity, inspired by vintage travel posters, luggage labels and old-fashioned postcards.

Warm, earthy colours, characterful typography, travel-inspired illustrations and photography that made the whole thing feel like a souvenir from somewhere you’d rather be.

The result was a brand with a personality that stretched far beyond the coffee cup itself.

And that’s exactly why we put so much thought into those early conversations.

Because the best creative decisions aren’t just about what looks lovely. They’re about finding a way to bring the story behind your business to life.

What Do You Actually Get From a Brand Workshop?

A good brand workshop should leave you with a little more than a handful of colourful Post-it notes and an empty biscuit tin.

The conversations and exercises help establish the thinking that guides the creative work that follows.

Depending on your business and the scope of the project, that might include:

• A clearer brand personality: Understanding how your business should look, sound and feel.
• More meaningful values: Identifying what genuinely matters to the business and how those values show up in practice.
• Brand positioning: Getting clearer on who you’re trying to reach and what makes you worth choosing.
• Messaging and tone of voice: Finding the words and character that feel natural to your business.
• Creative direction: Giving designers a foundation for decisions about typography, colours, imagery and the wider identity.
• A more focused design brief: Making sure everyone understands what the finished brand needs to communicate.

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach here. Some businesses need a proper rethink about what they want to be known for, while others know exactly who they are and just need a little help showing the world.

Either way, we’d rather get everyone on the same page now than discover halfway through designing the logo that half the room had something completely different in mind.

Looking at Your Brand Through Your Customers’ Eyes

There’s another important part of the process. Making sure the brand works for the people on the receiving end.

You might absolutely love your new branding, but if your customers are left scratching their heads about what you actually do, we’re not quite there yet.

That’s why we also spend time thinking about what it’s like to experience your brand from the other side.

From the first time somebody lands on your website to the way you communicate with them after an enquiry, all those little interactions contribute to how your business is perceived.

We look at where your brand needs to show up, how people will engage with it and what the experience should feel like.

Building Relationships That Last Beyond the Workshop

The workshop isn’t just about understanding your brand. It’s also the beginning of a working relationship.

We’ll be collaborating closely, sharing ideas and making plenty of creative decisions together, so getting to know one another early makes a real difference.

It’s our chance to understand your team, your ambitions and how you like to work, while giving you a proper introduction to the people behind Giant Peach.

We want you to feel comfortable throwing ideas around, asking questions and telling us when something isn’t quite hitting the mark.

Because good creative work doesn’t happen when an agency disappears for a few weeks and comes back expecting everyone to fall in love with whatever they’ve dreamt up.

It happens when we work together, bounce ideas around and make sure the finished thing feels right for the people who’ll actually be using it.

Bringing It All Together

Every business has its own personality, its own stories and little quirks. And we’d be pretty disappointed if they all looked and sounded the same.

That’s why we put so much effort into getting to know the people behind the brand before anyone starts getting carried away with the creative stuff.

Because as much as we love a beautiful logo and a rather fetching typeface, they’re not much use if they don’t feel like they belong to your business.

Whether you’re building a brand from the ground up or giving an old favourite a new lease of life, we’d love to get stuck in.

Let’s have a chat.