You’ve seen other business owners launch incredible rebrands, and now you’re ready for your brand identity and website to look that good. But if you’ve never done it before, you may be wondering what to do before working with a brand designer.
Before reaching out to a designer and starting your brand or website design project, there are a few things you should have prepared, so you can see the most success.
Let’s talk about those.
Of course your business needs a name before you can design a brand identity around it! But you need to make sure you can legally use that name before you do anything else, so you won’t be infringing on anyone else’s trademark by using it.
Why is this important? You don’t want to invest a good chunk of money on a brand identity, only to receive a cease and desist letter from someone who already owns your business name. This will force you to scrap everything, wasting precious time and money.
So what do you do? I’m not a lawyer, so I can’t officially give legal advice. But I do know that if your business is not named after yourself (ex. Lucy Pevensie Photography), I highly suggest conducting a due diligence search with a trusted lawyer. He or she will conduct a thorough search in your industry to make sure your business name is safe to use before you invest in brand design.
(P.S. If you decide to work with Homeward, we can include this step as an add-on to your branding project!)
Having a basic understanding of your business seems… basic. I know. But it can actually be easy to forget! When new business owners have big dreams for their brand, they sometimes jump into design work before really knowing anything besides the kind of work they want to do.
Beyond the type of business you want to run, you should be able to clearly define how you run it, who you’re serving, and why (that last one’s extra important).
For example, let say you fell in love with photography and want to turn your hobby into a business.
So, before working with a brand designer, make sure you’ve taken the time to deeply understand your business and dream audience. The design decisions we make for your brand identity and website will be heavily influenced by this information!
If your design project also includes a website, having a few materials ready beforehand will make the process go MUCH smoother.
Be prepared to provide website copy (the words on your site), written by either you or a copywriter. If you don’t have copy for your site, let your designer know before booking your project! Most designers will be more than happy to refer you to their favorite copywriters.
Having great brand photography will also be really helpful. If you don’t have a huge gallery of professional brand photos yet, that’s okay! Depending on the site, we may be able to get by with a handful of good photos – even curated stock images can be great in some cases. Just don’t forget a headshot of yourself!
P.S. If you choose to work with Homeward on your website, I would love to connect you with my favorite copywriters and brand photographers. We can work alongside them and get everything done at once for an all-in brand transformation. If you’d rather write your own copy for now, we can add a lower-investment copywriting template to your project to guide you through that process.
If you have testimonials from past clients or customers, go ahead and start collecting those. If you don’t have any, start reaching out to your people and ask!
Lastly, be prepared to provide your site policies: aka your Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.* Your Terms and Conditions is essentially a contract between you and your website visitors, and a Privacy Policy governs how you interact with your website visitors (this one is required by law). If you sell courses or products, you’ll need Terms and Conditions specifically for sales. Depending on the type of business you have, you may also need disclaimers (ex. a medical disclaimer). Talk to a trusted lawyer to determine the exact policies your website needs.
I highly recommend purchasing these policies from a trusted legal template shop at any point before your website launch. My personal favorite is The Creative Law Shop.
* 2026 UPDATE: If you work with Homeward on your website, your Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions policies are now included in your project. I’ve partnered with The Creative Law Shop® to provide attorney-drafted policies, pre-licensed and uploaded to your website with your information, so you don’t have to purchase them separately. The legal side of your site is taken care of for you – for less than it would cost to buy them on your own.
As with any investment you make for your business, you should understand WHY you want a new brand identity and/or website. What are your goals? What do you hope this project will accomplish?
Think beyond, “I want my brand to look good.” What real problems do you hope a new brand identity or website will solve for your business? Do you want to stop attracting low-budget inquiries? Step into a different market? Convey a new message?
We’re doing more than just creating a better website or prettier logos. We’re solving a deeper problem!
Before working with a brand designer, you should also make sure it’s the right time for this kind of investment. Is branding the next right step for your business? Or should you focus on mastering sales skills or improving your processes first? If you’re not sure, we can always talk about it on a discovery call!
These are the most important things you should do before working with a brand designer to see the most success with your project. This list will likely be a little different for every business! If you want to contact a designer, but you’re not sure you have everything ready, don’t be afraid to reach out anyway. There’s a very good chance they can help you with some of these, or connect you with someone who can.
