iilo Creative Alliance inc.

iilo is a Certified B Corp, values-based creative services agency dedicated to addressing environmental and social sustainability.

Weaving together our brand story

AuthorLisa Hemingway
Date
Categories
Design Business Work Flow & Process
two mugs with iilo logo and team values: We are human; Process solves problems; We can do hard; No apologies; We're all connected
Daily reminder to ourselves to reinforce our shared values printed on our own mugs: We are human; Process solves problems; We can do hard; No apologies; We’re all connected

As we put the finishing touches on our new website, we’re reflecting on the process of how we designed our iilo brand. Last year, after incorporating (as a benefit company), we decided to treat ourselves like a client and dedicate time to creating our new brand properly. I know, I know, revolutionary! Since the cobbler often has no shoes, as they say, we were determined not to go through a quick and dirty side-of-the-desk branding process.

Well, for anyone who has done their own branding or design projects, you know it’s a lot harder than it seems. Your worst critic (yourself) is literally in the driver’s seat. To prevent disappointment and meet our goal of creating a brand we love to share, we knew we needed to set ourselves up for success.

Here’s how we did it

  1. We filled out our iilo Brand Platform Worksheet (FREE to download), which helped us get detailed and strategic around our company’s business and branding needs. 
  2. We assembled a project team to keep us accountable, which included our team of talented collaborators. 
  3. We hired our talented friends Nina & Todd at Platform Design to act as neutral sounding boards and provide objective feedback — it was oh-so-valuable getting their expert eyes on our work! Yay collaboration!
  4. We used our own process templates in Asana to manage our workflow, set real deliverable dates, and time blocked the hours it would take to actually do the design work… made us feel very VIP (and productive)!
  5. We made iilo a graphic standards one-pager and a full graphic asset package — the same way we would for clients — which was a treat (as opposed to creating assets piece-meal as needs arise).
  6. We celebrated our brand completion internally with our team (woot woo!) and went through a wrap-up process to apply our learnings.

Although this project was for ourselves, going on the same branding journey we take clients through was the key to success and eye-opening for us. We love our brand so much now, we want to brand everything (like the new iilo mugs in the picture above — thanks Fairware!) 

All this to say, branding is not easy, even for us experienced pros! But it gets easier when you have a collaborative team to support the process, and we love a good process!

Looking to rebrand in the coming year? Get in touch! We like to plan ahead and are booking new work for Spring 2023.

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