TOOLS DESIGNED TO HELP BUILD BRANDS AND RELATIONSHIPS.
Whether you’re onboarding an IDEOer, designing a workshop, or facilitating client conversations around brand, there are a ton of tools and frameworks leveraged on past IDEO projects that may be useful along your project’s journey.
While our hope is to make these tools as easy as possible to use, for now you’ll find clickable images to copy, links to Google drive folders to download, and a link to Figma to take these designs.
Should you have a brand exercise, tool, or resource you don’t see below that you’d like to add to this hub for IDEOers—please reach out to the NA B&C Cohort brand peeps so we can help or fill out this Google form with the information we’d need to design one for you.
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While our hope is to make these tools as easy as possible to use, for now you’ll find clickable images to copy, links to Google drive folders to download, and a link to Figma to take these designs.
Should you have a brand exercise, tool, or resource you don’t see below that you’d like to add to this hub for IDEOers—please reach out to the NA B&C Cohort brand peeps so we can help or fill out this Google form with the information we’d need to design one for you.
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Strategic Brand Foundation Frameworks
This is a holistic brand framework we designed to make sense of how a brand is designed, expresssed, and experienced internally and externally.
While all of these brand elements work together strategically to bring a brand to life, note that not all brands require every element of this framework.
We develop brand foundations alongside our clients, so they can make informed plans of action that take into account their unique goals, market needs, and customer/user desires.
For example, maybe your client came to IDEO with an established vision, mission, and values, or perhaps we’re only being tasked with designing a brand’s purpose—use the parts of this framework that are useful for your particular project. For two examples, see underneath the full framework of how it can be modified.
While all of these brand elements work together strategically to bring a brand to life, note that not all brands require every element of this framework.
We develop brand foundations alongside our clients, so they can make informed plans of action that take into account their unique goals, market needs, and customer/user desires.
For example, maybe your client came to IDEO with an established vision, mission, and values, or perhaps we’re only being tasked with designing a brand’s purpose—use the parts of this framework that are useful for your particular project. For two examples, see underneath the full framework of how it can be modified.
Research and Tools
Working on a brand strategy project at IDEO means you’re probably designing something that starts with the letter p: purpose, promise, personality, or positioning. (Of course, there are other letters too.) Below you’ll find our go-to tools for everything from brand research to naming to visual design, as well as client examples from past projects.
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Note: Click image and Command+Click to save as a jpg, view all in this Google Drive link or scroll down to find a link to editable tools in Figma.
Researching
Brand
Discussion Guide Questions
A starting list of questions for creating a brand discussion guide during Design Research.
Research Themes
A simple worksheet to help you organize what you know and seek to learn about a brand.
Brand Audit
Make sure you have a solid understanding of the brand’s current expression and its competitors.
Brand
Foundation
Brand Foundation
A one-sheeter for presenting purpose, vision, mission, values, positioning, promise, personality, and principles.
Developing
Principles
Brand Principles
Tips on writing a set of actionable statements that will guide future brand development.
Defining and
Activating
Purpose
The Purpose Wheel
Imagine various futures, foster conversations, and generate alignment around a direction for purpose.
Magazines from the Future
A headline writing exercise to imagine the hopes and dreams for a brand/business.
Finding the Heart
A worksheet to discuss the overlap of people’s wants & needs and what a brand uniquely offers.
What, How, Why
Help clients get a clearer point of view around their purpose with Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle.
First Steps to Activation
A brainstorm exercise to imagine operationalizing purpose across an organization.
Mission,
Vision, and
Values
Vision and Mission
A worksheet to help an organization draft an strategic plan of action.
Uncovering Values
Questions to help brainstorm and articulate brand values.
Talking About Values
A facilitated discussion to help socialize and make actionable existing brand values.
Making a
Promise
Discuss Brand Promise
A worksheet giving you questions to ask to uncover a brand’s consumer promise.
Finding
Positioning
Value Prop + Positioning Madlib
Articulate the differentiating value a brand offers using this fill-in-the-blank tool.
Map the Market
Use this 2x2 worksheet to map out a brand’s position in the market.
Building
Architecture
Brand Architecture Structures
Make strategic choices about the relationship between brands
Brand Architecture Discussion
Discuss the organizational structures and strategic choices for how a portfolio of brands work together.
Brand Architecture Sketching
A good first step—map out the structure of a portfolio of brands.
Developing
Personality
Brand Archetypes
Use these 12 archetypes to workshop how a brand’s personality could show up in the world.
Quick Association
A simple tool to hear early hunches around a brand’s personality using word and image associations.
If the Brand Was...
A worksheet to brainstorm associations about aspirations for bringing a brand to life.
The Brand Deck
Play this online card game to facilitate a conversation around who a brand is and is not.
Brand Star
A tool that encourages you to build a dimensional, interesting brand personality with human characteristics.
Personality Matrix
Map out the characteristics of a brand’s star in a matrix that unpacks meaning and considers the consumer.
Brand Equalizer
Visualize a brand’s star to help you explore and share various visual and verbal design territories within a personality.
Exploring
Naming
Naming Brief
Answer 9 questions to create alignment before exploring naming options.
Naming Intro
A brief introduction to naming at IDEO.
Creating
Verbal Identity
Rallying Cry
See examples of rallying cries and brand narratives we’ve shared with clients to get inspired to write one of your own.
Tone of Voice Template
Write out example content for each brand characteristic using this worksheet.
Designing
Visual Identity and
Brand Expression
Territory Moodboard
Use this template to visualize a conceptual territory that’s rooted in a brand’s personality.
Creative Brief for Video
A guide for internal teams and partners to align on goals and details.
EDITABLE TOOLS
GOOGLE SLIDESCOMING SOON!