Beauty brand founders preparing for launch have been living and breathing their brand for months or even years. They know exactly how their beauty brand identity should feel, and have a clear picture of the kind of person who'll fall in love with their range.

But the gap between knowing something deeply, and being able to say it out loud, is where a lot of pre-launch founders stall. Some founders don't have all the right words to articulate their brand, whereas others have far too many words and struggle to drill down to simply articulate what they mean. So how do you take what's in your head, and bring it to life as a cosmetic brand identity that captivates the market? It starts with one conversation.

The Story Only You Can Tell

A beauty brand design process begins with a deep dive conversation, to understand the intentions behind the new brand. As part of this process, founders always have interesting stories to tell, that may even seem unrelated, but often uncover threads of unique insights, facets of their own personality, life experiences and interesting references that later become threads of what will set their brand apart on the market. Some of those conversational threads may become layers that form the brand's verbal identity. But a founder's story alone isn't enough to build from. It gets layered with an understanding of the consumer she's building for, and an honest read of the competitive landscape she's entering. It's important to have a grasp of what's already being said in the market and where your brand's white space is. It's the difference between a brand that has a logo and a brand that has a point of view.

The Making of Your Masterpiece

Once that foundation exists, the creative work begins, and this is where visual branding identity starts to feel even more tangible. The main components of visual identity move through distinct phases, from creative visual territory explorations, to logo alternatives, color palette combinations, and variations of typefaces that will all work together to express your brand visual identity. Each stage builds on the last, which is why the decisions made early carry so much weight.

At key creative presentations during the process, you'll typically be presented with a series of distinct creative directions, each a fully considered interpretation of the brief, but with a different visual point of view. Choosing between them is one of the most consequential decisions in the process. But the best creative decisions aren't made in the presentation meeting. They're made after it, when the initial reaction has settled and more considered reflection can take place. At this point, the most useful thing to return to is the project's Creative Brief. But when you're stuck choosing between directions, ask yourself:

• Which direction better expresses what we agreed the brand stands for?
  Go back to the brief and hold the work up against it.
  
• Which direction would my customer connect with most, and reflect who she is or who she wants to be?
  Picture them in their actual life, the shelf they're reaching towards and ask honestly which direction would stop them.
  
• Which direction is the most distinct from what already exists in the market?
  Which looks different from the brands your customer already might know.
  
• Which direction feels most like 'me'?
  The founder's instinct is most powerful when it's informed by the three questions that came before it.
  

The Role of Your Beauty Branding Agency

A good beauty branding agency goes beyond simply executing your vision. Their role is to help draw it out of you and refine it. The best beauty agencies ask 'why' often enough that you end up articulating things you didn't know you'd already internally decided. They bring commercial knowledge to the conversation, an understanding of what's already on the market and where the genuine gaps are, but their most valuable role is keeping you aligned to what the brand was always meant to be.

When the process gets overwhelming and every direction starts to feel equally possible, they're the ones who bring you back to the brief and remind you of your original intentions. That's what a good process does. It gets you back to what you always meant to build.

Author: Effie Asafu-Adjaye
Effie Asafu-Adjaye is the Founder of Beautiful Sparks. Beautiful Sparks helps beauty, fashion and lifestyle brands become known, loved and remembered through sharp positioning, strategic storytelling, and campaigns that connect with the right customers. Read more about Effie here. Linkedin.