: When does design need a concept / idea... and when doesn't it? There are a lot of brands out there that just have a simple wordmark — no icon and no customised type. It can be a good

@Lengel450

How you approach a particular design brief really depends on the brief itself. A good brief should tell you about the background, objectives, target audience, qualities the brand wishes to convey and lead you into studying the competitive landscape of the relevant industry sector.

How competing brands have chosen to look is often based on the experience of what works best in that sector. This doesn't mean you can't break the mould. But understanding the market as completely as possible is your first step towards producing a design that does.

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@Dunderdale640

A design should always back a concept or an idea. And as you said you already have it..you want to look it simple and minimal so that it denotes high end luxury and simplicity that catches eye.

I think this should justify the money they are spending. And they will certainly understand that. But with a condition that they don't have a picture in mind already set. Because that is difficult to change.
But if not this justification is convincing enough.

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@Nimeshi706

Shouldn't all brands have some kind of idea or concept behind their brand identity?


Sure.

The fallacy here is thinking that there is no concept or idea... There should of course always be an idea, a concept and clear rationalisations for every design decision you make. But that doesn't always have to come across obviously in a finished design. I'm sure a lot of thought, research, time and money went in to designing most simple designs that—to most people—look like a plain bit of type.


I sometimes struggle to think of how to justify this kind of design decision and to make clients realise why this might be the outcome of the money they have spent.


That is an incredibly important part of being a designer. I studied graphic design years after I began working as a freelance designer and whilst most were there wanting to learn Quark or Illustrator, learning to work through a process and rationalise and externalise my design decisions was the single most important thing I learnt.

The one piece of advice I can give is not to try and arbitrarily rationalise a decision after the fact. Don't try attaching an idea to an already completed design. The design should be the result of a process and—as you said—an idea and a concept. Justifying your design is then simply explaining your idea and your process. And if there isn't one—be honest; "It looks good" may just be a valid justification.

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