Who Should I Hire for Brand Work — A Designer or a Consultant?
Choosing a brand consultant is hard because everyone uses the same word: “branding”. Some mean a logo, some advertising, some social media. One word, three different jobs. 🔎
Short answer: first someone to write the promise, then someone to draw it. Work that starts with design changes the appearance, not the outcome — because what gets said was never decided.
Below: what each party does, the selection criteria, the red flags and the contract clauses. 🎯
Who does what?
Choosing a brand consultant starts by separating the roles.
Consultant, designer, advertiser
The consultant decides what gets said: for whom, instead of whom, with which promise. The designer makes it visible. The advertiser announces it. Three different professions; expecting one to do another produces disappointment — the boundary sits in the identity-or-brand article. 🧭
Can someone in-house run it?
They can; it’s discipline rather than technical work. The sticking point is usually not being able to see your own difference — someone looking from inside can’t tell that what they think is ordinary is actually the difference.
What are the selection criteria?
Three filters eliminate most candidates.
What are the red flags?
Some sentences end the conversation.
Who should own it internally?
However good the outside party.
What belongs in the contract?
Four clauses protect you.
The four protective clauses
1) Delivery list: decision document (position + promise + proof), message set, application examples. 2) Are customer conversations included, and how many. 3) Revision count and what counts as a revision. 4) Ownership: the text and files produced stay with the business. With those four written, the work runs transparently; reading a quote sits in the quote article, all questions on the brand consulting page. 📜
📝 Field Notes
A client had three quotes. Two went straight into logo rounds and pricing. The third asked one thing: “can we talk to your last five customers?” The third was the expensive one, and the right one. A party unwilling to listen to your customers will repeat your own story. 🎤
📖 Quick Glossary
Decision document: the one page holding position, promise and voice. Message set: the words, patterns and prohibitions to use. Contact point: everywhere a customer meets the brand. Narrowing scope: deciding who you won’t sell to.
⚡ Quick Summary
First the promise writer, then the designer. 🔎 Consultant handles what’s said, designer appearance, advertiser announcement. A candidate unwilling to talk to your customers is out. The owner should be the principal, because it’s a commercial decision.
🎯 Next Step
Put us through the same filter: our first job is listening to your customers — the first review is free: the quote page. Scope on the consulting page. ✅
Frequently Asked Questions
Sık Sorulan Sorular
You can, but it carries a bias: a party earning its living from design tends to see the solution in design. Not bad faith, a natural tendency. That’s why separating the decision from the application is healthier. ⚖️
The decisive question. The right party wants to start by listening to your customers. A party that designs the work after talking only to you will repeat the story you tell about yourself — whereas the brand lives in the customer’s mind. The method sits in the starting article. 🎤
If the delivery list has no one-sentence promise with proof, what you’re buying is an identity. That may also be needed — but it should be named correctly. 📄
A decision document alone does nothing; it has to be carried to contact points like the quote text, the first reply and the site’s opening line. Without that, the document stays on a shelf. 📍
“We’ll position your brand in a month”, “let’s look at the logo first, the rest follows”, “in your sector this colour is used”. The first ignores the process, the second the order, the third the difference. A brand that conforms to a sector template doesn’t get distinguished — it blends in. 🚩
A brand decision is a commercial decision: you also decide who you won’t sell to. That can’t be delegated to a marketing assistant, because the authority to narrow scope isn’t theirs. Whether the promise can be kept also rests on the owner’s word. 🔑
Repetition. Once the decision document is written, the job is the same sentence appearing at every contact point — that’s a daily discipline, not a project. 🔁
You can, and usually should; your existing designer already knows the business. The only change is that the brief becomes a decision document rather than a one-line request. A good brief also shortens the design rounds.
The delivery list matters more than the person: with the decision document, message set and application examples written down, the risk is manageable. In one-person arrangements, discuss continuity up front. The clause keeping files with you matters even more here.
If the decision document is clear it gets easier, because the designer doesn’t have to guess. The only added difficulty is coordination, solved by naming one responsible person. Buying from one place isn’t required; working sequentially is.
Source: McKinsey — growth and marketing