<aside> 📄 Graphic Design ✹Course™ Figma - This lesson works in the private .fig file found in the Course Materials Folder.

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1.3 - Brand Audit

We’ve got the brand questionnaire and our brand name. Let’s dive into Figma and create a brand audit presentation!

The goal of a brand audit is to identify the goal of the brand identity. It gets you on the same page with your client so that they know your designs are rooted in the brand’s mission and overall vision.

• Open Figma
• Open the Graphic Design Course file
• Navigate to the ↳ 2.1 - Brand Audit page
• You’ll find our Brand Audit Presentation template where each page is an artboard
• Hit T to use text tool
• Replace the “Client Name” with the “Brand Name”
• Scroll over to the next page, replace the Mission statement
• Replace the Core Values
  • It’s okay if you don’t have 6 core values. You can delete the extra ones
• What We Are vs Aren’t
  • This further sets guardrails for the brand
  • Use some of the brand adjectives from the questionnaire
  • Feel free to come up with new adjectives that feel in line with the brand
  • You want to be very clear about what the brand is and is not
• Brand Adjectives
  • This page more so describes the brand’s personality and visual aesthetic
  • This will act as intentional keywords throughout the branding process
  • Check out Power Thesaurus if you need more brand adjectives
• Target Audience
  • Using the brand questionnaire, fill these in using your best judgement
  • The photos to the right are for examples of your target audience
  • We typically source these photos from Pinterest, Are.na, Instagram, etc.
  • Select one of the rectangles
  • Copy photo from your source
  • Paste into the selected rectangle
  • Crop if you need to
  • Fill in the rest of the rectangles with Target Audience photos
• Competitor Analysis
  • Here’s where we analyze competitors from a visual point of view. We’ll better understand how the brand can stand apart compared to its Competitor
  • Research the competitors listed in Section 4 from the Brand Questionnaire
  • Visit their website, social media accounts, etc. to get a feel for their brand identity. Use image assets from these to fill in the rectangles on that brand’s slide.
    • For pulling images, we like to use the Image Downloader extension in Google Chrome
      • Access extension in the toolbar
      • Hover over the photo you want to copy
      • Right click and hit Copy Image
      • Paste image into one of the rectangles
      • Crop as needed
  • We typically like to provide a range that includes the brand’s logo, examples of typography, photography, and illustration if they have it
  • Fill out the prompts in the text box
    • Analyze their logo, typography, color palette, photography, and illustration
    • Identify strengths in their branding like strong typography choices, vibrant color palettes, or even cohesive branding throughout all touch points
    • Identify differences of their branding compared to your brand like New Feels will be more creative and playful
  • Do this for 3+ competitors
• Brand Competitor Map
  • This provides a visual for where the brand stands amongst its competitors
  • We typically adjust the X and Y axises that relates to the brand’s personality and attributes. What makes it unique to its target audience when choosing between it and other competitors?
  • Grab logos from Google or the website’s header navigation
    • Some websites just have PNGs, which makes it easy to right click and copy + paste into Figma
      • We like to go the extra step in making sure they’re white for a clean look
      • You can use the Invert Color plug-in within Figma as well
        • Right Click > Plugins > Invert Color > Invert
    • Some websites have SVGs
      • You can use the SVG Export Chrome extension
      • Click on the extension
      • It will open a new tab
      • Click on the logo you want to save
      • Choose SVG or PNG
      • Hit Download Selected
      • Drag + Drop the logo from Finder into Figma
      • Place it onto the Brand Competitor Map artboard
  • You can size them down by hitting K to proportionately scale them
  • Arrange all the logos in the map based on where you think they best fit