Maybe this describes you:

You're a graphic designer, or you want to be a graphic designer. You love brand design, and want to stop making Canva templates for your job at a small business or company, where you've wrangled the unofficial title of "social media designer.” You envy your friends who have agency jobs or bustling freelance careers.

But here's the problem: you don't have good clients, and that means you don't have the portfolio to get great clients. You might have a chance to design a logo, or connect with a family friend’s business, but it's like pulling teeth; you don't want to incorporate that photo of your client's dog, but you have to. You don't want to make it bright pink, but they think bright pink will make things "pop."

You're waiting for that dream client, the one who challenges you to show your skills and gives you the time and resources to brand a lot of stuff. A whole suite of assets. The kind of assets employers actually want to see. 

MX. BRANDED: AN EXERCISE FOR BRAND DESIGNERS.

“MAKE IT POP!”

–THE DEVIL HIMSELF

Of course, you could make up a fake client.

In design school, most of our assignments involved fake clients, for conceptual exercises and whatnot. But the thing that people don't talk about is that making up a client takes up a ton of creative energy. It's a project in and of itself.

When I was “working” with fictional clients, by the time I got to doing the actual brand work, I was burnt out, and because I was making everything up as I went along, the research phase of the process–something employers really want to see–sounded fake, hollow, empty. Plus, "Conceptual logo for a coffee shop run by Shakespeare characters" doesn't have the same ring as "A real design for a real, actual, human client."

But I’ve got good news.

MEET MX. BRANDED.

MEET MX. BRANDED.

Meet Mx.Branded. They are that dream client.

They're a free resource for design students, young professionals, or anyone who needs to beef up their branding portfolio, and, if you do it right, a lesson in how to go through a complete brand design process with any client that crosses your path. 

So who are they, exactly?

→

Mx.Branded is…me.

Well, kind of. Simply put, they’re me if I was a design agency. In particular, the Mx.Branded exercise assumes I'm a small, independent design agency based out of Atlanta, Georgia, mostly servicing clients in the nonprofit & music industries.

The Mx.Branded exercise gives you everything about my fictional agency in one place. Not generic stuff, real stuff that's true about me and my needs. I’ve even got employees. You'll research the market where Mx.Branded works, our competitors, our tastes, and even our fears.

WHAT DOES MX.BRANDED WANT? IT’S SIMPLE:

THEY WANT YOU TO REBRAND THE EVERLOVING SH#T OUT OF THEM. TEAR IT DOWN. BUILD IT NEW.

Now, don't worry. I'm not asking you for free work. That would be confirmed scumbag behavior. This could go well and I still might never see your work.

The goal of this exercise is to give you a killer portfolio that shows the stuff clients and employers really want to see, without you having to burn energy trying to come up with a fictional client or hunt down a real one.

Remember; in the Mx.Branded world, I'm not just one person, but a whole agency. I'm going to need business cards. We'll need an ad campaign. I'll definitely want to see some templates for merchandise, so you'll have to mock up the logo on physical items, tell me what the rules are, and help me follow them.

The Mx.Branded exercise is organized into the 4-phase approach I use with my own clients: discovery, the trio pitch, refinement, and delivery.

But I’m not just going to tell you what to do. I’m going to give you stuff. Free stuff. Each new phase? New free stuff. There are presentations to help guide the delivery of the brand, as well as guidance on what assets to produce. In addition, I've got a robust link directory to free design resources: places to find mockups, stock photos, textures, and fonts, which will help you in your journey through the exercise.

And before you ask– I promise I’m not trying to organize some kind of scammy LinkedIn course where at the end of this, I ask for money. You will not be getting any emails from me. The assets are un-gated, available through a Google Drive account.

“I HATE FREE STUFF!”

–LITERALLY NO ONE

ASSETS BY PHASE

1. Discovery

  • Positioning presentation

  • Background research on the fictional Mx.Branded agency

  • Moodboarding templates (yeah, it’s a thing!)

  • Resources for mockups, fonts, stock, and more, so you can get designing

2. The Trio Pitch

  • Trio pitch presentation (you’ll find out what that means in the detailed course view)

  • Basic templates for presenting color and brand fonts to clients clearly

  • An invoice template and a guide for one way to price your work

3. Refinement

  • A detailed brand manual template to get you started

  • A guide to demystifying brand handoffs– what logo formats do you need to provide? How do you list your colors? How do you send guidelines? We’ll cover it all.

4. Delivery

  • A shortlist of assets to apply the brand to (you can also add your own) including a slide deck, stationary, and more.

  • Content for assets, which you can take or leave. Poster headlines, ad copy, and more.

  • Basic digital ad campaign template (Google display)

Ready to get started?

You can start and finish Mx. Branded at any time, work at your own pace–and you never have to show me a thing. Feel free to cite me, Mx.Branded, as your own very real client. 

That said, if you'd like feedback on your design at any point in the exercise, you're welcome to drop me a line, and if you finish it and it helps you, I’d absolutely love to hear about it. I love design, but I love communities even more. If you’ve made it to the end of this page, thanks for reading, and feel free to check out the rest of my site as well.

Hit the button below for a detailed view of every phase and link to the assets. Happy designing!

–Amanda K (AKA MX.BRANDED)