Branding: Identity Design w/ Yo Santosa

Chris Do sits downs with Founder and Creative Director, Yo Santosa for her perspective and insights into building brands with personality. It's a special late night edition of Unfiltered taped live in front of a studio audience.

This is a must watch episode if you are a graphic designer and want to understand the secrets behind building powerful brands.

Watch Yo's talk at AIGA Hecho en LA talk here:

5:22 What is branding and what isn't?
8:15 How to go from being just a designer to becoming a Brander? Become a Matchmaker.
10:00 How do you learn about who your customers are and turn that into messaging, colors fonts look and feel? Start with Words.
13:09 What is a Beautiful Word?
15:32 How to get a client to rebrand?
18:50 Why pay somebody if you're not going to listen to them? Credibility.
22:44 Whats the secret? How do you give brands personality? Start with a Name.
28:08 Work for a big company or have your own design studio? Freedom of the Struggle.
31:00 How did you come up with Ferroconcrete as the name of your design studio?
33:38 Is it hard being a leader?
35:06 Did you pursue any further education after design? What do you know about business, management, marketing?
36:58 Do you have any tips or advice for leading a meeting with a client?
40:54 Could you extend your principles on branding a business, to branding yourself?
43:06 Do you approach running your business like a designer or a CEO?

Ferro Concrete Design:

Want to learn more about #Branding? Read #TheBrandGap by Marty Neumeier. Here's the digital version:

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—
Credits:
Executive Producer– Chris Do
Hosts– Chris Do & Jose Caballer
Director– Andrew Truong
Cameraman– Aaron Szekely
Producer– Aaron Szekely
Editor– Aaron Szekely
Musical Director– Adam Sanborne

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[hermiteater]

I really love the idea about being an IMAGE-MAKER which is why I promote myself as Designer & Illustrator and not simply a motion designer.
Because as mentioned, everyone needs images in one form or another.

[SeanMates]

Great interview guys. Yo's analogy of being a matchmaker was a highlight. The largest takeaway from watching has come about from asking myself 'Why am I attracted to Branding?". It is the ability to be a storyteller through the process. Turns out this is something I inherently value, but before I didn't make the connection between the two.

[pthomasgarcia]

"First of all, a brand is not a logo. [...] Second, a brand is not corporate identity system. [...] Finally, a brand is not a product. A brand is person's gut feeling about a product, service, or company. In other words, a brand is not what you say it is. It's what they say it is." -- Marty Neumeier, The Brand Gap

"What people are saying when the brand is not listening." -- Yo Santosa

"Everything is negotiable." -- Chris Do

[andreiapinhal]

Best interview so far!!
Not only Yo shows a beautiful, thoughtful and honest perspective but Chris really knows how to ask the right questions.
Inspiring interviewee and skilled interviewer!
Wish you all the best.

[thefutur]

I want to invite @Yo to come back. What should we talk about?

[willvice]

She had a great personality that's for sure. She screams out genuine genius.

[AngelQuiroz]

I think the best way to describe this interview was *adorable* Yo is so delightful 😄

[bobby]

This still remain one of the best videos on this channel. Bring Yo Santosa again!

[Kiki-mtiz]

I love yo. her energy and all ❤. She inspires me alot. When I fill kind of lost or overwhelmed as i navigate learning graphic design, I always come back to this interview

[triathlonSDhsp]

Marty neumeier's 'Brand Gap' is a great book people. Get it if you don't have it already. Excellent interview. Yo is super cool, interviewer was very good with a excellent grasp of modern branding

[ferj]

I'm officially hooked to this channel! Not only do you guys do a great job in educating your viewers with valuable insights accumulated through 20+ years of design experience, but HOW you deliver all this information is where I think this channel shines. As someone who hasn't attended design school and is currently self-teaching, I see this channel as the "no-BS", fun and quirky professor I'd be good friends with outside of class.. not the mundane, monotone professor who would bore you to sleep with endless powerpoint presentations and 10 page research papers.

Here are my 3 biggest takeaways and observations from this discussion. Please feel free to correct me if I misunderstood anything :)

- As Yo brought up with her awesome analogy, branding is just like match-making. If you want to attract that person you like, get to know them first. That being said, the key to successful branding starts with having a solid understanding of the product/business and its respective users/customers. By understanding what problem a business is tackling and how it is attempting to solve it, combined with an understanding of its customers and how the business makes them think/feel, you can use that knowledge as a starting point when developing the company's visual and emotional profile. (Follow-up question: When developing a company's brand, how do you balance basing it off of how customers currently feel about that company VS how the company would like customers to feel about it in the future? Should there even be a balance at all?)

- I resonate and highly agree with Chris' perspective when it comes to negotiation and your value as a designer. When working with potential clients, figure out how much they are willing to invest in your time, effort, & skills and make sure that is clearly reflected through how much they are willing to pay you. As a fellow creative, I know many people who are uncomfortable with these kinds of discussions because we are already happy with doing what we love. We tend to lower our value at times in fear of losing a potential client and opportunity to add to our portfolios. Don't be afraid to bring up discussions related to money and equity because this is your time that you're putting aside for them.

- Constructive criticism: Chris is clearly a design & business vet who did a good job moderating the conversation, but there were a few times where the conversation started to feel a bit uncomfortable for me as a viewer. In my opinion, it's the moderators job to not only make sure the conversation is alive and moving along smoothly, but it's also his job to make his guests feel comfortable and in a good mood. I'm no expert, but that's just my 2 cents.

Other than that, thank you for making this video!

[tanakachivasa]

Comments on this page also reflect how people perceive this channel (brand). Totally insightful, engaging and very thought provoking. Awesome interview

[snow]

I think you should keep doing the black comment slides. Very helpful and funny.

And to the viewers who felt like Chris was being intrusive... this is my opinion: Yo's answers often ranged from sweet giggles to vague-ish explanations. Don't you agree? It needed something more. Chris is great at dissecting and breaking things down for us to understand. That's what made him so well known at ArtCenter as an instructor and that's one of the shining qualities of his channel. It wasn't about "routing" her answers or getting the "spotlight." It was about making sure that we, his viewers, were getting something insightful. An understandable, satisfying perspective from a talented designer.

[shruthibaskar]

I shared these videos with my friends and forced them to watch it lol. That's how much I love this channel. Chris reminds me of one of my favorite teachers who just asks you questions repeatedly till you arrive at an answer which you thought you never had.

[frobono]

I clicked on this video to get ideas on what people do to come up with a design. Watching. I've found so many interesting points that delve so deep into the thought process. This interview and discussion is probably one of the best things I've watched on the internet in years. So many of the points made in the interview can be applied personally and professionally. Great video guys. You got another sub. :)

[SuryaveerPatnaik]

This has to be one of the best channel on youtube. Thank you for selfless uploads and giving out so much knowledge. This is truly amazing.

[samojerom]

Branding is something that connects your products with your customers emotionally and make them love your products and feel trust to these products

[sharonho]

I discovered The Future's videos from a local design blog in Hong Kong and I have been watching the videos for the past few months. I love how interactive this video is, and it gave me so much insights and advice as I am just starting fresh in this field. Can't wait for the second episode of this!

[marcusbraceytv]

Chris, thank you for differentiating the difference between Identity design and Branding.

...I really speak of this all the time.

[MrKapii]

Can we just see more of this lady? She is Can't stop watching this. She has an amazing personality and character.