# Design a Brand Identity: Ask the Right Questions - review & insight | Gareth B. Davies Source: https://garethbdavies.com/course-insights/design-a-brand-identity-ask-the-right-questions/ [← All courses](https://garethbdavies.com/course-insights/) Graphic Design · Quick win · Rated 6 /10 # Design a Brand Identity: Ask the Right Questions Updated September 2026 Courtney Eliseo · Brand Clarity & Design Beginner · 43 min A 43 minute walkthrough of one specific client questionnaire, useful for freelancers who currently start projects with no structured intake process at all. [Get a Free Month on Skillshare](https://skillshare.eqcm.net/c/3155494/298081/4650?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.skillshare.com%2Fclasses%2Fdesign-a-brand-identity-ask-the-right-questions%2F45513786) New to Skillshare? Your first month is free, enough to take this course at no cost. "Design a Brand Identity: Ask the Right Questions" is a narrow, practical course about exactly one thing: the client questionnaire that opens a branding project. Courtney Eliseo, working from 13 years of client experience, treats this step as the foundation the rest of the design process depends on, and the six lessons stay tightly focused on that claim rather than wandering into design theory or visual technique. The structure is linear and easy to follow. After a short overview, the course lays out a general process timeline (deposit, questionnaire, review call, follow up questions, creative brief), then spends its middle section on the actual content: a five category question set covering the basics, history and future plans, audience, competition, and vision. This is the course's real center of gravity. Questions like "if your brand were a person, how would you describe its personality" or asking a client to describe their business in one word are specific enough to use immediately, and the reasoning behind each category, particularly the emphasis on designing for the client's client rather than the client's personal taste, is a genuinely useful reframe for anyone new to client work. The customization lesson that follows is thinner. It offers three self directed prompts (what don't you know, what resources do you need, what does the client want) and a handful of general writing guidelines: keep language simple, focus on the business rather than the individual, don't exceed roughly 30 questions. These are reasonable but generic, and the lesson leans more on judgment calls than concrete method. The fifth lesson is a straightforward screen recording of building a form in Typeform, covering question types, design options, and sharing settings, with brief mentions of Survey Monkey and Google Forms as free alternatives. It is useful only to someone who has never touched a form builder before. Anyone with basic familiarity with online forms will find little new here, and the lesson spends real time on interface mechanics rather than questionnaire strategy. Where the course succeeds is in giving beginners a concrete starting artifact rather than abstract advice. Many discovery process resources stop at "ask good questions" without specifying which ones. This course specifies them, in categories, with the reasoning behind each. The final project, building a personal questionnaire template, is a sensible way to make that transferable. Where it falls short is scope and depth. At 43 minutes across six short lessons, the course covers one narrow slice of client communication and openly defers related topics, like creative briefs and competitive analysis, to future installments in the series that may or may not materialize. There is no discussion of what to do when a client's answers are vague, contradictory, or unhelpful, and no worked example of turning questionnaire answers into design direction. The course teaches how to gather information, not what to do with it once gathered. For a beginner freelancer with no existing intake process, this is a fast, low risk way to walk away with a usable questionnaire template. For anyone who already has a client discovery process, or who is looking for guidance on the design decisions that follow the questionnaire, the course will feel thin. The standout The five category question set itself, especially the vision section's one word or one sentence business description prompts, is specific enough to lift directly into a real client questionnaire. ## What you will learn - · A five category client questionnaire framework covering basics, history and future plans, audience, competition, and vision - · A specific list of roughly 20 to 25 essential intake questions ready to copy and adapt - · How to self interrogate a project before writing custom questions, using three guiding prompts about what you don't know - · Practical guidelines for questionnaire length, tone, and pacing, including a 30 question ceiling and a plain language filter - · How to build a basic form in Typeform, including question types, design settings, and sharing options - · How to compare Typeform against Survey Monkey and Google Forms for client intake Best for: Beginner freelance designers who currently wing client kickoffs and want a ready made, structured questionnaire to start from. Skip it if: Experienced designers with an established discovery process, or anyone hoping for guidance on creative briefs, brand strategy, or visual design work. Clarity of Instruction Organization of Lessons Actionable Steps Helpful Examples [Get a Free Month on Skillshare](https://skillshare.eqcm.net/c/3155494/298081/4650?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.skillshare.com%2Fclasses%2Fdesign-a-brand-identity-ask-the-right-questions%2F45513786)