How to get your brand identity project featured on Creative Boom

As a graphic designer or branding studio, getting your latest project featured in Creative Boom can significantly boost your visibility and reputation. But I'll be perfectly honest: We can't cover everything.

As editor, I receive hundreds of emails daily. It would be lovely if I had time to read them all thoroughly, respond intelligently, and chat at length about how we could best cover each project on Creative Boom. But I've crunched the numbers, and to do so, I would need about 47 hours every day. And even then, I wouldn't have time to eat, sleep, or have any sort of life outside of my work.

At the same time, we do want to hear about all the great work happening in the creative world right now. And as we explain in our article What we stand for, we don't just want to narrow it down to the biggest agencies, the biggest brands or (God forbid) the biggest cities. We want Creative Boom to be a truly curated, diverse mix of all the most interesting and inspirational creative work, regardless of where it comes from.

So, we've put time and effort into crafting a workable system to make that possible. You'll find all the technical details here. And if you use this system (as opposed to just emailing us and saying, 'Check out our work!'), you'll have a MUCH better chance of being featured.

That said, it's no guarantee. Given that we receive so many submissions, we can't possibly feature them all: that's not how curation works. So it's crucial to make yours stand out.

In this article, I'll guide you through crafting a compelling and comprehensive submission that's more likely to catch the attention of our editors and increase your chances of getting your brand identity project on Creative Boom.

1. Start with a strong introduction

First of all, start strong with a captivating introduction that immediately grabs our attention. This should briefly describe your project, introduce the client, and outline their main objectives.

For example, the pitch for this work by Havas London might have read something like this: "Havas London has rebranded supermarket giant ASDA, focusing on the retailer's core values of value, quality, and community. The new identity aims to modernise ASDA's image while retaining its approachable and familiar feel."

In this and everything else, please don't worry about trying to write everything in flowery language or typical "marketing speak". We're journalists, and we're primarily interested in facts. So, the more facts you include and the simpler and clearer the language, the better.

2. Provide detailed background information

Following this brief introduction, dive deeper into the project's background. Share the story behind it, including information about the client's history and what makes them unique in their field. Explain the problem or challenge they were facing and how your design solution addressed it.

For instance, the background for this visual identity by StudioDBD might have begun: "Stockport is getting a new addition to its town centre. Stockroom is a new cultural hub in the Merseyway Shopping Centre, spearheaded by Stockport Council, that will house a library, children's learning area, a café bar, and more."

In other words, don't assume we know this stuff already. All context is useful.

3. Describe the design process

Next up, take the readers through your design journey. Discuss the initial brief, your research and brainstorming phase, and how you developed the final concept. Highlight key elements or inspirations that influenced your design decisions.

For instance, for this branding for Fertility's at-home egg testing kit, you might have started: "Universal Favourite wanted to understand how people felt about at-home testing. So they began the design process by working with VML to conduct a series of focus groups, one-on-one interviews and stakeholder research."

4. Focus on visual elements

As you might have noticed, Creative Boom is a very visual website. So, while we want to know something about the concept and strategy of the project, we also need to know about the visual design and how it was made.

So, tell us as much as you can about the visual components of your design, discussing the colour palette, typography, logo, and any other key visual elements. Explain why these choices were made and how they contribute to the overall brand identity.

For example: "We chose a vibrant blue, #0022EE, as the primary colour to convey trust and intelligence, complemented by a warm orange to add approachability. The custom typeface we developed, which was inspired by Myriad Pro, features subtle curves that echo the node motif in the logo, creating a cohesive visual language across all brand touchpoints."

Honestly, the more on this stuff, the better. We are all design nerds, so you simply can't write too much here.

5. Highlight collaboration and roles

If your project involved collaboration with other designers, illustrators, or studios, be sure to mention this. We don't want lots of angry emails from people who contributed to the project asking why they didn't get a mention in the article, and neither do you!

Also apply the same logic internally, highlighting the contributions of different team members where relevant. This not only gives credit where it's due but also showcases the breadth of talent involved in your organisation.

Taking this rebrand as an example, you could say something like: "The collaboration with Koto on the rebrand of Fluz involved a multidisciplinary team, including graphic designers, illustrators, and motion designers, to create a vibrant and dynamic identity."

On this note, we love to get quotes from individual designers on the specific tasks they were involved in. Our pet hate, in contrast, is quotes attributed to multiple people, to teams or to the agency as a whole. That just sounds daft. People don't talk in unison; well, not outside of this sketch by Monty Python, anyway.

6. Explain the implementation and impact

It's more interesting for readers to learn about a brand project if they know where it exists in the real world. So, it's important to describe how the new brand identity was implemented across different platforms and mediums.

Also, discuss the reception of the new design and any measurable impact it had on the client's business or audience engagement. Include as many facts as possible, as opposed to fluffy statements like "Audience reaction has been overwhelmingly positive", which don't really tell anyone much.

7. Include high-quality images

High-quality images of your work are crucial. Submitting text without images is basically a waste of your time and ours.

In short, ensure your submission includes high-resolution images that showcase the various elements of your branding project. Include the logo in different contexts and other real-world applications of the brand. (For help with presentation, check out these quality websites that offer mockups for your projects.) We also love to see work-in-progress images and things like colour palette swatches and typography specimens, although we recognise that clients don't always like to see that stuff shared, so it's not a deal-breaker if you can't.

Most importantly, send everything we need first time – don't put obstacles in our way! An email that says, 'Let us know if you want pics' is the bane of every journalist's life because we're too time-poor to chase, and it's most likely to get deleted.

Don't make it difficult to access images, either. WeTransfer is problematic because often, by the time we click on the link, it expires. Typically the need to seek permission to access files on Google is a hassle we just don't have time for. So please think about how to make things quick and easy for us.

8. Follow the submission guidelines

I shared the link to our submission guidelines at the start of this article. Now, I'll share it again. Here's how to get featured on Creative Boom. So now you have no excuse.

Please don't just scan these guidelines. Read them carefully, and follow them as closely as you can. This includes providing all necessary credits, contact information, and any additional assets we require. Failing to follow these guidelines could result in your submission being overlooked, no matter how strong your project is.

9. Provide comprehensive press materials

Include a well-written press release that encompasses all the points mentioned above. This should be a comprehensive document that Creative Boom could use as the basis for their feature, with minimal editing required.

10. Be ready for follow-up questions

That's not, however, the end of it. After all, we are journalists and won't just copy and paste your words onto the site automatically (unless they're very well-written indeed). In reality, we'll probably need to know extra information that's not in your submission, and we may want to gather quotes from specific people or have specific image requests.

That means when you submit, don't disappear for a week! Our writers have deadlines, and they might spot your story and think, 'Great! I'll run that and send you an email'. But then, sometimes, they hear nothing back. And when you do finally respond, it's too late: the story has been shared elsewhere. So if we were to run it, we'd look outdated and that we were just "copying" other rival magazines who have already covered it.

11. Consider an embargo

Indeed, if you're sending to multiple media outlets, then you're always going to have the problem of no publication wanting to be second with the story. If you want to avoid this, consider setting an embargo, which says that none of us are allowed to publish until a certain date and time. (Make sure you are time-zone specific here.)

This means every magazine or blog has a fair chance of running the story on the same day, and it allows the journalists time to gather what they need. This will give you a much better chance of wider coverage and bigger splashes.

Final checklist

Got all that? I appreciate it's a lot. But hopefully, you'll understand that this isn't me being precious. It's just literally the only way we can deal with the huge volume of submissions, and ensure everyone has a fair crack at being featured on Creative Boom.

Just to make it a little easier, here's a checklist summarising the main points. Once you've prepared your submission, use this to make sure you've included everything. Do all this, and while I can't guarantee your project will be featured on the site, your chances will be significantly higher, I promise!

1. About the project

   • What is the project about?
   • Who is the client, and what is their background?

2. The brief

   • What was the client's original brief?
   • What were the main objectives and goals?

3. Design process

   • What were the key stages of the design process?
   • What research and inspirations influenced the design?

4. Visual elements

   • What is the colour palette, and why were these colours chosen?
   • What typography was used, and how does it complement the brand?
   • How was the logo developed or modernised?

5. Implementation

   • How was the new brand identity implemented across different platforms?
   • What were the key features and functionalities added?

6. Impact

   • What has been the reception of the new branding?
   • How has the new branding impacted the client's business or audience engagement?

7. Collaboration

   • Who were the key team members and collaborators?
   • What were their specific contributions?

8. Challenges

   • What challenges did you face during the project?
   • How did you overcome them?

9. Additional information

   • Are there any interesting anecdotes or stories from the project?
   • Can you provide high-resolution images for publication?

One final note

If you've sent us the details of your project and haven't heard back, please know it's nothing personal. As I mentioned, we get a high volume of emails daily, and it's simply impossible to respond to everyone individually (even though we wish we could!).

Given the sheer number of submissions, we have to be very selective. Sometimes we might not share your work because we featured something similar recently – we want to give everyone a fair chance! Other times, your project might be too similar to others we've just shared, whether in industry or theme. That's just how it goes.

Reaching out to me on LinkedIn, Threads, X, Instagram, or Facebook is nice, but it won't help your chances, as I'll just redirect you to our submission process. Keeping everything in one place helps streamline things and makes my role as editor a little easier.

However, if you need a quick social share or some advice, I'll always do my best to assist. Creative Boom was founded to support the creative community, and for the past 15 years, we've proudly helped thousands of creatives. I simply want to be realistic about what I can offer. That's why we have submission guidelines—to give you the very best chance of being featured on Creative Boom.