Module six
your brand
Watch the video below to listen to this page’s content, OR scroll to read the content instead:
If your brand is like a movie, then you’re the producer. You have to write the script, cast the parts, and scout out a location to film at.
No one would have seen Star Wars if it had been filmed in Manhattan — it’s the incredible locations that evoke the feel of a different planet and really convince you it could take place in space. Similarly, no one would have enjoyed a movie like Avatar if the production company failed to hire really good composers to handle the score and soundtrack.
There are so many different elements coming together to create the masterpiece that is your brand. Some elements are more driven by your personality, some dictate the voice and language of your brand, and, of course, there are the aesthetics of your brand to account for. A lot more goes into the brand of your business than just choosing a catchy name and a pretty color scheme.
This module will teach you how to position yourself for your target audience and then brand your business for that specific audience, establishing a more solid foundation for your business and ensuring your future marketing efforts will land more purposefully and intentionally as you speak to your ideal customer/client.
Let’s uncover the magic of a cohesive production.
COMPONENTS OF A BRAND
Remember in your Target Audience Workbook where you defined your ideal client avatar or the character you should be envisioning as you generate new content for your business? This is where that mental image is really going to come in handy.
If you haven’t already, please complete the Target Audience Workbook before proceeding in this module so you can properly visualize who you should be speaking to with your brand.
As you might have learned for yourself in your time as an entrepreneur, your brand is more than just a logo — it’s everything you produce and the basis for all your marketing pieces. That means the way you communicate with your audience, the style of your product photography, and the frequency with which you show your face all play a part in developing the perception of your brand in the minds of your audience.
Let’s break down some of the most critical pieces of your brand.
Your Logo (+ other design elements) — Of course, this is what people most often picture when they hear the word “brand”. The colors, typefaces, and symbols you use repeatedly to represent your business create a visual cue so that your followers recognize your content as it scrolls across their screens.
Beyond a logo, you’ve got logo variations (like for use on a website header, in a circular space like a profile picture, or your browser icon), submarks, icons, typography schemes, color schemes, business cards, flyers, shipping labels, packaging, signage, and more! Keeping all your digital and physical collateral designed in sync will help solidify your brand and keep you top-of-mind with your audience, so they’re more likely to recognize you on sight.
Your Voice — The language you use to describe your business and what you’re setting out to accomplish with it can have a powerful impact on your audience’s perception of your brand. I follow many creatives who have a distinct energy and speaking style when they show up for their audience, and you can easily recognize that radiating from them when you watch one of their IG Stories or read their email newsletters.
You don’t have to be a professional copywriter or performer to really nail this. All you have to do is define the overlap between your natural personality and way of speaking and that of your target audience.
Are you pretty casual, usually typing in all lowercase, and letting the occasional curse word slip out? That’s A-Okay if you think it would appeal to your target clientele. If not, then just slightly polish up your copy before you hit "Publish."
Are you gifted with words, writing poetic paragraphs that make the reader feel transported by a more meaningful vibe, allowing them to enjoy the feast of sentences you provide them with? If your audience digs it, then great — max out that character count. If, perhaps, your target client is more of a quick mover and likely won’t scroll that far down the page, try to cut some of the length down and make your message more clear and concise.
Your Client Experience — Every interaction with your client, from their initial discovery of your business, to their inquiry, to their booking and onboarding, to the delivery of their goods or services, all make up their experience with your brand. Whether you’re delivering products or services, you will be presented with many “touch points” or opportunities to impress your potential and real clients.
This is sort of a double-edged sword — winning a gold star at each touchpoint is sure to win you a repeat customer and maybe even some referrals. But missing the mark multiple times in a row will likely leave you empty-handed with nothing to show for your efforts.
Your Photography — I’d usually include photography as part of your design assets since it’s so visual and intricately connected to the design of your brand, but when you’re operating on a smaller scale, sometimes you’re not able to invest the time or resources into building a solid brand design right from the get-go. In that case, quality photography might be overlooked in favor of developing other areas of your brand.
I’m here to tell you, though, not to sleep on investing in good photography. Quality imagery can really sell your audience the experience they can expect from working with you and it can be way more “forgiving” when used correctly, by making up for the lack in other areas. The pictures tell a story that can help patch up many small lapses in perfection, and they’re worth the investment when they can tell the story of your brand without your involvement.
Your Website — Lastly, I can’t go without mentioning your website and the critical role it holds within your branding. We’ll go over websites more in a later module, but remember how crucial they are as you progress through this one. Your website is often one of the first places a potential customer will interact with your business, and it sets the stage in a way you couldn’t physically do yourself unless you were interacting in person with every interested party.
Basically, your website can be used as a tool to work harder than you and bring in more of an audience without you lifting a finger. We’ll discuss more later, so get excited.
Beyond these five main components, you’ll find other ways to cater your business and your brand to your target audience, but these are the top ones I’d recommend focusing on if you’re just starting up or working on a business revamp and need a starting point.
Or, if you’re realizing that the branding or design of your business isn’t quite your jam, then I’ve got a shameless plug for you: I’d love to work with you on this. Be sure to check out my branding and strategy services and send me a message if you have any questions.
As you move forward, remember: It’s not a race. Pick and choose the simple things you can work on improving, one piece at a time. With time, you’ll find those tiny tweaks compounding into a larger impact.
Before we dive into some tips and recommendations for the actual design of your brand, it might help to do a bit of exploration or discovery to fine-tune your target audience in relation to what you offer even further. You can identify some of your actual design preferences before you get started using our Brand Discovery Questionnaire which we send to every branding client we work with.
DESIGNING YOUR BRAND
When a filmmaker sets out to create, they’re always looking to appeal to the audience, whether that’s by scouting interesting locations or choosing a color scheme and illustration style for an animated movie.
They’re not looking to shoot at the most popular places to hang out in the town, or feature the most popular colors of the year — they’re literally “shooting for” timeless and classic. They want their picture to be unique and identifiable, but also to stand the test of diverse audiences, viewing scenarios, etc. They’re looking to highlight all the best features of their work while simultaneously aiming to appeal to audiences for years to come.
And one more thing about these filmmakers — most of the time, they’re not filming what they want to see, but rather what they know the audience wants to see.
The main goal of your brand should be to appeal to your target audience, not yourself.
In all my years as a brand designer, this has been my number one hiccup with clients. They wanted to stick with colors and icons they’d loved for a long time without taking into consideration whether or not they would capture their client’s attention. They wanted to use a font that appealed to their personalities without thinking through whether it was legible or attractive to their target audience.
Your logo, website, promotional materials, and all other possible things you could design and produce through your brand need to capture your ideal client’s attention, so it makes sense that you would need to define your target client before designing the rest of the brand. Now you can begin crafting a brand that attracts rave reviews, not critics.
Here are a few tips as you start this process:
Aim for consistency to promote brand recognition. When you’re designing your brand, visualize whether your chosen design can embody a strong, lasting presence for the logo and the designs you create with it so your audience can easily place your marketing materials, content, or packaging as belonging to you.
Avoid trends in both colors and designs. They limit the timelessness of your brand, meaning you’ll likely have to revamp again as fads change, which could hurt your brand recognition.
Consider outsourcing this step to a professional. If you’re not confident in your abilities to achieve a brand design that’s both captivating and clear, to appeal to your target audience, consider hiring a brand designer to take it off your plate, rather than risking wasted effort or damaging your brand appeal.
I’m all for doing things yourself where you can — after all, the ability to do things yourself is one of the most appealing parts of that entrepreneurial lifestyle we crave.
But, is DIY-ing your own logo something that will serve your business and create a more lasting, impactful brand?
If you do decide to have a go at it, here are my top recommendations for places to take action on first, bit by bit:
Choose just a few fonts. I suggest using a main font in varying weights and styles (Use a larger title case version for headers, a smaller font size in italics for subheadings, and a normal case for paragraphs, etc.) or maybe adding a tiny bit of diversity with a contrasting font type for another header option.
Develop a color palette with just two or three main colors that you use most often, maybe a couple of accent colors for a pop, and then a couple of neutrals. Primarily, all text should be in the darkest and lightest colors, on high-contrast backgrounds to keep it legible.
Create cohesive and consistent variations on your logo (I.e. a version without the tagline to use in your website header, an initial or icon to use as your browser icon and profile picture, etc.). Submarks or small initial icons add tons of value in extending out the places you can use your brand but be careful not to get too much variety in your logos. This is now the place to experiment with the fonts and colors — your logo should still be identifiable in all its forms.
A quick note about design tools —
As a graphic designer, it’s easy for me to recognize the value and benefit of high-quality design programs and software, just as you might similarly recognize the top tools of your trade as the investments you prioritize. When it comes to design software, Adobe Creative Cloud, in my opinion, not only takes the cake but dominates the entire franchise of bakeries.
Other free options, like Canva, might serve you well at the beginning of your journey, but professional-grade design software isn’t as inaccessible as you think (you can get the greatest Adobe programs like Photoshop, Illustrator, and Indesign for between $10 and $20 a month).
LEVELING UP YOUR BRAND
For all you creative mamas with an existing business, I’ve got a message to share with you about your existing brands.
I’ll always agree that branding is one of the most fundamental parts of your business. Yes, you need a good product or service in order to have anything to sell, but even if you’ve got the greatest “movie” ever made, you’re going to really struggle to bring in an audience to fill theaters if your costume, locations, and set design don’t attract any movie-goers.
Understanding good design is something that comes with time, education, and practice, but in regards to the part of your brand that isn’t just your logo or the graphics you post, you have a responsibility as a small business owner to really dive deep into what your brand says about your business, whether it’s a fresh one or a long-standing brand you’ve been working with.
Here are several ways you can easily take action today to level up your brand from wherever it stands currently:
Step One — Start Using a Consistent Color Scheme
One of the foundations of your brand's identity is going to be the colors you choose to represent your message and the emotions they evoke in your audience. Be sure to spend some time researching what your preferred colors represent and making sure that you are choosing a color scheme intentionally.
For example, if you’re a health food nut or promote healthy living as a blogger, consider a bright green or maybe some yellows for your brand colors — something that communicates freshness and life.
Some places you can incorporate these colors (other than your logo) include your website, social feeds, and even the clothes you choose to wear for your next upcoming photoshoot! That way, you know your new photos will be consistent with your website and social media feeds, without a doubt.
Pro tip: If you tend to utilize a lot of colorful imagery or if you’re a photographer who posts lots of photos with diverse colors, opt for a more neutral color scheme or one that tends to reflect or complement your most commonly-shared locales.
Step Two — Make Sure Your Logo is Easy to Read
Often, when I’m looking at a brand I just don’t vibe with, it has nothing to do with the business itself or the name — I’m repulsed by the hodge-podge, clashing design trends. I love super fun watercolor backgrounds, floral elements, and elegant script fonts just as much as the next creative, but all together? No thanks.
If you feel strongly about a unique design element, pick just one that you want to build your brand around, like maybe an illustrative icon or a texture. Starting with something simple is best because it’s easy to embellish or accent with your photos or additional designs. When you think about some of the places your logo will appear, like in that tiny circle on your Instagram profile, you want to make sure that the words are going to be legible to allow for some immediate brand recognition for your brand.
Step Three: Start Limiting the Number of Fonts You Use
Another way you can give yourself away as a brand design amateur is by using too many fonts. Remember, brand recognition is the goal here, and you can often communicate the same message about your brand with just one or two fonts, still allowing for some contrast. You should also put some thought into the aesthetic behind your brand and who you’re looking to appeal to.
My recommendation is to choose one font for your body copy, and then just one or two fonts to use for headers. If you MUST use a handwritten or display font that doesn’t work as well with large amounts of text, then go ahead, I guess, but I’d suggest saving it for special occasions like a signature at the end of a post or the “hello!” at the front of your website homepage.
Step Four: Develop Your Brand Voice
Developing the voice of your brand, or how you engage with your audience in your language, is one of my favorite pieces of brand design because I love seeing people show up as their authentic selves.
If you’re not sure why some of your IG posts aren’t getting engagement, or why people aren’t clicking the links in your email newsletters, consider how you can improve the quality of your language.
Step Five: Trial + Learn What Appeals Most to Your Target Audience
Stop guessing about what your target client might want to see on your feed — find out once and for all! If you’re a fine artist looking to build a portfolio and one day make it into your own studio, then keep things neutral and minimalistic, letting your artwork bring a lot of color and personality to your feed, and then seeing how people engage with your content.
Or, if you’re a wedding photographer looking to attract clients who are just as eager as you are to climb a mountain in a fancy dress or hike to a hard-to-reach spot to get a gorgeous backdrop for a photo, then make sure those stunning images are what you’re posting and see what sort of reaction you get.
Step Six: Learn How to Balance Being Cohesive With Being Flexible
Probably the trickiest concept for my clients is understanding how their design elements should be used independently of one another. You certainly might be able to get away with just having one logo design that works everywhere (your website header, a baseball cap, a business card, a shipping label, and everywhere else you need to use it), but if it doesn’t, don’t let weird cropping be your ultimate destruction.
As mentioned earlier, find some versatility and variety in your brand that still matches. It’s like when Maria from The Sound of Music created outfits for all the children using her curtains — those kids very clearly belonged together as they were parading throughout the town, although the outfits were slightly different styles when worn by each person.
Utilizing cohesive variations of your brand makes it appear ultra-professional and legit, and it improves your brand recognition right away.
One last thought before we close out this module: while it seems like there are a lot of “rules” and “dos and don’ts” when it comes to your branding, it’s more about doing what feels right for your brand and your message. Start small, with the manageable changes you can begin implementing today, and you’ll find that your brand develops naturally over time even without much prompting from you.
High-quality branding, developed with your target audience in mind, is one of the most crucial parts of your business.
The ideas and inspiration you captured and defined in this module will shape the rest of your business and act as a reference as you start advertising your offerings and taking your business to new heights.
Just like the ideas within and aesthetics of a movie, your brand can play on the emotions of your target audience. You can hit them right in the feels to earn their business simply by defining who they are and what they’re looking for, and then customizing your brand and your marketing efforts to suit them.
And one last shameless plug: If branding your business feels like a struggle, I’d love to help you out. Get in touch to learn more.
quick links to resources:
The Unburden Studio Brand Design Services