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A brand mood board is a collage that represents your core values and aesthetic brand qualities in a visual way. It’s the first step in translating these abstract concepts into visual language. Whether you decide to work with a designer or by yourself, creating a mood board is a great exercise in giving your ideas and impressions a more solid visual form. Read more...
The usual answer to this question is “it depends”, and this drives business owners mad. In this article, I explain exactly what it depends on, and share details on timelines in my own logo design process. Read more...
Who gets to say whether a design is “good” or “bad”? What are the objective criteria we can use to evaluate the work? Is it appropriate for clients to dictate design decisions, or should it be left up to the experts? In this article, I’ll point out some of the objective and subjective sides of design, and how to make the best of both. Read more...
Branding can be a significant financial investment and as savvy small business owners we need to ask ourselves: is it worth it? Will we actually receive enough of a financial benefit to justify that cost? In this article I explain how branding can encourage clients to see our business as a better choice, and share an exercise to help you see where you may be losing clients. Read more...
How can service based business owners convince clients to hire us, instead of someone else? One of the most persuasive ways is to claim an expertise in a narrow field. In this article I’ll explain what it takes to be an expert, and how to demonstrate your expertise to your clients. Read more...
Use this free tool to quickly figure out which parts of your brand are the strongest, and which ones are the weakest and need more work – in under 5 minutes! By fixing up your weakest points, you’ll raise the overall impact of your entire brand. Read more...
It’s common among logo designers to present 3 concepts to the client, so they can choose the one they like the most. I’ve even seen this taught in design schools and courses. I don’t offer multiple logo design concepts to my clients—I show them one, and then we discuss whether it works for the business or not, and if something needs to be changed. This may not work for every designer, but I’ll explain why the “one concept, one revision” approach works for me and my clients. Read more...
Brand identity design is rarely just about creating the logo and brand style guide. Every brand design project I work on involves at least a few additional graphics. But which of those graphics do you need? Many business owners are stumped by this question because they may not even know what options exist. My hope is that this article helps you clarify your individual needs. Read more...
When I ask my clients in the beginning of my logo design process to choose up to five aesthetic qualities that are the most important for their brand, the quality clients most often select is “elegant”. We can all tell something is elegant when we see it, but what specific graphic design choices create this effect? Read more...
I help clients who want to be seen and valued as experts in their field to increase their visibility and impact. Unfortunately, many people don’t feel emotionally prepared to receive attention, so they keep putting off their marketing activities. In this article I offer tips and techniques you can use to shift your mindset and prepare yourself before you step into the spotlight. Read more...
If you’re preparing for your new logo and brand identity design project, I’m sure you have many questions, especially if you’ve never worked with a designer before. In this article I explain what my brand identity design process looks like, so you can see all the work that goes into it. Read more...
A brand is never “perfect”—it’s on a trajectory towards perfection, but it will never reach that point. Of course, being closer to that perceived “perfection” is better than being far away from it, that’s why we even bother doing this work, fully aware that we’re in it for the long haul. Read more...
Selecting the perfect business name is a difficult process, and there’s nothing more demotivating than learning someone else has already registered your chosen name. Once you’ve found a name that is available and appropriate for your use, it’s a good idea to protect that name (and the logo graphic) so that your company is the only one that can use it. That’s what trademarks are for. Read more...
Whenever designers create a brand for an organization, we want it to be long-lasting. What’s the point of doing it if you’re going to scrap it in a year or two? The challenge here is that in order to create a long-lasting brand, the information designers and brand strategists are working with has to be accurate and future-proof. Unfortunately, new businesses often base the information they give designers on lots of assumptions, which may or may not prove to be correct in a couple of years time. Businesses grow and evolve, and a brand may get outdated even if you did everything “right” the first time. Read more...
When you’re a creative person, you’re naturally pulled towards new things, experimenting, and reinventing yourself. Doing things consistently and predictably sounds like a total chore. Is this resistance to “being stuck in a box” preventing you from being consistent in your branding? If so, this post it for you. Read more...
Dream clients are actual human beings who have bought your services, and you freakin’ love working with them. Graduating from so-so clients to dream clients takes time, but once you get there, you experience a level of ease and joy in your business that nothing else can replace. Read more...
Whether you’re a writer, lawyer, illustrator, designer, developer, dentist, psychotherapist, coach, marketing consultant, hair stylist, jewelry designer, painter, creative agency owner, musician, bookkeeper… the methods described in this book will help you express yourself naturally in your business and grow authentic relationships with your clients. Read more...
The greatest time-saving trick of all time that I’ve discovered is having everything written down and accessible wherever I go. There are so many things you could (and in my opinion, should) have written down, and this includes the brand style guide: a document containing your brand elements and assets, so you can review and share them with your team. Read more...
In this article, I share a practical technique I teach in my workshop for freelancers and agencies, called the client journey mapping. This method is useful not only for your branding efforts, but has all sorts of other benefits as well. It enables you to see your business with fresh eyes, patch holes in your client process, and create a delightful client experience. Read more...
Most books on branding are focused on corporations and startups, and require you to implement a bunch of different elements and tools. Then there are books that talk about personal branding. These seem better for the average consultant, but what if you have employees? Is there something else out there for a business like yours? I asked myself the same question, and when I didn’t find it, I decided to create it. Read more...
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