Tonight I’m writing about something I feel extremely passionate about!
BRANDING and Building a brand that you LOVE
I recently just got my logo for my photography business re-designed by the amazing Laura Rush from Ruffled Ink Designs. And I absolutely adore it!
I feel like it captures my vibe as a photographer as well as my personal personality! I wanted something elegant yet free-spirited with colors that I’m personally drawn to like shades of pinks, gold, tiffany blue, turquoise, and different shades of green!
A brand however is much more than a logo. A logo design is extremely important! It’s the first thing a client sees along with your photos! But the logo is just a small representation of the bigger picture. A “brand” is essentially YOU! It’s the driving force behind what you and your business is all about. So what goes into creating this brand and making it the foundation for what you’re all about? Well here are some tips to get you going and truly start thinking about how you want your business to feel to potential clients and to yourself!
-Visual Words: A good way to start the branding process is to sit down with a piece of paper and write down some words that describe the FEELING of the business of your dreams. What does your dream business look like? What does it feel like? Make them very descriptive and visual! For example some of mine would be: free-spirited, bubbly, elegant, passionate, fun, happy, dreamy.
-Actual Visuals: Another way to help you get inspired is to collect things that get your blood pumping and represent you and your business. This could be done on a pinterest board or a collage of cutouts or even actual items that allow you to feel inspired and relate to your core desires for your business. Seriously these could be anything from pictures of flowers, mountains, food, clothing, color palettes, paintings, objects, and quotes!
-Goals and Lists: With every aspect of creating a business as well as a brand, starting off with goals is a great place to start! Separate your goals into different lists! For example, make a list of goals for details on how you want your website, logo, and other visual elements to look. Do you want it to have picture elements? What font would you like? What type of website and blog were you wanting? On another list write your business goals and elements you want to implement in your business! For example on my list would be: Respond to emails in a timely manner, have a strict timeline regarding getting the finished product to clients, etc.
-ACTION: All this is fun to talk about and hopefully gets your blood pumping and fired up to start creating your brand but it truly all comes down to putting all these elements into ACTION! Sometimes there are things that hold you back from creating something you are truly passionate about like fear, or a busy schedule, or lack of money or supplies. But think about it… is fear of failure more powerful than following your dreams and achieving your goals?
-Actual Visuals: Another way to help you get inspired is to collect things that get your blood pumping and represent you and your business. This could be done on a pinterest board or a collage of cutouts or even actual items that allow you to feel inspired and relate to your core desires for your business. Seriously these could be anything from pictures of flowers, mountains, food, clothing, color palettes, paintings, objects, and quotes!
-Goals and Lists: With every aspect of creating a business as well as a brand, starting off with goals is a great place to start! Separate your goals into different lists! For example, make a list of goals for details on how you want your website, logo, and other visual elements to look. Do you want it to have picture elements? What font would you like? What type of website and blog were you wanting? On another list write your business goals and elements you want to implement in your business! For example on my list would be: Respond to emails in a timely manner, have a strict timeline regarding getting the finished product to clients, etc.
-ACTION: All this is fun to talk about and hopefully gets your blood pumping and fired up to start creating your brand but it truly all comes down to putting all these elements into ACTION! Sometimes there are things that hold you back from creating something you are truly passionate about like fear, or a busy schedule, or lack of money or supplies. But think about it… is fear of failure more powerful than following your dreams and achieving your goals?
No.
A big fat freaking NO.
If you truly want something you have to throw that fear aside and dive in. Take a risk. And put your plans, goals and dreams into action! A brand is only as good as what you put into it. One of my all time favorite quotes is:
“Actions speak louder than words”
And how true is that?! 🙂 So incredibly true. I could literally talk about passion and this topic for forever but I’ll call it quits for now. I hope this helped someone out there and lit a little passionate fire in one of your business building dreaming hearts 🙂
Delaina says
June 29, 2014 at 1:05 amSo inspiring! Loved the advice, wanna be my life coach? 😉
Luu says
July 4, 2014 at 9:55 amDear Emilie, really nice post 🙂 So inspiring words! Best, Luu