Today I unveiled my brand new logo design.
When I started my business I put together my own branding and logo. I hobbled something together in Canva for free and put it to the back of my mind.
As someone who has been involved in corporate branding for many years, I know how important branding is. It goes way beyond just a logo and colours.
Your brand is how you operate, your values, and how people think and feel when they encounter your brand. I knew my business wouldn’t live or die by not having an expensive logo.
I promised myself I would make sure I had a business before investing in branding. Rarely do your ideas at the start reflect your business a few months down the line. So I didn’t want to invest and then have to shell out again with the inevitable changes to my business.
Finding the right designer
When I hit the one year mark in my business, I made good on my promise and started looking for someone to work. As someone who enjoys working with creatives, I have quite the network around me, so it wasn’t an easy decision.
But someone stood out to me because they used Instagram. They were visible to me, both showcasing their work and who they were as a person. These are things I not only practise but teach.
I loved the way Hermione was herself. She also seemed highly sought after, I’m pretty sure she has created at least 50% of the branding locally. She showed how proud she was at seeing her work around the town. This is when you know someone has done their best work – they show it off all the time!
After a few initial chats, and sending her a Pinterest mood board and a long list of competitors (both things I liked and didn’t) we had our initial chat. The reason I like to work with creatives is that they usually think differently to me. I can spew ideas and they can articulate them into something more graphic, more beautiful.
If you’ve spent any time with me in business, I’ve probably advised you, when you can work it into your budget….hire a creative!
The energy after our first few sessions was exciting, she understood what I needed, but she was a guiding hand – this is when you know you have the right person!
The design
I wanted to embrace the elements of digital and sustainability without feeling too corporate or techy.
The two fonts show the digital design, hard edges, technical and strong. Reeds, my surname, is script, rough, handwritten, human and natural. Bringing these two together in this way to encompass the brand as a whole.
The play button is a link to digital, but also a signal to the constant change of the world, technology and an aspiration to be sustainable.
I wanted to include the feeling of movement, energy and flow.
The colour is something I have been drawn to for years, it is calming. It reminds me of seafoam or sunlit moss. I wanted to convey a constant mix, fonts, shades but still keep it simple.
In Hermione’s words:
The beautiful and breathtaking trio encapsulates her and her business perfectly.
When we set out brainstorming and looking a little deeper into the businesses core values and objectives, the notion of continuation and endless evolution kept reappearing.
These key phrases manifested themselves into a directional but endless circle, encompassing a stylised pause/play button, to really signify all things digital.
We didn’t want to tie the brand down only the realms of social, as ‘digital’ expands far beyond this. So by keeping the visual representation open, the primary logo and icon stay versatile as the brand grows and evolves.
Shape-Shifting
Having worked previously with a rather cumbersome logo and lots of brand restrictions, I wanted to be able to pull apart and shift my logo to where it looked its best. So three elements were created, the main logo, a wordmark and an icon.
The main logo would be used as much as possible. The wordmark would be used when space is at a premium, or when something simpler is required.
The icon can then be used as a motif, a pattern or wherever I choose frankly.
I know there is power in the consistency of brand. While I’m finding my feet with it, I’ll try not to create a similar structure I had to endure before that just stifled any creativity!
Making it work
The next steps are to get this all singing together, and I can’t wait.
I can’t wait for more creative projects. This was an investment for me in my journey, and one I am grateful for. It isn’t essential to everyone I know.
But having created and managed branding for years, I wanted to this time do it for myself. Embracing the journey and the vision it brings out.
Check out Hermione’s work here (click)
