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Ep. 1: You Don't Need a Logo: Branding Basics for Small Businesses
95 Plays1 year ago
Join co-hosts Chloe and Darci as they talk about what it’s like to build a brand from scratch as a small business owner.
Drawing on their professional expertise (Chloe’s as a brand and web designer, Darci’s as a brand voice copywriter), as well as their personal experiences as solo entrepreneurs, they offer listeners realistic and actionable advice for crafting a brand identity that grows with your business.
This episode covers what a brand needs from day 1 (hint: it’s not a logo!), what you can put off for later, and common pitfalls to avoid when going the DIY-route.
So, if you’re ready to increase brand awareness and boost your brand visibility but don’t know where to start, you’ve come to the right place!
View Episode 1 Transcript
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Follow Chloe at Chloe Arielle Design:
Website https://www.chloearielle.com/
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Follow Darci at Sweet Tooth Creative
Website https://sweettoothcreative.com/
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Transcript
Introduction to Brand Jam
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to Brand Jam, the brand strategy podcast for colorful and compassionate brands. I'm Darcy, the candy-fueled copywriter behind Sweet Tooth Creative. And I'm Chloe, owner of Conscious Design Studio, Chloe Ariel Design.
Building a Brand from Scratch
00:00:15
Speaker
On the show, we'll be talking about what it's really like to build a brand from scratch when you're a business of one. And how to find what works for you so you can create a brand that grows with your business without burning yourself out. At Brand Jam, we believe there's no one right way to be, and embracing our differences enhances the experience for everyone.
00:00:32
Speaker
So if you're a fan of bold flavored branding and are trying to do business better, come hang out. We're so glad you're here.
Confronting Fear in Branding
00:00:41
Speaker
Just start creating. It's scary, but things are going to move a lot faster if you don't think too much and you just start. I want people to confront that fear and recognize that it doesn't ever go away.
00:00:57
Speaker
Welcome to Brand Jam's very first episode. You don't need a logo. I'm Chloe and I'm here with my co-host Darcy. Darcy, to kick us off, can you go ahead and explain a little bit about not only what we're going to talk about today, but also in future episodes? Sure. So, you know, here at Brand Jam, we'll be discussing all things branding, especially stuff that leads into the bolder, more colorful, fun side of the industry. We love color around here.
00:01:23
Speaker
Yes. Yes. And fun. So as we were planning out this first season, Chloe and I talked a lot about the idea of, you know, how do you build a brand from scratch?
Critical Elements of Brand Identity
00:01:32
Speaker
What's the most important stuff you need when you're just starting to create your brand identity?
00:01:37
Speaker
Yeah. And we were also thinking about like, what would we do differently? How would we go back and change things knowing what we know now? Yeah. Like what's truly necessary versus what's actually a waste of time or something that holds a lot of people back. So you're better off not worrying about it during the early stage.
00:01:56
Speaker
It's so tricky when you're first starting out because, I mean, a lot of people, I went to design school, so I have a little bit of an advantage on that. But most people, I mean, there's nothing, they don't teach these things in school. They don't teach you how to run a small business, at least in most schools. And there's just a lot of advice out there. There's so many podcasts and videos and people on social media.
00:02:21
Speaker
And it's hard to, you know, read in between the lines and find out what actually might be good advice. Exactly. So by the end of episode nine, we want to have given listeners a comprehensive overview of how to build a strong brand foundation. Like where's the best place to invest your energy and what are the, I guess, traps to watch out for? Like the designing your own logo trap.
00:02:42
Speaker
Oh, did you fall in that one, Darcy? Oh, 100%. I mean, Chloe, you'll probably groan at this, but I think probably the first thing I did when I left agency copywriting and started Sweet Tooth Creative was spend days. God, it might've even been weeks tweaking this very cute ice cream cone logo in Canva. I know, I know, I'm sorry. Don't make your logo in Canva. Don't endorse that here. That's okay. That's okay.
00:03:11
Speaker
There are a lot of things that Canva is amazing for making a long lasting logo is not one of them. I mean, from a strictly technical point. Yeah. And I mean, it wasn't even the technical issues that kept me from using that logo. Cause like, trust me, it never saw the light of day. I just honestly, at that point didn't really need it. I ended up basically scrapping it.
00:03:34
Speaker
making a simple text logo of my business name. And that's still serving me well, like several years later. I mean, I didn't have a logo until last year. So I run a brand design business. So it's really not needed, especially not right away. Yeah. So when you, when you sit down and you take the big step of deciding you're going to start your business and whatnot, I know because we're inundated with
00:04:03
Speaker
Nike and McDonald's and all these just like logos, you're almost born knowing. We think that that's an essential part of the brand, but early on it just isn't. So you don't need a logo, but we will tell you, we're going to, we're going to go through and talk about what we do need, what we do recommend you spend your time
Core Principles of Branding
00:04:22
Speaker
on. But first, Chloe, you and I, you know, we obviously have a lot of overlap in our, in our brand styles. We look colorful.
00:04:31
Speaker
both really just want to have fun with our branding. But then we also have a lot of overlap in our approach and our philosophy for branding. So we have talked about a couple of core tenants that we really want to make sure Grand Jim listeners are keeping in mind as they apply the advice that we're giving here. So why don't you start us off with the first one?
00:04:56
Speaker
Sure. So one of the things that you're going to hear us talk a lot about on Brand Jam is to just start creating. It's scary, but things are going to move a lot faster if you don't think too much and you just start because things are going to change over time. And Darcy, what is the next one?
00:05:15
Speaker
Number two is expect it to evolve. Expect your brand to evolve. Expect the choices you make to not be permanent, locked in. You're committed. If you change it, it'll be so embarrassing. None of that. Evolution is to be expected. Nothing is locked in. You're not writing the colors that you're choosing in stone. They can change over time. You can change over time, so your brand can too.
00:05:41
Speaker
I mean, it is important to be consistent with things in the short term. You don't want to lose your audience, but just know that choosing one thing doesn't mean that you're stuck with it for the eternity of your brand.
00:05:53
Speaker
Yeah, and sticking with things in the short term does let you try them out and really see. And then it also, as Chloe said, you know, keeps your audience with you as far as like audiences will tolerate gradual changes, but if there's no consistency, then you're not forming that brand recognition in their brain. So you do need to be repeating things with them, but what you repeat can change over time.
00:06:19
Speaker
Mm hmm. Your brand is how you make people feel, not just the visuals. And feeling like you have to make the right choice straight out of the gate just adds too much pressure and slows you down. So and that ties right into our third tenant, which is public before perfect. Yeah, public
00:06:39
Speaker
And that word is so iffy for me because it scares me. But that's exactly the point like that's so it scares me like that phrase public before perfect, even though I've been putting it into practice for a while now, myself, and I know it works, it still strikes a little bit of fear. But
00:07:01
Speaker
It's designed to, I want people to confront that fear and recognize that it never, it doesn't ever go away. So if you let it stop you from posting, stop you from showing up and showing people your business.
00:07:16
Speaker
then you're really going to stay stuck for entirely too long. So the sooner you can push past that discomfort, recognize that public comes before perfect and you need to put it out there, it's just going to prevent you from losing all this time to that fear.
00:07:36
Speaker
And the more that you do something, it will become easier and less scary. And I think another phrase that a lot of people have used before is imperfect action. It's a similar thing. Just put it out there. Even if it's not perfect, get it in front of people. Just start. Yeah, Courtney Foster Donohue calls it Beta Now Better Later, which I love. So that's a good one too. Whatever one is
00:08:03
Speaker
if I really freak you out with the word public like go ahead use whichever one works for you but keep that in mind that you want to be putting it out there because the other side of that is that there's an element to kind of seeing your stuff that just can't be achieved until you've put it out publicly. I mean maybe this is my
00:08:25
Speaker
brain my particular neurotype but as soon as i hit publish on something i see changes i wish i had made and sometimes in like i'll go back in and make them and then it's better but i could have looked at it for 10 hours before hitting publish and not thought to make those same changes so there is an element of you know
00:08:45
Speaker
things needing that specific audience to kind of help you see them. Yeah. And there's also, especially with social media, depending on the different kinds of content you put out, some things aren't going to work that well. Some things aren't going to resonate with your audience, but you're not going to know until you start doing it.
00:09:05
Speaker
Exactly. And then once you have that feedback, you can do more of what's working. So like I said, it just speeds up the whole brand evolution, which is what you want. Yeah. So let's just go over those one more time, and then we'll move on to the nitty gritty of the episode. So our three tenets are, number one, just start creating. Number two, evolution is expected and necessary. And three, public before perfect. You're like, I hate that one.
00:09:32
Speaker
So imperfect action. We can say it that way too.
Effective Brand Identity Building
00:09:37
Speaker
But yeah, so now we're going to move into what do we think you should focus on when you're first building a brand identity?
00:09:45
Speaker
Like, what do you need on day one? Because there's plenty you could work on. A brand takes a long time to build, but where is your energy bets put to use when you're just starting? So Chloe and I are on kind of, we're two sides of the same coin. As far as branding goes, Chloe handles the visual side, she's a graphic designer.
00:10:09
Speaker
And then I'm on the communication side, copywriting, brand messaging, all of that. So Chloe, for your side of things, the visual side, what are your day one brand basis? OK, so there are a few things. I think the number, well, they're not really in a particular order. They're kind of all three of these things are needed. But the first one, for the sake of having a first one, would be having a basic color palette.
00:10:36
Speaker
Okay, so what do you mean by basic though? Like how many colors are we talking? Okay, so if you are not a designer, I would keep it as minimal as possible. I would choose up to three colors. You could even just choose one color as your main color. However,
00:10:52
Speaker
There are additional things to have. So accessibility is very important to me, I mean, and the world around you. So I want to make sure that your color palette is accessible, even just starting out. So if you have chosen three colors, they're generally in the medium range. If you're going for bright colors like Darcy and I like, otherwise, if they're not.
00:11:10
Speaker
you can adjust as necessary. But you're going to want to choose a super light version of each color. So that's kind of going to be like your white or neutral. And then a super dark version. So that's going to kind of replace your black. And that allows enough contrast between colors so that you can use text on top of all the different colors and have it still be accessible. And we'll go into a lot more detail on this in another episode because accessibility is
00:11:38
Speaker
such a complicated topic. But to start three colors at the max, choose a very light shade of it, choose a very dark shade of it and go from there. Okay. Now, when you say choose a light version and a dark version of each, each of the three colors or pick one, do a light version of it, pick one of the three and do a dark version and you have your dark and your light. So five total.
00:12:03
Speaker
It depends on the vibe of your brand, but I usually do it for each color just so you don't have to use the same color every single time. But that depends on your brand. Maybe that is something that you like in consistency, but I'm all maximalism and using as many of my colors as possible. So it could go either way, depending on your brand. But the goal is to make sure it's accessible, but still be able to use colors that you like.
00:12:28
Speaker
Okay, so whatever feels better for them is fine. Yes, exactly. And if you do have, let's say you desperately want to use like yellow, yellows are really difficult color to use. I know. Yeah.
00:12:43
Speaker
I had it in my palette and I just never use it because it's tricky because the dark version looks like brown and the light version is not the same. So in this case, you can't really use it for text. I mean, you can use it for a background color with like darker text on top of it, but you're mostly going to end up using it as an accent. So if you have a bunch of super vibrant colors that don't pass contrast, which again, we'll talk about another episode, you can use them for accents like your graphics.
00:13:13
Speaker
things like that that aren't text related. So you can still get that bright color through, but you can still have people read your content. Gotcha. Gotcha. Okay. Okay. So what else? Okay. So the next thing is fonts and I love fonts. And if you're, so you're just starting out, I would choose a maximum
00:13:33
Speaker
of two fonts. So one to two fonts, if you have to have two, that's okay. But you're probably going to want one if you really want to use like one of those fun, trendy, melty fonts or something like that. You're going to want it to be the heading font. You're not going to be putting copy in the very difficult to read font. First of all, we want to avoid difficult to read fonts.
00:13:54
Speaker
But there are some that are more legible when they are larger and less text. And so that's going to be your heading font. It's going to be the more decorative one or not, or it can just be a regular old font.
00:14:04
Speaker
whatever you want. And then the other font I would suggest just like you know something very legible and that's going to be your body font which is just all of the copy that's longer than a few words. Anything that's longer than a few words you want in your most legible font and that can usually it's going to be a sans or a serif font which I don't know if I'm getting too detailed about fonts let me know Darcy.
00:14:27
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. I'm a font nerd. I don't know what the average knowledge of sans and serif. I could look at fonts all day. Okay. I'm with you. All right. Well, yeah, I mean, something you could turn a paper into before your teacher like for the most part, I tend to be like, you're not writing for English class. But
00:14:47
Speaker
The one way you are writing for English class is you need people to be able to read your paragraphs of text. So if it would look weird in a book or on an essay that you're handing in for a grade, don't use it for your body text. Yeah, that's it. That's a great example.
00:15:05
Speaker
One last thing about fonts is if you just want to choose one font, something you can do is choose one that has a big family. So a big family just means that it goes from like extra super bold to thin light, things like that. So you can still get that nice contrast. So it looks like different fonts, but it still has a really cohesive feel to it. So you could use the bold one for your headings, and then the lighter regular weight for the body.
00:15:31
Speaker
yeah when I first started out, I was using I don't even remember what my body font was but it came in bold regular and italic and that was it. And I didn't realize that like I could have had more options so later on when I did figure it out and somebody was like you know you should pick one with.
00:15:52
Speaker
a bigger family, I did. I switched to Open Sans and that has like eight different weights and it's great and I just feel so much less stuck. So I definitely, I love that advice and I wish I had had that sooner. Yeah. It's, I only have one font that I use. I just use different weights. Yeah. It's definitely a way to simplify things, but also feel cohesive. Okay. So then what's your number three?
00:16:19
Speaker
Three is kind of a lot of things that I'm lumping into one thing, and it's the basic aesthetic. So you have your colors, you have your fonts, and you need a look to your brand. And I just want you to loosely define it. So is it super playful? Is it
00:16:36
Speaker
collage? Is it painterly? Is it more corporate professional? You know, there's so many different options. And this is just so you can have some consistency and some rules because I'm guessing that you are on Canva and there are so many options, so many options. So set a couple parameters for what you want your style to look like and then stick to them. So I don't use certain things on my brand.
00:17:06
Speaker
Even though I would like to because they're fun, because I have things defined and I need to stick to that. It doesn't mean you can't have fun, but we do need some consistency. Yeah. You can't go with every fun thing you come across. Exactly. You have to choose the fun things that fit and that will create the cohesion.
00:17:28
Speaker
that creates brand awareness in your audience. Exactly. And something is a little Canva tip is that you can make folders on Canva and you can save different elements to a folder so that you can reuse the same things over and over and you can change the color and use it in different ways. But that way you can start to have even more consistency and you don't have to search
00:17:52
Speaker
all of Canva every single time you go to make a design. And also they have different artists on Canva, so if you find an artist that really is in your style that you like, they have a little code at the top where the search bar is and you can like copy the code and save that somewhere and
00:18:08
Speaker
research them whenever you want or again just save them to a folder. Yeah you can also right click and go into the information on the element and click the creator name and it's linked so it's another way to find more stuff by them but um yeah nothing is nothing is probably sadder than not keeping track of an element you love and then not being able to find it again because that has happened. Yeah and then you just have to infinitely copy and paste it from a very old design because you can't find the original again.
00:18:38
Speaker
All right, so those are the basic things I would have you do for your brand. And see, we did not need a logo. We already have a consistent look, and we have not made a logo. But let's talk about the communication side.
Communication and Values in Branding
00:18:51
Speaker
Darcy, what are your key elements?
00:18:53
Speaker
So the three things you need for your brand on day one on the communication side, and just like with Chloe's visual side, we're talking about a very basic version of these things. We will build them out as we go, but you just kind of need a starting point.
00:19:09
Speaker
and they are your position your key messages and your values so starting with brand position you'll hear people use that term in as far as like brand positioning strategy that's another thing it comes in later don't worry about that right now at the basic level your brand positioning is essentially who what where
00:19:32
Speaker
when, why, and how of your brand. What do you do? Who do you do it for? How is it delivered? And why should they work with you? Stuff like that.
00:19:44
Speaker
I feel like you're divulging secrets that no one else wants to talk about. Everyone always talks around these things, but it's so nice to just get these actual definitions out there and maybe make some of these buzzwords not so scary. Yeah, so keep going. What's the next one? Yeah, it really doesn't need to be scary. It's more about getting comfortable talking about yourself and then the specifics of these buzzwords and stuff that comes in later.
00:20:12
Speaker
So my number two is your key messages. You could go one of two ways with this. You could look at it and try and do your key messages, like try and pick three things that are the most important that you want your audience to know, that maybe they don't know yet and that you can teach them.
00:20:28
Speaker
Or, if that's too overwhelming, start with your unique value proposition, which is another buzzword you'll hear a lot, and really just boils down to what sets you apart. Like, okay, you're probably not the only person offering this product or service, so when people are looking at you compared to someone else who's offering it, what do you do differently, and why should they pick you, essentially?
00:20:52
Speaker
So you mentioned three key messages. Is that a good number for people to start with? Or is there a point where you're like, if that's too many, like with colors, where I'm like, stop after three, there's something similar with key messages. I mean, you definitely want it to be a shorter list. It could be one.
00:21:09
Speaker
It depends on your business. But I would say one to three is a great place to start. And if you are having trouble narrowing it down, the quickest thing I would recommend is to write them down. Just because you write it down as a key message doesn't mean it's a key message forever. Make a list. And often from that list, you'll be able to see themes. If two key messages bump up against each other, they probably are part of a larger message. So what's that larger message? Because that's your key message.
00:21:38
Speaker
Key messages are things that you're going to come back to and talk about over and over and over. And in order to do that, there has to be depth to them. And you have to be able to talk about them in a bunch of different ways. So whenever you're like, well, I think this might be a key message, but this is kind of close to that. So maybe they're both key messages? Incorrect. The answer is they fall under one of your key messages.
00:22:07
Speaker
So think of it in that way. But all that being said, like make that list. Like it's okay to have ones on there that don't make the cut because they point you towards the one that does. We love a list around here. Yes. And getting it out of your brain. Yes. Get it out of your brain. It all goes back to everything else. Just start. Okay. What, what is, what's your next one? Okay. So the last one is, you know, values. And this is another one where like, if that's overwhelming, I have a way to kind of dip your toe
00:22:36
Speaker
in that particular pool, but your values are what drives your business. Or I mean, it's what I think should drive your business and we'll go much deeper into that later. But these are the things that kind of like you don't feel good operating in your business without them. Like, you know, whether that's you want to create change in some way around an issue that matters to you, or you want to prioritize pleasure,
00:23:03
Speaker
because if you're not having fun, you're not going to want to do it. Whatever those things are, like pick a couple of values and just start thinking of them as a part of your business, your brand foundation. And if you're wrong, if you picked wrong, that's okay. Again, it can evolve, but start trying them on and kind of keeping them in mind as you do everything in your business.
00:23:26
Speaker
So what's the way, what's the quicker way to do it? Okay. So the baby step, if, like I said, if value is trying to name your values is overwhelming. The baby step is to start with your mission statement. You'll hear different companies talking about their mission statement and it's easy to Google and find examples of that. But ultimately it's, you know, what kind of impact do you want to make with your business?
00:23:48
Speaker
So if, you know, listening values and seeing how they will kind of reach out and touch different parts of your business is, you know, too much, or you just don't have time to start with a mission statement. What kind of impact do you want to have? So really quick, um, as we're wrapping up, what about investing in professional branding?
Timing for Professional Branding Services
00:24:09
Speaker
Like when, when should someone hire you, Chloe versus when should they be listening to the podcast and doing it themselves?
00:24:15
Speaker
Well, it depends on where someone is in their business, what their budget is, things like that. But I personally recommend that you don't need to invest in a full professional brand until you have a strong handle on your business. And that usually means you've been in business about one to two years, maybe even more. It's allowed to take longer. Yeah, it just doesn't make sense to invest in something that
00:24:41
Speaker
you're going to have to change it. Your first few years in business are massive growth and change years. And it's going to change, it's going to evolve. So yeah, I don't recommend doing the whole shebang professionally until you've at least been business about two years. Yeah, better to try things on yourself. Is that similar on your side?
00:25:02
Speaker
Yes. Yeah. I would say it's the same for copy. Copy, it's a little tricky because like sometimes DIY copy can really hold you back. There are certain things that, I mean, I spent a lot of years learning how to do this and you don't have time to do that and run your business. So it makes sense if you are struggling with aspects of your copy and like chat GPT as cool as it is for a lot of things. Sometimes it just cannot do what a human can do.
00:25:32
Speaker
But I still think you do want to be in business for at least a couple of years before you drop a lot of money on a full custom copy package. That being said, there are ways, there are templates and products and smaller support packages that are probably worth investing in if you are someone who struggles with DIYing your copy. But
00:25:55
Speaker
Definitely before I would put any big money into it, I would suggest being in business for one to two years at least. That's it for this episode of Brand Jam. Check out the show notes for links to the resources we talked about. If this episode hit the spot, be sure to subscribe and leave us a review. It helps Brand Jam reach more listeners, so we really appreciate it. Thanks so much for joining us. We'll see you next time.