Creating a Brand

Creating a brand is much more than creating a business. A business is an idea for a product or service and then executing it to make sales. It’s numbers and finance. Creating a brand is all about marketing. It’s how we show that product or service to our audience to make them feel like they cannot live without it. It’s about creating an image, a constant for people to know and understand and desire. Brands have loyalty and emotions.

When it comes to building a business, especially a creative one like this, it’s hard not to think of the business in the same way as the brand. A business needs a logo for brand recognition, but is that more important the product design? Without products, there is no business, but without any marketing, people can’t find you to buy said products. These are problems every new business owner struggles with. There’s a long to-do list and every time you can cross something off, you add 5 more.

I am fortunate to have experience in graphic design where I worked with brand style guides to create advertisements. I worked for the automotive industry, which of course, is very different from fashion; however, the branding guidelines were good practice. Auto companies are some of the biggest in the world and brand recognition is extremely important to them. Following and understanding the minutia of just how small you can make a logo and the open space around it, the colors you’re allowed to use, and even the wording for some of them was enlightening. I learned that some of the biggest brands have guidelines that are many pages long, and I’m sure have been compiled by teams of people.

I’m one person, and my brand is not that big, but I have learned from experience that if I want my brand to grow, it needs a good foundation to build upon. So I created my logo and chose my fonts and colors. I’ve done some market research and explored who my customer is, what she likes, dislikes, and wants. I have the vision of who will wear my clothes and how she feels wearing them. Everything I create for this brand, I’ve keep my overall vision in the back of my head because I want to convey a message that is constant and relatable, no matter the format it’s seen in.

To help me keep a cohesive brand image, I chose 3 words that I want represent my brand: Powerful, Fierce, Enigmatic.

I’ll dive deeper into these words and why I chose them in my next few posts.