What a month September has been! I don’t know about you, but it’s been a bit of whirlwind, in a good way.
I’ve been thinking a lot about this Brand Journal a.k.a blog of mine and about how I’d love to update it more often. I have to admit, even though I’m an introvert, writing doesn’t come easy for me and I find myself stumbling over what to write (often) and even avoiding writing blogs because 1. I’d rather design something instead. 2. It doesn’t bring me that much joy, like say a cuddle would from Lionel (my dog). 3. And I much prefer video – who’d have thought it!
Even with all of this in mind, I still wanted to keep the Brand Journal updated, so here I am.
For so long I’ve thought I could only blog about branding and graphic design but actually, there’s plenty more I could talk about – my love of being a business owner, self care, taking Lionel out for walks, baking (hello cake! And my obsession with The Great British Bake Off)… You get the gist.
So, I thought for this blog I’d share a little behind the scenes with you of what I’ve been up to this month, because it’s been a whirlwind of a month for a reason and it’s all been about launches and rebrands.
One client has already launched, one client is launching and two clients are preparing to launch in the next few months.
So what does this have to do with me, I hear you ask? Well, quite a lot, because I provide a high touch brand strategy and design service for certain clients on a monthly basis. You see, I’m not your average graphic designer who just designs pretty logos. No, there’s a lot more to me than what meets the eye, including helping clients with their launches.
Every launch includes a funnel of some sort, so it’s the start of that funnel and within it where the beauty of what I do happens. Here’s a little breakdown of what I’ve been working on for these particular clients.
Free Masterclass Graphics
My client who has already launched this month – she decided she wanted to host a free masterclass. She’s in an industry which has been massively affected by Covid and she really wants to support her ideal clients and help them navigate these tough times but also help them flourish in the future too. The end goal was to get more members into her membership – goal achieved.
So in order to advertise the free masterclass, which was happening at two different times, my client needed graphics for all her social media platforms – LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. There’s always an open window after online masterclasses to get more sign ups, so I also created some follow up graphics, which included the bonuses available, when doors were going to be closing etc.
Membership Launch Graphics
Another client of mine is at the very start of launching her brand new storytelling membership, so it’s been important to cover all stages of the membership launch. The identity of the membership itself, the run up to it (including hints of something coming), doors open, doors closing and the actual membership content itself. So this month I designed the identity for The P.S. Club, created a sales page banner and I’ve mainly been designing social media graphics for Stacey for her upcoming launch. The doors already opened to the waitlist and as of today (26th September), Stacey has already had 8 sign ups, which is amazing. The membership doors officially open on 1st October, so not only have I been designing value-driven social media graphics, but also specific launch graphics as well.
And then for the membership itself, I’ve designed the facebook group cover photo as well as graphics ready for the membership content, including guest trainings, guest Q&A’s, Stacey’s training and Q&A sessions as well as monthly schedules. Communication is key when it comes to memberships, so letting your members know what is coming up and when in a timely fashion is great because it means they can book that time out in their diaries.
Sub Brand Identities
One of my clients is in the process of gearing up for two launches in the next few months, so I’ve been working on the sub brand identities for those. They’re both under wraps for now until they’re public knowledge.
Business Growth Planning
Now I know you might be thinking – what on earth has this got to do with you Hollie, you’re a brand designer. Well, as I said at the beginning of this blog post, I do provide a high touch service to particular clients and this is part of that service. It can be really difficult to come up with ideas for your own businesses and if you’re more of a processor or strategic thinker, it can be even more of a struggle. So with my clients in this position, I have zoom calls with them to explore new ideas, looking at their businesses from all angles to make sure everything is covered. Plus, two heads are better than one, right. It gives my clients the opportunity to bounce ideas they have around with me and vice versa, and my creative brain LOVES ideas and generating them for other people.
I’ve done this with two of my clients this month who are in the process of growing their businesses, because the ideas that I can come up with for them – they may not have even thought themselves, so it’s always a really helpful process.
One of my clients is also rebranding.
I couldn’t write this blog and not tell you about my client who is about to rebrand with me. Last week we had our clarity call together and it was great to delve even deeper into my gorgeous clients brand. I already have an idea in my head of a few possible brand designs, but also how the brand could look and feel. I love this stage because when I get hunches like this, the next few steps within the rebrand process will confirm whether my hunch is along the right lines. These will include a market position analysis with personal recommendations in terms of repositioning, brand strategy and a proposed custom colour palette and vision mood board. I’ll be sure to share some sneak peeks online on Instagram as I go along, if you want to find out more and see more.
I’ve also been designing a brand new brand identity for another client of mine. You can see a sneak peek of that here.
In terms of my own business, I hosted my own 5-day challenge this month – Realign Your Brand For Success and it went really well. The pop up Facebook group for that will still be open for another week, so if you wanted to access that, you can find more information here.
I’ve also been working even more in the background of my business to upgrade some of my systems and processes to ensure everything is streamlined, easy to use and easily accessible for all my clients too. I’ll let you know more about that in my next monthly round-up.
If you enjoyed reading this blog and anything has peaked your interest, feel free to reach out to me.
