Today I’m going to let you in on a sneak peek into the early stages of the design process.

Why branding matters… If you’ve hung around my site or blog for any period of time, it’s no secret that I’m passionate about branding. It’s a place where science and art meet and both sides of my brain are happy.

For many, the term “brand” is ambiguous and misunderstood, and therefore mistakenly used synonymously with “visual identity”… And that’s where it all starts and ends. But it’s also where the frustration begins… That visual identity ends up being all over the map, isn’t consistent, never “feels right,” definitely doesn’t bring in better (or the right type of) clients, doesn’t generate more revenue, and within a year or two, that well-meaning business owner is already looking for a change and is browsing the interwebs again. And the cycle repeats.

Using a logo as a starting place for building your brand is like trying to build a house, roof first. A roof is great. ESSENTIAL, even. But ya can’t start there. Any builder would find such a request laughable. The roof only makes sense in context of the entire structure – foundation, walls, etc…

Look, I get it. I don’t know of a single entrepreneur who didn’t start out DIY’ing everything. It’s in our blood. We want to save money, and more importantly, we can’t hack hiring someone to do what we feel we SHOULD be able to do ourselves.

Life is exciting and business is going well (congrats!). The fact that you’ve stumbled upon this post means that you might even be looking to elevate your brand with a new logo… Before you get too knee-deep in the never-ending Pinterest and Etsy searches, here are a few things to consider before purchasing or designing that new logo.