project details
Client: Yours truly
Completed: TBA
Project Duration: Ongoing
Introduction:
Since my own brand is technically a project, it gets its own page. Actually, I initially created this page as a template to copy the structure of the others from, but it makes sense to reference all design elements I've created as examples to future clients.
Problem:
The name and logo. This brand has come a very long way since its inception over a decade ago. I was faced with many early problems business must tackle when building an entire identity from scratch. I wanted something I couldn't quite put into words. The difficulty in nailing down exactly what I wanted stemmed from the fact that literally anything was possible. The canvas was blank and very overwhelming.
solution:
My approach to this started by combining words of things I liked with sounds from parts of my name. I researched big brands I admire, read about how they started, where their name inspiration came from, and so on. This is a process I like to get through fairly quickly so the fun stuff can begin, but for myself it took years. The logo came from flipping through sketchbooks out of frustration, searching for any clues I may have left over time for myself to find when the time was ready. I found a chunky little shark.
Problem:
Color scheme and mission statement. Being very fond of colors, I wanted all of them. Having gone to art school however, I knew better. This brand needed to be bold. It needed to reflect the parts of myself I wanted to channel into the mix of energy. It had to be perfect because I wasn't going to put all this work in unless I felt confident it would create enough momentum and get enough mileage.
solution:
So I wrote, revised, and wrote again. Rinse and repeat about a dozen times for a few years since 2011. I narrowed by color choices to lime green, white and black. Black eventually evolved to dark gray, and red entered the stage in 2018. But there were rules, like which colors could be paired, or in what ratios they could be displayed together.
Being mainly a print designer, thinking spatially and developing my brand in the physical sense (ie. products, table displays, packaging, banners & posters, etc.) I was lacking in the one thing I needed to embrace: the digital space. My social media, portfolio and blog were all very rudimentary. I had started using Square at festivals but it was for making sales in person. I had not yet put any thought into structuring an online shop. And I certainly didn't have the budget to hire anyone to build one for me. Even if I did, I had a VERY specific vision to flesh out and I would have driven them absolutely insane.
Webflow. That was the solution. About a year and a half of watching tutorials, playing with a free account, and getting a feel for what was possible (which is literally almost anything by the way), I went to town. I am still going to town. I make all the products, take all the photos and write all the description blurbs I want, but now they have somewhere to live. And I built it.
