After answering the questions I posted in Branding Pt.1, I said to myself, 'who is my customer? who am I making these items for?' and the answer was 'ME!' or at least, people like me. This is where I came up with idea to draw a cartoon 'me' for the logo. Here's a few of my original sketches:
I had thought I was going to use the one of the girl wearing the dress with the stripes as my main icon, but I created a different design for the back of the card using the feature part of the girl-her face! And when I had the business cards printed, it was clear that the smaller icon design was a better choice.
I used a few trends in the icon (hipster glasses and peter pan collar) to help people get a feeling of who the 'Heidi-and-Seek Boutique' girl is. I wanted it to be cute and playful. I used my favorite colors at the time, mint, coral, olive green and it eventually turned into this teal/aqua color because everything printed differently than it looked on my computer screen but I'm still happy with it.
Once I had my design down, I made a list of all the items I now needed to attach this brand onto everything:
1. Business Cards
2. Thank-You Cards
3. Stickers
4. Banner for Shows
I will tell you that there were points that were quite frustrating, trying to come up with a sketch or design that worked or that I liked, but I stuck with it and just kept sketching until I had something I loved!
A lot of what I shared in my branding story comes from this class that I took through the popular blog 'A Beautiful Mess' take a look at the classes they offer, they have been monumentally helpful for me and my business. They share a lot of great information from what they have experienced first hand. in particular I have benefited from the Dream Job, Blog Love and Blog Design classes.
If you have any questions about branding or any other Etsy questions, feel free to ask in this discussion
Determine your clients and from there, start conceptualizing the brand of your product. Always put yourself in the shoes of your target audience to better judge what will please them. Your business logo or product packaging can be as simple, as unique, as appealing, or a combination of all three -- enough to leave a lasting impression.
ReplyDelete-Jerilyn Darrow @ MichelleVanOtten