The most important ingredient in genuine empathy is the willingness and ability to listen. What makes my empathy magical is that I can then take what I’ve heard and learned and felt with you and turn it into something visual. We chat. I ask questions. I see into your heart and into your future and we figure out what happiness and brand satisfaction would FEEL like for you. THAT is magical. And it is at the HEART of everything I do.

Answering the question “what do I want?” is so hard. So hard that most of us shove that question under the rug and choose to focus on the easier stuff, like “what do other people do?” or “who can I follow or copy or emulate so I don’t have to figure this out myself?”. And that’s OK! Well, it’s ok for a while. Following in other people’s footsteps is a great way to get you started. But real brand growth happens when you face your fears and answer the hard question. So… what DO you want?? I use art therapy and brand defining exercises to create a safe, constructive space for you to find your answer.

It’s one thing to feel all the feelings (which we absolutely will do), but then how do we take all that introspection and realization and turn it into something productive? Strategy. That’s how. And I don’t mean marketing strategy or business strategy, I mean BRAND strategy. The high-level, happiness-based, big picture stuff that will make all the other kinds of strategy easier, because once we get through this step you’ll know what your brand is actually about, what the work you do means, and the vision for how your brand is going to grow right along with you in the future.

There is no hard and fast timeline on this stuff. Which can be frustrating… but also SUPER freeing… Think of it this way: what happens if you’re working with a designer and half way through the process you realize you make a mistake way back at the start? How can you be 100% sure you know what you want out of a brand design update when you don’t even know what you want out of LIFE, yet?? That’s a HUGE amount of pressure and responsibility placed squarely on your business-owner shoulders. But not with me. With me, everyone’s path looks different. Sometimes you need to take a handful of steps in one direction just to see what you DON’T want. So no pressure. The finish line is going to be beautiful no matter what, so it’s ok if we have to take a couple detours and wrong turns to get there.

We all know what a “mood board” is right…? A collection of pictures/images/things that are supposed to make you feel something? Maybe bring some clarity? Yes. But… what if you’re not visual in that specific way? What if you look at 3 or 10 or 100 pictures all together and DON’T see how they’re all connected? That’s a bunch of wasted time and effort for something that’s not actually going to help you make a decision. So let’s take this one image at a time. I call them mini-mood boards, but really, we just get to go through a bunch of images and pictures and creative, fun stuff and figure them all out together.

This. Is. Big. Stylescapes are a super fancy brand-designer-industry secret and they are MADE OF MAGIC. Once we’ve worked through all the emotional stuff and talked through the strategy/moody stuff, and even gone through the sketching process to start to make this new brand of yours tangible and real… THAT’S when stylescapes come in. At this point we’re typically narrowed down to 3-4 top contenders for your new logo and, in stead of me just saying “pick one!”, I put together big, beautiful worlds of visual context to help make that VERY difficult decision WAY easier.

I am kindness embodied. I believe in joy as a life-mission. And not just for me, for everyone. I started out in graphic design because I wanted to help people. After a decade of working and building and “just giving people what they want”, design-wise, I realized that the actual path to happiness starts WAY BACK before we even TOUCH the design part of branding. YOUR JOY should be at the center of the brand we’re building together. That feeling of excitement that hits you RIGHT when you get out of bed in the morning and fuels you through the days, weeks, months, years of business owning and brand growth. THAT is what we’re going for. Joy. And kindness, well… that’s the center of MY brand. That’s what brings ME joy.

Imagine what it would feel like to already have some of the post-rebrand to-do items crossed off the list before we’ve even finished your brand update? Feels impossible right?? Wrong. Not impossible. And very real. In the final stages of polishing up the design, we’re going to start to answer some BIG questions together. What should I do with my website? How can I show up on social? How do I update all my content to fit with the rebrand? Do I need swag? What even IS swag? You’re not going to get the WHOLE answer from me, but you’ll get a hugely productive nudge in the right direction! Your brand in the real world. Get ready, it’s amazing.

In the past, you’ve probably worked with a designer, maybe even a brand designer. As a breed, we love to create. We love to make something from nothing and to find creative solutions to all kinds of problems. That’s all built into the designer DNA. But… what happens after all that exciting stuff is over? I used to just hand people a pack of logo files and some info on colors and fonts and call it a day. Job done, on to the next. But now? Now I know it takes SO MUCH MORE from me for a brand to actually launch into the real world. Training. Support. Retainer. Availability. Check-ins. Think of the training & support piece of all of this as being like the goodie back you get at the end of a kid’s party. It’s fun. It’s a way to keep the party going that says “I’m glad you came. Thanks for being with me. Here’s what’s next.”