Investing In Professional Branding - Victoria Levitan

Behind The Business

Investing In Professional Branding

September 30, 2020

I'm VICTORIA!

I'm a video coach for small business owners and light up anytime I hear the word Youtube. Strategy is my superpower and I'm here to share all my nerdy insights with you!

hello,

Ready to take the dust off your camera?

tell me more

Let's get you speaking about your business.

Investing In Professional Branding - www.victorialevitan.com - @victoria_levitan

When I first started my business, I went on canva and created my logo from a template. I liked the colors and it was simple enough. In the beginning, my priorities were set on getting clients and not what colors go well with my brand. To be honest, I didn’t see the value in professional branding until I realized how much my old look didn’t match my business or core values.

Now, with two years of client work under my belt, I knew it was worth investing in professional branding. I wanted something that would reflect my personality and what it’s like to work with me. With 2020 shuffling around my priorities, it was a good a time as any to tackle this project.

Investing in Professional Branding

My designer sent me a comprehensive questionnaire to fill out. It covered questions such as what my mission statement is, who I serve, what I offer, my unique selling proposition, what style I’m going for, what attributes I’d describe my business with…You can imagine it took me a few days to drill down the specifics and that it sharpened my position of what my business is (and isn’t).

The other initial step was creating a Pinterest board with inspiration. I already had a color scheme in mind (warm colors) and knew I wanted a sticker element (they’re fun!). Once my designer reviewed my questionnaire and Pinterest board, she sent over 3 concepts.

Concept & Logo

We jumped on a call to discuss what I was drawn to in each, and then she combined those elements onto 1 final concept. The concepts were mock images and showed the general look and feel of what I was going for. Once we had that, we moved on to creating the main logos and sub-marks.

I had again 3 different versions to choose from and it was a fun process eliminating and adjusting design elements. It was at times difficult to make decisions, but I kept going back to what felt right in my gut and what I thought my clients would respond to.

The Big Concept Reveal

The logos and submarks were decided:

  • horizontal & stacked logo options
  • video play button + sticker to highlight my industry
  • business tagline element
  • lightbulb to highlight the strategy/coaching element of what I do

Now the fun part came where my designer crafted the color scheme, font options, patterns, and shapes. When she sent the PDF I was overcome with joy. The vision in my head had become reality and it blew me away. We removed a few elements that didn’t fit in well but overall, it was perfect.

A note here: We got rid of a few things not because I didn’t like them, but because of the way my audience might perceive them. That’s the biggest tip I can share, is to imagine how your ideal client might read into your visuals.

Brand Style Guide

After we cut a few elements and confirmed the final look, it was just a matter of receiving my brand style guide and design files. The style guide explains exactly how to use each element and is now part of my company guidebook. I know exactly what colors and fonts to use when creating new collateral, and most importantly, I can share it with confidence.

When I first signed up for this, I had no idea what to expect. I didn’t think creating a visual identity would be so formative for my business. I would still recommend only investing in professional branding once you are a few years in, but boy is it worth it.

+ show Comments

- Hide Comments

add a comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *