How to Brand Yourself with the Story Behind Proof & Parchment
The creation of a new brand is such a fun process. There are so many considerations you have to think about. I’ve gone over my logo design process before, so today I’m going into the details of the creation of my branding for Proof & Parchment. Hopefully this will give a little more backstory to my brand and how the visual elements came to be plus help you start to figure out how to brand yourself!
Be sure to scroll to the bottom to get a fun freebie branding worksheet.
The name
In order to know how to brand yourself you first have to have a name!
There are sooooo many considerations when thinking of a business name. Should it be your name or should it be something related to your type of work. Should it be super focused on the field your in or more broad in case you need to pivot your business down the road. Does your dream name already exist, are the social media handles available or the web address?
Like I said so. Many. considerations. The way I went about this took a little time but in the end I brainstormed name ideas with my husband on a road trip (because what else do you have to pass the time in a car than brainstorming business names?!)
I decided to move away from my name since it wasn’t super unique and I didn’t want to just add design or calligraphy to the end of it incase I wanted to broaden my focus down the road. I also wanted something fun & unique but also could be shortened and hopefully recognizable over time like P&P!
In the end I decided on Proof & Parchment since the words play with the balance between the digital world of design (proofs for every job) and the hand world of parchment and using real paper. Overall I’m happy with the name and once I picked it I didn’t look back, just moved forward to everything else branding and business related.
Logo
I knew I wanted something hand drawn with a calligraphy feel since that is one of the main focus in my work. I did lots of sketches by hand and with my calligraphy pen until I found a layout I liked and one that worked in multiple layouts.I’m sure I’ll update it over time but being a designer I know there are thousands of solutions and I didn’t want to get stuck in the never ending loop of nitpicking my own logo.
Colors
I wanted a balance of soft feminine colors & a few bold darker colors to be able to bring broad appeal to my website, social media, and emails. This also gives me the versatility to keep the designs light or dark and play with that balance.
Type
I love the nuances of typography and wanted to have a good foundation plus additional styles to used based on various products. Since my logo is in calligraphy I knew I needed something balanced and clean to work in harmony together. I use a variety of Montserrat, Gotham, Sophia, and of course hand created lettering.
Overall Branding
The overall goal of my company is to bring joy through my designs, whether that is through prints, event designs, or branding for other entrepreneurs. I want to convey that with the whole branding package including my logo, colors, voice, and layouts.
Here are just a handful of examples of how I’ve incorporated my branding into different locations!
Freebie!
Since I do branding for others I have a basic questionnaire that I wanted to share to help figure out where to start out when creating your own brand! I’m also available for hire with various branding packages, be sure to check out my services!
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