7 Lessons Learned From Chasing My Own Branding

I’ve been meddling with graphic design ever since 2012, but only done my first branding project in December 2014.
Took me over a year to realize that it sucked. Badly.
In February 2016 I drastically re-vamped who I am and what I stand for. From all this experience, I’ve managed to learn some lessons along the way.
#1.
Your logo. Does NOT have to be complicated.
It just has to be legible.
I know I’m going directly against myself here (since I design logos often and for a living), but my own logo is just TWO LETTERS AND A LINE.
And it works.

Unless you’re an important family or a country that needs a coat of arms, in most cases you won’t need complexity.
Look at all the logo re-designs recently.
Google, Instagram, Microsoft, Verizon… they all went the minimal route and stripped away the unnecessary parts of their logos, only leaving the most recognizable stuff (like their color palettes in Google and Microsoft’s case).
While we’re on the topic of color…
#2.
Don’t mix teal, purple and red.
Okay, I have a personal grudge with that particular color palette, but the real point is…
GET YOUR COLOR THEORY RIGHT.
There’s a good reason why Facebook is blue, Target is red, and most luxury brands are black.
My Facebook friend Karlos Copara of AccelBranding.com posted this amazing infographic a few days ago:

Study that graphic.
Then decide which feelings you want to represent.
Those are your colors.
Now, let’s talk about names.
#3.
If you can’t think of a serious company name, just go with your own GIVEN name.
I learned this after trying to do graphic design under the name of Воksу Sосkѕ…that was even a crappy nickname, let alone a good business name.
When I changed my Facebook name from “Воkѕу Chan” to my real name, Bogdan Čekerevac, it was like turning over a new page.
No more anime bullshit and hiding behind aliases.
Just the real me.
Now, this ties in a bit with the next lesson:
#4.
Your LANGUAGE is more important than any graphic.
Visual branding: your colors, your logo, your stationery…
they’re only a part of the puzzle.
The more important part is how you express yourself and your business.
Do you like swearing AND so does your target audience?
Swear away.
Or maybe your clients prefer a feminine voice, the one that screams pink?
Glitter it up!
Which brings me to…
#5.
Know WHO you’re talking to.
I’ve never been a niche person, and I’m still not.
But literally everyone and their mum agrees that…
You cannot serve everyone.
So just pick a bunch with whom you resonate the most…
And get into their brains.
Learn what they think about, what they listen to, what they watch…
And to go back to point #4, learn their language.
It’ll help you tremendously.
For example, a few weeks ago I’ve decided to focus excplicitly on coaches, social media influencers & strategists and help them up-level their business’s visuals.
We’ll see where that goes.
#6.
Brand guidelines are a MUST.

Now, I did just say that language is more important than visuals, but…
Visuals still hold a lot of importance.
Besides, brand guidelines contain more than just a logo, fonts, and the color palette.
They also have the company’s purpose, vision, and goals.
That’s what people call “the brand philosophy”.
Having both the philosophy and visuals packed together in an easy-to-read document is literally a gold nugget.
A number of times I’ve had to refer back to my own brand guidelines (I called it the “style guide” but it’s the same thing) once I was feeling like veering off the course I set for myself.
Not to leave you hanging, so if you don’t know what brand guidelines are, there’s a Canva blog here that shows what I’m talking about.
Finally…
#7.
BE CONSISTENT.
You’ve heard this a dozen times already…
But I’m repeating it here anyways.
For my first “Воkѕу Sосkѕ” brand I didn’t have any sort of guideline, just the color codes and fonts.
Which was NOWHERE near enough.
I had no idea what I was doing.
But at the same time, I was doing so many things.
Except for one…being consistent and clear about my actions.

Fast forward to today, I’m challenging myself to up-level my copy-writing game by writing at least one of these posts every day. My topics may not be consistent, but the branding and the language is.
It’ll be an interesting ride to see where this takes me.
What about you? Have you met your branding?
Are you chasing it? Did you catch it yet?
If you want someone else to catch it for you, we can always talk about how to make that happen.
