I’ve been planning this series for a while now and I’m finally getting around to introducing it! I created the Branding Interview Series to share all the different ways that you can get a nicely designed brand. Whether you designed and coded everything yourself or you hired a designer to get the look you wanted. While, I would love to design something for each and every one of you, I know there are others who want to put the time in and do it themselves or can’t afford to hire anyone. Since this is the introduction I figured the best way to start off was to share the evolution of my brand and how it came to be!
The interviews will either be focused on DIYers or someone that hired a designer and the questions for each will be a little different. There will, of course, be questions that are asked for each of them. I will be posting each interview on the first Thursday of every month unless I get a lot of interest I will post them more often! Let me know if that’s the case!
The Backstory
My blog started off as Designs By Emily F. I was never very good with coming up with names for anything and that was the best thing I could come up with. I decided to start blogging because I started becoming obsessed with YouTube, more specifically the beauty and fashion community. None of my friends seemed to share this obsession and I stumbled upon a blogger that was a designer and how much of a community was behind her.
The Interview
How was your brand developed?
My brand was completely created by myself. The design aspect was always easy for me, but I never really thought about the other aspects of my branding until this year. I am currently working with Jen Carrington to help hash out those aspects.
Did you create a mood or vision board?
I never really created any type of vision board or anything during my design process. I basically started with the amazing font that I used for my logo and a color scheme, then slowly developed the brand behind those.
How did you come up with your voice?
Finding my voice was probably the hardest part for me. I have extreme social anxiety and although it’s so much easier to express myself online, I still struggled with how I wanted to portray myself and deciding when to fit in and when to stand out. In 2015, I have finally started developing my voice and getting more confident about what I’m writing.
Pick three words that describe your brand.
Creative, Authentic, and Fun
How has your brand evolved over time?
I originally posted a lot of link-ups and a series I called Design Diary, which were basically ramblings of things going on in my art classes and what I was up to. After that, I started posting more about music, tv shows and movies along with a ton of subscription boxes. It wasn’t until this year that I started coming up with more of a plan for my blog and grow my brand into more than just a pretty design with a completely random focus.
What was your favorite part of the branding process?
Once I started coming up with a direction for my design, it was so much fun building around it. I loved coming up with the little touches like the featured image above.
What was your biggest struggle coming up with your brand?
Designing for myself was definitely the biggest struggle for me. It’s so much easier when I’m designing for someone else, it’s easier for me to experiment and envision ideas. I also struggle with the focus and content side of my branding because it’s not something I had really thought of until this year.
How many times have you rebranded?
I have rebranded 3-4 times, but I only have screenshots of 3. The second time I rebranded was after going through my design portfolio class and trying to develop my brand. The more recent rebrand was more of a tweak of the previous design. I changed my logo to the current one and changed up the colors a little.
What were your favorite resources for DIYing?
I used Pinterest a lot, especially for finding free fonts. I also looked at sites specifically for color palettes like Colour Lovers, Design Seeds & Coolors is another awesome one I found recently & have been using a lot lately. If I was rebranding right now, I would use Creative Market! There are so many amazing things and they have 6 freebies every Monday!
Do you have any tips or advice for anyone else wanting to DIY their site?
Take your time! Creating a complete brand from scratch can be difficult if it’s not something you do very often. Also, make sure to get feedback from others to see how you can improve your branding.
I love this! I think rebranding every now and then is a great way to facelift and bring new perspective to our blogs. We aren’t the same year to year, and neither should our blogs! I’m excited about this series. 🙂
I’m excited too! I always love rebranding stories and seeing how blogs evolve over time! 🙂