Let’s talk about: evolving your brand as a creative
Let’s talk about is a series dedicated to exploring the questions we all ask in business.
For the first instalment of this potentially bottomless series, I wanted to explore the exciting, confusing and often conflicting season of evolving your brand as a creative.
There’s a lot to be said about building a brand, and the importance of it, but chances are you’ve found enough insights and opinions on that from the many, many experts on Instagram. You don’t need me to harp on about the importance of building something that stands the test of time, and is instantly recognisable, and has a feeling that oozes ‘you’.
We know that your brand is more than a logo and some colours slapped on your website ~ and that it’s fairly important if you want your business to hang around for the long game ~ but what happens when we want to change things up? What happens when the first, second or third version of our visual identity no longer aligns with our values, style and evolution of our business?
At some point in your creative business journey, you’ll have a moment where you realise, “oh shit, I really don’t love how my brand looks and feels anymore. I’ve outgrown this, and I don’t know where to begin”.
It’s scary and daunting and sometimes really bloody frustrating (especially when you’ve dropped big dollars on the brand identity) and while there’s plenty of advice on how to approach a rebrand or brand refresh, I personally find it a little stiff and drawn out. Or rather, lacking the understanding of how fluid creative businesses and brands are.
For example, you, a multidisciplinary artist, will likely experience expansion and change faster within your business than say, a commercial plumber. The plumber might invest in a branding package and be set with it for a decade. As a creative, you might outgrow the parameters of your brand in a year or two.
[And for those who are feeling a little foggy on the whole brand definition, here’s what Business Queensland has to say: “Branding is a way of identifying your business. It is how your customers recognise and experience your business. A strong brand is more than just a logo — it's reflected in everything from your customer service style, staff uniforms, business cards and premises to your marketing materials and advertising. Your brand should reflect what your business stands for and what sets it apart from your competitors — it expresses the qualities, strengths and 'personality' of your business.”]
So ~ what do we do when it’s time to evolve? How do we approach the death and rebirth of what we’ve spent years crafting?
My first piece of advice is to get excited! This is an opportunity for you to play and burn everything to the ground or clear out your garden for a new season of abundance. Whatever metaphor feels more sweet for this time.
I personally leaned into the rebirth narrative, and often spoke about Rust being a phoenix in the ashes ~ feeling it had burst into flames after completing a full life cycle and now was recuperating in the ashes before emerging as a brilliant fiery being of the sun once more. I had this feeling for a good two - three months before taking any action to tangibly change the shape of the business.
This leads me to my next mantra, which I apply in all areas of life, but especially to big business shit like this ~ take your time. Just because you’re feeling the nudge doesn’t mean you have to take immediate and intense action right away. You are allowed to float in the unknown. In fact, the more that you surrender to this process, to evolving into a new era, the smoother the experience will be. You might even have fun.
Once you’ve spent some time in the waters of possibility, and are feeling ready to take aligned action, it’s up to you where to begin. I know that’s annoying to hear, but I never want to lead you down a specific direction preaching that it’s the only way.
You are a sovereign being, and the person in charge of this magnificent beast, and that means that you get to decide what comes first.
For me, it was my branding colours. This nudge came in softly, quietly, many moons ago, when I had this spontaneous urge to use purple on an Instagram tile. I can’t even remember what it was for, only that I was obsessed and kept seeing delicious shades of purple, lilac and lavender that had me wishing I could incorporate them into Rust.
At first I felt really naughty, like I was betraying my brand. How dare I not be satisfied with the six brand colours I chose three years ago? Why was I being so greedy, wanting to add a seventh? Anyway, I got over that and posted the tile and went a little bolder and updated the newsletter background and then the blog and then over the weekend I decided fuck it! and officially embraced it as part of Rust. This will likely be uninteresting to anyone who isn’t going through this process, but whatever.
The next phase was my website, which is still a work in progress. I started gently, changing the background and theme of the welcome page (aka the first page anyone sees when they travel over from Instagram). It’s still tricky for me to explain, but I knew in my body that my website didn’t feel like Rust anymore. Something wasn’t sitting right, so I took to Unsplash for a new background image and that led me to weaving the feeling of the visuals into words. From there, I rewrote a section of my Home page, then completely transformed the About page into a piece of writing I’m really proud of, and now I’m intuitively remodelling the rest.
The latest instalment is the logo on Instagram. Just yesterday I had the pull to reshape it, to spin it into something new, and all it took was removing half. I’m yet to decide if this is it, if I just call the business RUST and get on with it, but experimenting on Instagram is a nice, risk free way to test the waters. I can always change it back, but I don’t think that I will.
And that takes us up to speed on where I’m at now. Still very much in the thick of it, but feeling more clarity and excitement everyday.
I share my story to offer a way to do it, but certainly not the way. Like I said earlier, when it comes to your creative business, there are no rules. You are an artist, and the way you experience the world will always impact your business ~ so why fight it? Why sit in stagnancy when you could be dancing with something new?
Wherever you’re at, and whatever you decide ~ just know that you’re not flighty for wanting to change things up. You’re not immature or inexperienced. You’re not succumbing to trends or copying others. You’re simply following your inner guidance, and trusting that this change will lead to good things. Because it will. It always does.
With love and art,
Viv
Creative Mentor & Artist