Five Main Struggles of My Past Clients

Over twenty years my clients struggled with branding design, which made me pivot from graphic design and focus on helping them with their branding

Having stumbled upon the design industry my life has been quite full with the projects I have done for friends, family and clients. The problem solver in me has come out to play and give them what they needed for the correct time.

So after years of doing everything graphic related, I pivoted to help small businesses create their brand with the right oomph factor so they are recognised as someone unique in their field.

Through the years I realised that my clients would come back to me with different projects, which was great to see them grow. However, it became glaringly obvious that as small businesses they were stuck in the old way of thinking.

As a small business these were what they focused on:A company and it’s product / servicesA logo with the colour they wantedA person to do their social media marketing / a studio to do their marketing

While the designer me noticed the client struggles, the artist me started recognising the struggles were tied in with colour primarily, with the visua language.

It’s why I created ‘The Studio Libran Branding Way’. These were the 5 things I noticed that my clients were struggling with:

1. Logo is the brand

The old way of lay design thinking was, you have a company, make the logo immediately and you are set. Nothing else matters. The logo was the brand. Whatever design was created, the logo was slapped on it and that was how the world went round.With my branding design experience now I share with my clients that while logo is important, it is the figurehead and needs more to solidify the brand. For that, we need to remember, branding is not just the logo.

2. Colours, all the colours not on brand colours

Every time I had clients come back to me for one urgent design, the colours that they would want in the design were either seasonal or the flavour of the week colour for them. It was even more obvious when insta grids showed how the colours would work against the brand and not work for the brand.With my brand design experience I showed them that colours needed to be on brand. That meant it was not the logo colours that were substituted here, but more than just the logo, it was the brand story that built the colours.

3. Social media marketing means hiring a studio

This is such an old school thought I never realised it was a thing till recently someone mentioned they hired a studio or agency to do their social media marketing. The notion for any successful brand is to have a marketing studio do the marketing for you. Outsourcing is good, but it needs to be on brand. Many small businesses take a package with the studio and do not have anything to share with them other than their logo and demands for more sales.

With my branding design experience, I build a set of templates for the small businesses so they can be in control and recognise that they are speaking to their correct audience. Even if they hire someone else, the templates have the brand guide to lead them to share information of the brand that is on brand for their business.

4. Branding is not important

This has been a tough one to break. Most days I have to explain why branding is important and what branding is. having to justify my work is not a good sign for the marketing of my brand - considering I do all things, it’s pretty obvious why I am in this position. Most small businesses struggle to understand that branding is hand in glove with the brand identity of the business. Meaning without your name of the brand, the logo and the colours and recognisable visual images or icons of the brand, it won’t be recognised!With my brand design experience, I build the brand story of the business. Most times these are with the clients and they share all this with me in our first call. I talk to them and recognise who their audience are, who they are targeting and why they built the brand that they built.

5. Cheaper the better

This is such a conscious thing with small businesses. Strapped for cash, the financial pressure means tightening the belt across things that we don’t understand would hurt the business. This old school of thought is so heavy, because the scarcity mentality hits hard here. When the budgets are meant to focus on product and services and marketing, why would you focus on design or branding?With my branding design experience, I help build a system for my clients that is unique and tells its story effectively. I tell the story in colours, with the logo and with the templates I create as well. This erases the scarcity mindset and the fear of tightening the belt on budgets.

Seeing these, I realised pivoting was the perfect way to help small businesses build their brand from the story to the visuals and maintain the brand as it grows. Over the last 3 years watching my clients go from strength to strength is nothing short of amazing. The problem solver in me is quite content with this.