During the COVID-19 lock down last year I finally found that little bit of extra time to do some long overdue online research and learning around promoting my small business. I initially decided to focus on re-branding, marketing and getting the most out of my website. Yes, I’m in a creative day job but I am far from an expert in marketing, branding or websites.

I started by watching loads of free YouTube videos. In particular I found Mei Pak from Creative Hive and she has hundreds of awesome videos that help makers, artists and designers make a living selling handmade products online. The videos cover so many elements of a small business from ‘How to price your art’, ‘Photography mistakes’, ‘Selling on Etsy’ and even ‘Marketing Strategies’. I highly recommend watching if you are looking to learn and grow your business. She is amazing and so easy to watch!

From this online research it finally pushed me to rethink my logo and branding of my small business. I had wanted to change it for a while, as my old logo didn’t look very professional. Plus I didn’t feel like it reflected me or my work as well as it should. This is what it used to look like….

I had always put re-branding to the bottom of my to do list for a number of reasons. One, I honestly didn’t know what I wanted the new logo to look like, and two I just didn’t think it was as important as working on new products – how wrong I was!

How I designed my logo…

So I started to make notes on what was important to me and what my business is about. I created a brainstorm in my notebook which I felt really helped the process.

This then flowed into sketching logo ideas.

What colour should my logo be?

I wanted a touch of colour, a watercolour influence and a nod to nature or wildlife (as this is what all my work is influenced by).

Colour is usually a big part of my work. I love how happy it can make people. I decided on yellow as its one of my favourite colours – happy, vibrant and invigorating – what more do you need?!

Incorporating nature & wildlife in to my logo…

The nature and wildlife influence needed to be subtle so I included this within the two yellow brush strokes, which together have the outline of a leaf – this was funnily enough created by an accident whilst playing around on Photoshop – but it stuck, and I love how it wasn’t fully planned!

The watercolour – if you hadn’t guessed is the two yellow brushstrokes.

What font shall I use in my logo?

Finding a font I liked was the hardest part – with many thousands of font choices out there, it’s easy to be indecisive! After a lot of looking, and experimentation with fonts, I found a beautiful hand written type font called Broetown Signature which I thought worked perfectly – it’s contemporary and relaxed. I paid for this font so I could use it commercially. It wasn’t expensive, but I love it, and it was definitely worth every penny!

Overall I hope I have created a sophisticated but slightly arty logo which reflects my brand really well. Plus I feel this will be a design that will stand the test of time 🙂

This is my finished logo! …..

The benefits to re-branding…

Since updating my logo and branding on my website and social media I have definitely felt more confident in my products and my small business. Since then, I have been developing my range and creating more exciting products. Plus I have been pushing my brand out in to the world and sharing my business more through posts, online markets and ads.

This has all lead to much better and consistent traffic on all my selling platforms. In the three months between March and May 2019, the traffic to my website increased by 630%, and my Etsy shop saw a whopping increase of 2500%! I have also doubled my social media following during the last 9 months. Of course, not all of this improvement was solely down to a re-branding, but more a combination of continual optimisation, marketing and advertising.

I thoroughly enjoyed re-branding my small business, I just wish I did it earlier! For anyone out there that has a small business and isn’t 100% happy with their branding or if you’re like me and keep putting it aside I urge you to change it! It has given me and my customers more confidence and makes sure my small business is represented professionally. It could take your business to the next level!

Much love

Caroline x