When I originally opened Bergamot & Sunshine, I never dreamed of writing this post! There was nothing cohesive about my brand. My logo was a picture of a stock photo I took with my phone with Bergamot & Sunshine as added text (just YIKES!). If you are one of original B & S customers, you might recall this. And if you are still supporting my small business, THANK YOU! I've re-designed my logo about four major times over the last two years. Nothing felt right until I landed on my logo I have today. I had a vision of what I wanted, and I wouldn't settle until I created it perfectly. As my brand evolved, so did my logo. This is something that is perfectly normal and okay! Many times, small business owners may feel "trapped" and worried about redesigning their branding, but look at some of these major retailers! They have all redesigned their brand, marketing, and logo over the years. Take Dunkin' (Donuts) for example!
Slowly over the last six months, I have been putting a focus on creating a cohesive vibe for my brand as whole. This includes revamping my website, social media, logo, photos, etc.! I never thought my customers would notice this transition, besides maybe saying "oh cute photos!" or something like that. However, I was so wrong! Over the last few months, I cannot tell you how many people have complimented how cohesive everything looks, both on social media and in person at markets! I started getting asked how I created such a cohesive aesthetic for my store, and so I wanted to share my process with you in hopes it might help if you are feeling lost or overwhelmed!
For starters, if you don't have Canva yet, RUN! It will change your life! I had no idea Canva even existed when I started B & S and I was doing everything via Google slides, and with the manual photo editor in my iPhone.
I use Canva to store my custom fonts, color hex's, branding templates, etc. This makes everything super easy when I want to create a graphic design, add text to a photo, create a thumbnail for a blog post, sending out an email, etc! Once you create a brand template, it's so easy to access your brand colors and fonts. This will be a life saver to creating a cohesive brand.
Helpful tips for creating a unique and cohesive brand that stands out:
- Choose between 3-5 brand colors. Try to make these contrasting to each other so they stand out and can be easily distinguished. If you are choosing white as one of your colors, make this an accent color and not a main color.
- Create / choose a font that is unique and ties in with your brand.
- When creating stories / posts with words (not photos) try to always use the same color background so people start to recognize you brand.
For my product photos, I knew I wanted them to align with the new vibe of my shop so I started with looking for different backdrops that had a color palette to match my brands colors.
Next I created a preset to apply to all my photos so I wasn't manually editing them. This was a major game changer! I now edit all my photos in Lightroom (available in the App Store). I also make sure my photos have natural light and I always take them around the same time of day.
Once I created a color palette and font for my brand, everything else followed suit. I always use my brand templates and color palettes as a starting point when I go to design something new!
If you are still feeling lost and overwhelmed and are ready to hire a professional to help you, I recommend my sweet friend and local small business owner, Christina. https://www.callecreative.com/
I hope you found this blog post helpful! Please feel free to leave any questions / feedback you have in the comment section below!
After searching my archives, I was able to find my VERY FIRST logo to share with you (see below)!
