5 Mindset Shifts to Help You Eliminate Branding Overwhelm
THERE ARE SO MANY BEAUTIFUL BRANDS THAT CURRENTLY EXIST IN THE WORLD.
For a brand designer or business owner working on their branding, these brands can be inspirational or overwhelming - it all depends on your branding mindset.
With American consumer culture becoming more focused on everything that encompasses a brand - the look, design, messaging, mission, and more - companies are paving the way with new and exciting ideas every day.
And for those of us who are more visually or creatively inclined, the right brand can make the difference in whether we buy the product or not.
Whenever I start a new design project, if it’s for product packaging, a clothing store, or something else, I can find endless inspiration on the internet and my local Target’s shelves.
And while this wealth of branding design inspiration can be helpful to get the creative juices flowing, in my case, it almost always leads to overwhelm and some branding mindset challenges.
Where do you start with a logo? How many symbols and submarks should you have? What brand colors best encompass the message I’m trying to tell? How can I incorporate different patterns and moods into a succinct theme? These are just a few of the questions that usually roll around in my head.
If you’re reading this, I will venture to say you’ve probably experienced this too. The good news is - there’s hope to overcome the overwhelm.
No matter what kind and scale of project you are tackling, these branding mindset shifts below will hopefully reduce some of that overwhelm and get your creative juices flowing.
Branding Mindset Shifts To Reduce Overwhelm
1. YOU DON’T NEED TO REINVENT THE WHEEL
One of my favorite aunts, who was a copywriter at Nordstrom corporate for many years, once told me, “Grace, there are a finite number of ideas in this world. It’s not always possible to come up with an entirely original idea”.
Woah! Nobody had ever told me that before, and I think that mindset shift would’ve saved me a lot of time (and tears - let’s be honest) in design school.
While avoiding plagiarism, it is okay to take inspiration from other brands, artwork, or companies that have existed or currently exist in the world. I wouldn’t recommend naming your company Luluorange and opening a store right next to Lululemon. Still, if something feels right about the name or vibe of the company, you can consider a similar approach.
If there is a brand that you admire, I recommend spending some time to analyze what it is that you genuinely like about it. Does the brand use a few large-scale patterns in all of their designs? Consider implementing the same strategy. Does the brand have different logos for all of its product lines? You could do the same, too.
Let the brands you love serve as graphic design branding inspiration and you’ll be on your way to a brand you love.
Are you suffering from brand envy? Here’s your branding mindset shift homework:
Make a mood board for three different brands you admire. This should include everything from their brand color palette and logo to pictures of their products, their store, their website - or whatever is essential to your brand.
Print out your boards, and look at them side by side. Take note of the similarities and differences between them. This will help you identify precisely what you admire about them and can help you know how to move forward in creating something that you love.
2. CONSISTENCY IS KEY
The best brands have their visual identity nailed down and don’t change them often. When you think of Target (my favorite!), you probably think of their red bullseye logo - an element that has been a staple of their brand for a long, long time.
This consistency in Target’s brand strengthens their relationship with their consumers - people know what to expect from them, how to identify a Target store from a Sams’s Club, and what the package will look like when it shows up on their doorstep.
If Target changed their logo each year, consumers would get confused, and confusion is never good for a brand. This is an important branding mindset shift to make: you don’t need to be refreshing your brand or creating new brand assets all the time!
If you only have the budget to splurge on one kick-ass logo, fear not! This can be super beneficial to your brand because anyone experiencing your brand will learn what to expect over time. As humans, we are creatures of habit, so a consistent brand is good.
3. SIMPLE ISN’T BAD
I had a teacher in design school who frequently made his students repeat this phrase. It’s common for people to feel like they need to put in more effort, more complexity, and more time to create a great brand. But this kind of branding mindset isn’t actually helpful.
Often, the best brands aren’t that complex at all. The most fitting example of this is Apple - minimalism is a core theme of their brand aesthetic. But even if minimalism isn’t your thing, it’s the idea of keeping things simple that can be the overarching goal. Keep your message simple; keep your logo simple, refine your color palette to a few instead of many.
Sometimes when we have too many ideas or concepts wrapped into one, our overall message can get lost. If you’re experiencing this overwhelm, focus on this branding mindset shift.
Try to pare back to just a few themes, styles, or messages. You can build upon a brand later, but starting with a concise visual identity will give you a great starting foundation.
4. DESIGN FOLLOWS TRENDS, BUT YOU DON’T HAVE TO
Just like everything else in life, branding graphic design follows trends and changes with time. With the evolution of the internet and ease of accessibility to design inspiration, the happening trends are becoming easier to pick out.
When the yogurt company Chobani unveiled its total design overhaul a few years ago, it was a new product packaging look like we hadn’t seen in many years.
Now, a little while later, many products and brands have a strikingly similar aesthetic (I’m looking at you, Good & Gather!). This isn’t entirely a bad thing - it’s normal to pull from existing branding design inspiration. And if that’s what people are gravitating to right now, it makes sense to want to align your brand with what’s on-trend.
But for the long haul, it could be a much smarter investment for your brand to, as Kacey Musgraves sings, “Follow your arrow.” (See number one, however, if this branding mindset shift sounds scary).
5. YOU CAN ALWAYS UPDATE YOUR BRANDING - NOW, OR FIFTEEN YEARS FROM NOW
Just as trends change, so do priorities. It is OKAY if what works for you now doesn’t fit a few years down the road. Luckily, it’s not difficult to make small or even large adjustments to your brand.
There are many ways to go about doing this, so just because you love your color palette or patterns right now doesn’t mean you shouldn’t change them in the future.
All my indecisive friends out there, listen to me when I say that a brand is not, and will never be, set in stone. The same goes for the other way around - if you don’t love what you’re currently doing, get rid of it! This is one of the most important branding mindset shifts you can make (and I think Marie Kondo would agree).
Start Shifting Your Branding Mindset
Need help shifting your branding mindset? One of the best ways to shift your thinking about the branding design process is to work with a professional branding designer.
A branding designer can help you move past limiting beliefs or a design mindset that isn’t serving you and can create professional branding assets for your business that align with your goals, your offerings and your mission. Explore our branding and web design packages for female entrepreneurs.
Prefer to DIY your branding? You can do it - with expert support - with our 8-week branding coaching program, brand.ing. Learn the fundamentals to designing a brand that helps you attract your dreamy clients - and feels true to you and your business.
