{"id":6190,"date":"2024-02-27T13:59:25","date_gmt":"2024-02-27T12:59:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.justshareforyou.store\/?p=6190"},"modified":"2024-02-27T13:59:25","modified_gmt":"2024-02-27T12:59:25","slug":"its-casual-brand-why-i-decided-to-hire-a-graphic-designer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.justshareforyou.store\/index.php\/2024\/02\/27\/its-casual-brand-why-i-decided-to-hire-a-graphic-designer\/","title":{"rendered":"IT\u2019S CASUAL BRAND: Why I Decided to Hire a Graphic Designer"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n In true Dana fashion, I rushed my rebranding\u2026and that\u2019s something I 10000% do not recommend.
\n <\/em>\n <\/p>\n

\n When I thought about rebranding, I went from 0-100% REAL QUICK. As in like 1-2 weeks quick. I know, I already sound crazy. I\u2019ve always been this way though: When I want something, I get it\/do it\/whatever. I did the exact same thing when I rebranded to
\n
\n The Champagne Edit
\n <\/em>
\n . I think I just get SUPER excited, and really am such an impatient person. Once I have a small idea in my head, I run with it. Maybe ONE day I\u2019ll learn.\n <\/p>\n

\n \"\"\n <\/p>\n

\n The difference between 2018 and 2020 is this: I wasn\u2019t in love with
\n
\n The Champagne Edit
\n <\/em>
\n when I was rebranding. I just knew I hated
\n
\n Pink Champagne Problems
\n <\/em>
\n even more. So I went with it anyway. There was no logos, no new colors, NOTHING. Just a name change and a new layout. I\u2019m actually surprised I stuck with it for even 2 years.\n <\/p>\n

\n In early 2020 (pre-pandemic), I started getting the same feelings: I didn\u2019t love saying my blog name when people asked, there was nothing \u201cbranded\u201d about my brand. And I just really hated saying
\n
\n The Champagne Edit.
\n <\/em>
\n I knew I had officially grown out of what was my \u201cbrand\u201d for so long. I think that was the scariest part \u2014 would it be weird to disassociate myself with the term \u201cchampagne\u201d? Would I be able to come up with another name\/brand\/identity?\n <\/p>\n

\n Long story short, I launched
\n
\n It\u2019s Casual
\n <\/em>
\n as soon as possible because I felt like I needed to. We were in the middle of our stay-at-home order, I was bored, feeling uninspired, and wanted to do way more with my brand. I had no reason to be
\n
\n The Champagne Edit
\n <\/em>
\n anymore\u2026it just wasn\u2019t me. Even though I was happy with the launch of a new website name, I knew it wasn\u2019t 100%. Here are some of the reasons\/thoughts behind why I decided to hire a graphic designer\u2026and what I got out of it.\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n something was missing
\n <\/strong>
\n <\/h6>\n

\n While I was always really, really excited about It\u2019s Casual, I knew something was missing: A real brand direction. It was clear. Nothing POPPED when it came to my brand. I really enjoyed my colors that I put together (after hours of searching on Pinterest), but something still felt off. Colors were not enough. When I went to create my
\n
\n
\n
\n newsletter
\n <\/a>
\n <\/em>
\n <\/strong>
\n , I had nothing to tie back to my blog or my brand in general. When I went to create my Instagram Stories, nothing was cohesive.
\n
\n Branding was clearly the missing link.
\n <\/strong>\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n get good recommendations
\n <\/strong>
\n <\/h6>\n

\n I sought out a graphic designer, and stumbled upon Emma of
\n
\n
\n
\n ESM Creative
\n <\/a>
\n <\/em>
\n <\/strong>
\n . And man, I feel lucky I did. I looked into her recommendations, realized she worked with Allie on her gifs, and decided to shoot her an email. After seeing what she offered, looking at her past work, and chatting with her via email \u2014 I knew I wanted to work with her! While I don\u2019t recommend jumping the gun \u2014 maybe seek out a few options \u2014 I just had a really great feeling about Emma!\n <\/p>\n

\n My biggest recommendation is make sure you trust the person, which I know can be hard when you don\u2019t know them. Make sure they\u2019re good at communicating right off the bat and
\n
\n truly
\n <\/strong>
\n understand your needs and goals. I was lucky to hit it off with Emma right away!\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n it\u2019s ok to not have a clue
\n <\/strong>
\n <\/h6>\n

\n When I started the design process, Emma had a pretty standard one. First, I filled out a brand questionnaire that gave
\n
\n
\n
\n Emma
\n <\/a>
\n <\/em>
\n <\/strong>
\n an idea of where my head was at. It included basic questions, weird\/random (well, so it seemed) questions, and more!\n <\/p>\n

\n I will be the first one to admit, I was DEFINITELY all over the place. I truly didn\u2019t know WHAT kind of branding I wanted. The only thing that was a must: keeping my color palette (I\u2019m just SO in love with the teals, golds, etc). I think I would tell Emma almost every email that I really didn\u2019t have a clue what I wanted\u2026yet she kept sending me edits that were getting us closer to a REAL BRAND. That\u2019s when I realized it was ok to just spew out random thoughts and bounce ideas off of her \u2014 that\u2019s what she is there for and what her expertise is!\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n speak up
\n <\/strong>
\n <\/h6>\n

\n Even though I seem vocal, sometimes I\u2019m not\u2026even if I want something. I don\u2019t know why, but I get nervous that I\u2019m inconveniencing someone whenever I ask for changes or tweaks to a project or for help with something. I made it a point to MAKE SURE I spoke up if I wasn\u2019t 10000% happy with the direction of my branding. While I pretty much loved most of it, I knew that if I didn\u2019t speak up and make small adjustments to my branding, I knew I would kick myself later on. I\u2019m honestly SO happy I did because there\u2019s not one thing I would change about my branding. From the colors, to the logo, to the watermarks, to the secondary shapes, to the
\n
\n
\n
\n newsletter
\n <\/a>
\n <\/em>
\n <\/strong>
\n and
\n
\n
\n
\n Instagram
\n <\/a>
\n <\/em>
\n <\/strong>
\n Stories\u2026I LOVE IT ALL! When you\u2019re doing something that is important to you, SPEAK UP (especially if you\u2019re paying for it)!!!\n <\/p>\n

\n At the end of the day, working with
\n
\n
\n
\n Emma
\n <\/a>
\n <\/em>
\n <\/strong>
\n has been one of the best things I could have done for It\u2019s Casual. Not only does branding allow me to have some ground to build upon, but also makes me motivated to continue to grow this brand and just do things I want to do with it.\n <\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In true Dana fashion, I rushed my rebranding\u2026and that\u2019s something I 10000% do not recommend. When I thought about rebranding, I went from 0-100% REAL QUICK. As in like 1-2 weeks quick. I know, I already sound crazy. I\u2019ve always been this way though: When I want something, I get it\/do it\/whatever. I did the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6451,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending-now"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.justshareforyou.store\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.justshareforyou.store\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.justshareforyou.store\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.justshareforyou.store\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.justshareforyou.store\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6190"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.justshareforyou.store\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6191,"href":"https:\/\/www.justshareforyou.store\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6190\/revisions\/6191"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.justshareforyou.store\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.justshareforyou.store\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.justshareforyou.store\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.justshareforyou.store\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}