Hi there.
I see that you made it over to the new tips
and talk portion of the podcast.
These are bite-sized topics that I pull from community questions and
things that I'm observing in the world of handmade small business.
I redid the podcast logo,
and many of you participated in that and helped me out.
So I thought I would share with you the four steps
that I went through in this process of doing a total
logo refresh for the podcast.
This doesn't mean like a whole brand revamp,
because your brand is way more than just your logo,
right? It's not just visuals.
Your brand encompasses everything.
Every single experience that somebody has with you.
We're just talking right now today about the logo and in
my case,
it's the podcast logo.
And so this might apply to you.
If you're ever thinking of refreshing your company logo,
overall, some of your packaging,
anything where you might put images out specifically,
let me share with you what I did my thinking behind
it. Pros,
cons, some things that could make you stumble a little bit
along the way.
The first thing to consider where we should start with most
things is why you're doing this in the first place.
What's the reason what's the value.
Why do it,
for me specifically with the podcast,
I felt like it was time.
I've been podcasting now for almost six years crazy to say,
and I've already changed the image a couple of times already,
but I just decided I was ready to do something a
little bit different.
My podcast logo before it was a bright yellow background with,
within the name gift biz unwrapped in my image there,
but it's all yellow and black,
which are two of my five.
If you want to add black,
then I've got five brand logo colors.
So I was using two of them.
And I liked the idea of that yellow in the back,
because it was really sharp,
especially when you do a podcast,
you know,
when you scroll like the podcast feed,
I felt like it really stands out and yellow stands for
tearfulness and all of that,
but it also stands for caution.
And I thought about that as I was doing it,
but I decided to go with the yellow anyway,
and it served me well for a long time,
but I'm gravitating to a lighter feel for the brand.
Overall. Again,
the brand is not just your visual images,
but on the image side only,
I'm going more with white backgrounds,
more light and airy type images.
And so I felt like now was a great time for
me to put the podcast in line with that as well.
And honestly,
I also felt like as we're exiting a year,
that was very challenging.
Mentally. I wanted to do something new and fresh and different
just from an emotional.
And if you will.
So having said all of that,
those were my reasons.
And if you're thinking of a logo adjustment,
what would your reasons be?
Have the why?
Very clear,
because changing a logo takes time and yes,
money think about this time because you're going to create the
logo, first of all,
and then having to switch it out everywhere too,
is money and time.
Right? Think about it.
Like you've got your email footers,
obviously your website,
any collateral materials that you use,
any packaging,
anywhere that that logo is,
it's going to have to end up getting switched out.
And you often forget where your logo sits everywhere.
That's why I'm saying it.
It does cost time and money.
Once you've got your why that isn't even the first step
I'm going to go through now and share with you the
four steps that I took as I was doing this revamp.
So the first thing to think about is the brand that
you already have out there.
If you're doing a full revamp,
then I would go back and really start with your colors.
What are going to be the brand colors?
Now for me,
I already knew my brand colors.
I wasn't switching up any of my brand colors.
I just was going to make some more dominant than others.
So I was already on my way with that.
That's not anything I would need to think of,
but if you're really looking at your brand and thinking,
you're going to switch up all your colors,
the first thing to do is start with,
well, what are the colors going to be?
What's the receptivity of the colors?
What do they mean?
You know,
just like I was talking about before yellow can be cheerful,
but it could also be cautionary.
But so this is something to think about is what are
your brand colors?
Get those down,
Pat. First,
if you want to do any updating of photos,
now I put a more current photo in.
I decided that that was something I wanted to do is
update my photo just by a couple of years.
Yes. But different photo.
So get all of your assets in a row and then
start brainstorming.
I just went into Canva and started creating all different types
of designs,
looked at some things that Canva provided,
made adjustments accordingly and came up with,
I don't know,
gosh, 30 different designs that I liked.
So that was step one.
Okay. Making sure I liked my colors,
deciding on any other images that I thought I would want
in the logo and then just brainstorming away creativity,
abounds, and even crazy things.
Cause you know how easy it is in Canva to throw
background in,
change the opacity,
add some texture,
pull it out because it doesn't look good.
Try something new.
You can do all of these different things right on the
spot. And this is one of the things I like versus
hiring a graphic artist.
Any of you graphic artists out there,
I'm sorry to say it that way,
but you can see right away whether it's something that you
like and that resonates with you.
Once I had all my call,
it let's call it 30 ideas that I liked.
Then I whittled it down to only four.
And that was kind of difficult.
I have to admit,
figuring out which were going to be my foreign.
I'll tell you why the four in a second,
I went back to my why,
which really helped me.
Remember. I said,
I wanted more of a white background,
lighter feel that helped me get rid of some of the
ones that were too dark.
You know,
I was gravitating back to yellow backgrounds or pink backgrounds.
That really wasn't where I wanted to go.
I wanted more of a white background,
so that helped me.
So I whittled it down to four,
which led me into my second step,
which was,
and many of you participated in this and helped me out.
So you're going to remember this on Sunday morning,
I put up in a gift biz breeze,
which is my Facebook group.
Any of you who are gifters bakers,
crafters, and makers here,
feel free to jump over into that group and become part
of some of these decisions.
I make all along great group for support as well too.
But I put up a photo and said,
okay, I have four images.
Which one do you like the best and a little trickier
for taking this step.
If you decide to include a community or get feedback from
others on your images,
make sure that when you start doing that,
you're liking all the images that you put up.
Okay? Because if you're throw up one random one that you're
like, Oh my gosh,
I hope no one ever takes that one because if they
do, I'm not going to like it.
I'm not going to be able to live with it.
Well, don't do that because what if everybody loves that one
and then you asked for their input and then you're not
following any of the input that you were given.
You know,
that doesn't feel good for people who took their time to
vote on something.
The thing that I found really valuable about that is not
only, you know,
some people just voted one,
two, three,
or four,
but other people told me why they were choosing the one
that they chose,
which was really helpful as I continued going.
So if you're ever doing this where someone is asking for
some input,
if there's a good reason that you can say really succinctly
of why you chose the one,
you did provide that for them,
because it's really helpful.
So for me,
pretty much everybody chose image number two.
So it was kind of a no brainer.
Okay. It's going to be image number two from there though,
I took it back and I did a few more versions
of that image.
Number two,
like one of the choices instead of my photo being four
color, I turned it to black and white.
One of them,
I added a pink border.
One was an orange border.
It was the same base image that they all chose,
but a few more versions.
So then I put that up as a second photo and
many people also came back with that one with good comments.
And so then I was done.
You can't abuse people that you're asking feedback from you can't
keep going back and forth with answers,
but I felt like two was fine.
And so then from there I needed to make a choice
and I have to tell you all day,
Sunday, first,
it was one of them for specific reasons.
Then there was another one for specific reasons.
And then another one.
And then I'm like,
Oh my gosh,
I have no idea now which one to do.
So I decided I had to go for a walk.
I had to just get away from it.
And this is my step three.
At some point you just have to decide,
right? Like honestly,
logos are important and colors are important because it gives a
vibe for the business.
But at some point you just have to decide and move
on. So my third point is set a timeframe and then
just choose one and roll with it.
So I went walking and I didn't let myself really think
about it.
I came back,
I looked at it one more time.
I took into account and re-read all the comments.
Any of you who were there,
who helped me do this and commented,
I really,
really appreciate it because it really,
really helped me.
Then I did tweak the final logo that I ended up
using just the littlest bit,
but came back from my walk,
chose the logo,
made a,
just a small adjustment done complete over that was it.
Okay. So that was 0.3.
But now I'm going to also give you 0.4
and that was the rollout.
And what I mean by that is you can make the
adjustment and the refresh of a logo into an event for
your business.
Especially if like I did,
you involve your community,
you can do kind of a lead up to a day
of voting.
You could play around with this a lot to use this
as social media posts,
content, getting closer with your community,
all of that type of thing.
And then you could do a tease before the logo is
revealed. See how you could like build this into a fun
campaign for me.
I didn't do that because I have so many things up
with gift biz on wrapped overall,
I'm giving you a behind the scenes peak.
So we have the at-home craft and gift show coming up.
I've got a webinar coming up,
which is really exciting shortly.
My signature course is going to open again.
Too many things is just confusing and it feels too heavy.
So for that reason,
I decided to do this just short and sweet.
By the time I decided on the logo,
I put it up Sunday night and now we're going into
all the different resources and adjusting all of the graphics,
podcasts, graphics,
guest, graphics,
email, signatures,
website, you know,
all the different places where the logo sits.
Now, the other thing that I'm going to do now that
I'm going through this process,
and this is another tip for you is I'm writing down
everywhere. The logo is so that if I ever do this
again, which come three years from now,
probably I will is I can then just go off a
checklist and say,
okay, website,
got it.
Change the logo.
You know,
Apple podcasts changed the logo.
Signatures changed the logo,
you know,
that kind of thing.
Oh, business cards.
I need to reprint business cards now see cost anyway.
So those are my four steps for you in terms of
deciding to do a logo,
refresh, it all starts with why are you doing this in
the first place?
Make sure that it makes sense and is a business purpose
for you to make an adjustment.
For me,
it was just changing a little bit,
lightening up the brand a little bit,
just doing something different,
a little refresh.
So you do that before you do anything.
Then the first step is deciding on your colors.
Maybe you're keeping your colors.
Maybe you're adjusting your colors,
gather any images that you're considering using.
So you have all of those visual assets ready to go,
go into Canva or wherever you're going to go and play
around a little bit,
get more examples than you would use because the best ideas
come later.
So it's not the first thing you put up.
It's not the second tweak that you make.
It's not the third thing where you add a color,
do like 30 different versions because your best stuff comes later.
Changing out some fonts,
perhaps putting highlights or different glowy things on the fonts.
Like whatever it might be,
all those great ideas come later then.
So that's step one,
step two,
get input from people really helpful.
And it's not just you,
you know,
you get so close to a task that sometimes it's hard
for me.
It was like unanimous decisions,
almost all the way through.
So that was really helpful.
Then three,
make a timeline and at some point,
just choose it,
choose it and use it right.
Be done.
And then the fourth is consider a,
a real promotional rollout for your new imagery,
because you definitely can.
In my case,
I didn't for the reasons that I explained,
but you definitely,
definitely could.
Okay. So those are my points.
If you're considering a brand refresh those of you who helped
me choose,
thank you so much from the bottom of my heart,
I'm really happy with the way it looks.
It incorporates almost all the colors of the brand.
Not totally,
but almost all the colors of the brand feels right in
line. And now that I'm looking at it,
I have this renewed energy and spring freshening up spirit.
That's a wrap.
I'm going to get to the point kind of girl.
And this is what you can expect from these quick mid-week
sessions. Now it's your turn go out and fulfill that dream
of yours.
Share your handmade products with us.
We want them and they bring us both so much happiness.