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why is it so much harder to brand yourself than it is to brand a client?
I'm working on a MUCH needed rebrand for my own studio at the moment and the amount of second-guessing involved is genuinely shocking for someone who does this for a living. You're just so close to it! My studio is my baby, and I suppose it’s quite hard to assign a single five-colour palette to a baby…
That being said, I’m starting to really fall in love with the direction its moving towards and am so, so excited to share the final visual identity (including a new website!) once it’s finally ready. I’ve grown so much since I started two years ago, so I’m very much looking forward to having a brand that’s been caught up to speed.
Always the hardest
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Since the Gatsboy relaunch it's been fun exploring all the brand work that happened years ago and how much of it still resonates today.
Not much of it needed treatment, the illustrations still work, the character works and the video, with only small adjustments to bring everything inline with the upgraded offer.
Its so fun to go deep on brand work and messaging, iterating and improving over time.
This was created 5 years ago and it still attracts new customers today.
This is really cool and has a timeless but futuristic feel
Unused work doesn't mean it's wrong...
This was a brand identity concept we at Jords+Co Studio did for Primora where we pushed the boundaries a little.
How far could we take institutional credibility before it lost the energy and vibrance of blockchain and crypto (and vice versa)?
The concepts that don't get chosen are often the reason the final direction lands so precisely. They test the edges and reveal where the line is.
It doesn't mean the work is wrong. It's built on the same insight, the same foundation, the same strategic positioning.
Just emphasising certain attributes over others.
I loved this direction. Thankfully I loved the chosen one too.
This is amazing 🔥
I keep seeing founders use AI brand generators and walk away thinking they have a brand.
You don't. You have a logo and a color palette.
A brand is the reason someone picks you over the 11 other companies that do roughly the same thing. No AI tool figures that out for you. That's a positioning decision. It's messy. It requires knowing your market, your buyer, and what you're actually willing to own.
The logo comes after.
The ones that look "inevitable" didn't start with design. They started with a decision about what they stand for. Then they built a system that says it everywhere.
AI tools are great for production. I use them too. But they skip the part that actually matters.
If you can't explain why your company exists in one sentence that a buyer would repeat back to their boss you have a clarity problem.
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