The network for creativity
Join 1.25M professional creatives like you
Connect with clients, get discovered, and run your business 100% commission-free
Creatives on Contra have earned over $150M and we are just getting started
Back to feedPost
How do you explain to a client that their vision or what they have in mind for their business is not always the best?
I have worked with founders in different industries, and I have worked with startups, and I can say the hardest part of working with anyone is convincing them that they actually need the service you provide.
When you succeed in convincing them, the next hard work is getting them to understand that there is a process to everything, and that one cannot magically get 1000+ followers overnight (unless you're running an ad, a giveaway, or you're going viral)
However, I am back to the basics of brand building and management with my new client.
Wish me luck guys!!
The network for creativity
Join 1.25M professional creatives like you
Connect with clients, get discovered, and run your business 100% commission-free
Creatives on Contra have earned over $150M and we are just getting started
Related posts
Sunday morning. Coffee. Byron Sharp's How Brands Grow on the table.
It's an uncomfortable read if you sell brand strategy.
Sharp's data argues that distinctiveness (color, type, mascot, sonic mark) does more work than differentiation (a sharp strategic position). For Coca-Cola, Heinz, Mars, the numbers back him up. Big brands grow by being mentally and physically available, not by being meaningfully different.
Then I close the book and open Figma for a Series A client launching into a category most buyers have never heard of.
Sharp's frame doesn't apply yet. Distinctive assets only compound when buyers already know they want the category. When the market is being created, a sharp point of view does most of the work. The asset system can come later.
So the honest position, sitting with this for a few months, is that differentiation is usually a phase, not a permanent moat. It's the weapon you need in years 1 to 3, when buyers don't know the category and the competition is undefined. Sharp's playbook kicks in around year 5, when the category is real and you're fighting for share of mind.
Selling "be distinctive" to a Series A founder is malpractice. Selling "differentiate harder" to Heinz is also malpractice.
Most B2B clients aren't actually buying a 100 year brand position. They're buying a weapon for the next 18 months of attention.
Love this frame 🔥. Most people focus on the visual asset system (the distinctiveness), but as an AEO/SEO specialist, I’m usually the one tasked with making that 'sharp point of view' discoverable.
Sitting with this, though, it feels like differentiation is the high-signal period...
A multi-property real estate operator came to me last month asking for a logo refresh. We never touched the logo.
The logo wasn't the problem. The problem was that every property had its own headline style, its own button shape, and three different fonts in three different listing decks. Investors couldn't tell which properties belonged to the same operator.
That's not a creative problem. That's a governance problem.
We wrote a one-page system. Five rules. What the headline does. How the button looks. Which font, full stop. Where the operator's name sits on the brochure. What the photo treatment is.
Six weeks later they closed on their eighth property. The acquisition memo was the first one a private investor said "looked like a real platform" instead of a portfolio of one-off deals.
The logo is still the same logo it was eighteen months ago.
Most brand work that gets billed as identity is actually governance work in a trench coat. The companies that read as one company across every surface aren't the ones with the best logo. They're the ones where every surface obeys five rules.
If you've got more than three surfaces and can't name those rules in one breath, the problem isn't your logo.
excellent
ABEL delivers preventive health coaching that must convince two audiences: institutional buyers evaluating ROI, and employees seeking genuine support.
The identity reflects that strategic duality - professional credibility meets human warmth through controlled color architecture, accessible typography, and systematic brand guidelines built for implementation across extended teams.
→ Check out the case study 👀
So on-point! Great work
Trending
Claude
Claude has entered the design space. How are you using Claude Design?
Contra University
Learn from expert creatives how to earn more using next-gen AI tools.
creativeaiflow
Creative AI workflows are evolving. What tools do you use, and what are their strengths and weaknesses?
portfolioreview
The best portfolios tell a story, not just show a grid. Share yours for feedback.
freelancerlife
Freelancer life is wins, pivots, and everything in between. What’s yours right now?