Realize Today

Brand Designer

Logo Designer

Adobe Photoshop

Affinity Designer

Overview 🗺

Tommy had been the Personal Assistant to a high-profile founder/author/thought-leader in wellness and spirituality here in Austin, for just over a year, when the call to build his own brand reached its crescendo. I was an ecstatic witness to the growth of his confidence and faith. He had been doing the deep inner work for a few years, accruing understanding, tools, tribe, experience, and the ineffable. In August of 2022, it was time to put his heart and all he had learned into an offering for the world. It began with the word "Today" and through love, dedication, and admittedly some frustration (Tommy's not mine hehe) the brand began to take form.

The agreement 🤝

Timeline: 5 week TAT Budget: $800 Deliverables:

Brand

Logo (Icon + Wordmark)

Tagline graphic

Problem & Solution 🧐

The word and concept of TODAY was coming in loud and clear for Tommy. But, in branding terms there were some clear and obvious obstacles with that.

First, was the decades-old morning talk show, that had all but outright claimed the word "today" as its own.

Second, the triteness of the single word made securing social media and domains nearly impossible. One domain squatter had the gull to ask for $250k for today.co

Crazy.

So I challenged Tommy to add another word that held the same energy, and conveyed the same message, he had in his heart. I gave him an all-access pass to my inbox and encouraged him to text me any and all questions, ideas, concepts at any hour of the day. So he did. Beautifully.

After a few weeks and several iterations (that I happily poked holes in) sending encouraging "almost there, but not quite IT" responses. I received a text saying: "Realize today is feelin really good 🤩"

The thing is, Tommy and I are good friends and he is one of the kindest most supportive humans I know.

So when I got his text, I thought he was encouraging me to realize that today was a good day. I wondered what he knew that I didn't: was there some astrological event or big announcement I was not aware of?

I started thinking about how I did indeed feel much better today (I had been swimming in the depths of darkness the past few weeks) and decided that yes actually, today is indeed feeling really good.

And then it clicked: He was talking about the brand!

If that wasn't the universe's way of orchestrating a resounding "YES" idk what could.

That was IT. Realize Today.

Process ⏳

Now that we had the words, it was time to choose their personality. We talked about the look and more importantly the feel. What feeling do you want to invoke in someone when they see your brand?

We made some notes and I showed him an online tool he could use to dress the words up in different clothes (fonts hehe). After narrowing it down to 3 options and employing a little text message focus group, he came to his final choice. A font called notably absent for a brand about presence. You already know the irony tickles me, it was the perfect depiction of duality.

Now for the icon.

Tommy had sent some sketches he'd drawn (at 2am, of course) of an hourglass dropping sand into the mind of a meditating man. Damn. He blew me away with it, honestly. It was simple yet provocative, both clear and nuanced, and utilized negative space to boot!

I digitalized his drawing and added a few modifications of my own.

Results ✨

After a few weeks of light back-and-forth to finalize the brand name, one branding ideation session at The Carpenter Hotel, and just three revisions, we were there: Realize Today was born.