Blog

While I believe you should always use a reputable designer to create your brand - what about when it comes to maintaining it?

If you’re a freelancer/solo business owner and you cringe at the idea of having a “personal brand” I’m right there with you.

People work with people. Let’s lead with you.

Introducing: The Dream Client Avatar.

A common question solo business owners ask me is - should they hire a designer to build their site, or if should they opt for a template-based solution?

Don’t worry if you resonate with some of these – sometimes developing a strong brand takes time, and you shouldn’t beat yourself up for not ticking every box.

Apart from the obvious; “are you an InDesign or an Illustrator kinda gal” here are some questions it’s best to ask before hiring a brand designer.

People buy from people, so while you still need a logo for all your other business bits and bobs, if you’re a solo service provider it’s worth getting that mug out there too 🤩 ☕️

When your potential customers/clients trust you, they are more likely to buy from you.

Here’s the lowdown on my strategic and wonderfully organised brand design process.

These are some essential mindset shifts I’ve made over the past 3 years of self employment as a graphic designer.

As someone who identifies as neurodivergent, being a freelancer improved my life ten-fold.

If you’re a self-employed service provider, how do you decide if you should move forward with personal branding or business branding?

Dear fellow designers, VA’s, copywriters, email marketing specialists, social media managers coaches…ETC. If you’re providing a service and you’re running it alone, this ones for you.

I’m Tara, and I’m a logo + brand designer. And I’m telling you that maaaaybe… you don’t need a logo.

Even if your logo looks super cool,* there is more than this required to build a strong brand identity.

My on-boarding process for new clients

SEO (or search engine optimisation, if you want to be fancy - and I do) is how your customers find you via Google search. Strap in for a lesson on how to avoid being relegated to page 10 of the Google search results!

In 2012 I graduated with a degree in Visual Communication from Grays School of Art. At that time if you wanted real world experience in the design industry, your only options were an unpaid internship, or a really really badly paid internship. Both of these options were non-starters for me, because I actually needed to make money.

A personal brand is brand is all about YOU.

While I’ve spoken in the past about how I think Canva is great for (some) graphic design work, it should never be used for your logo design. Here are the reasons why.

I think brand patterns are one of my favourite parts of the branding process, and not just because they’re fun to do - but because they bring a real level of depth to an identity that a logo / colour palette alone doesn’t do.

This is my personal comparison between the two on four key areas -templates, design usability, content management systems and most importantly - SALES.

Your brand identity has been finalised, yippee! It’s like Christmas; only better. You’ve received a batch of logo files, and you’re wondering why there are at least 3 different folders… what can it all mean?! Never fear, I’m here to explain.