- You don't have to be a branding wizard to build a brand,
you just have to know the story that you want to create
and the rest will just fall into place.
Hi, I'm Cyndi Ramirez-Fulton,
Founder and CEO of Chillhouse,
and today's class is about building a brand
in the Instagram era.
(chill electronic music)
According to the web,
a brand is a product manufactured by a company
under a particular name.
But according to me,
a brand is an experience or an elicited feeling
created by a company.
So, what do I mean by that?
I guess we could talk through
some of the bigger brands out there.
Let's start with a brand like Nike.
Nike evokes a feeling of strength, of power,
of, you can do it, right?
Just do it.
And that is a feeling that a brand like Nike creates.
Other brands are very different
such as a brand like Chanel.
Chanel is classic, timelessness,
trust, of course, as well,
and luxury, and chic luxury.
And it's so synonymous with
a particular location like France.
So, every brand has its own feeling
that they're trying to evoke onto their customers.
And that's really at the core of what a brand should do.
So, for example, Chillhouse,
my story makes my brand authentic
but I have to actually create a feeling
that can have a brand stand on its own legs.
So, a name like Chillhouse
allows me to really play around
with the feeling of chill,
and chill, as we all know,
is a word that describes relaxation,
and feeling at ease and feeling comfortable,
feeling less stressed.
That name and that feeling,
and that story,
has allowed me to now build a brand
around those adjectives.
Relaxation,
comfort,
home, you know?
All of those words that describe my brand and business.
I think we all struggle with
the idea of defining ourselves,
but when it comes to a brand,
it's almost like imperative that you do.
And so, take yourself out of it,
how would you describe your brand?
Very simply, like just think about that,
one liner, what's your brand?
From there, there a lot of other kind of building blocks.
But I think defining your brand is obviously
one of the most important steps
to setting the tone for what the future is.
If you don't know what you want to do when you grow up,
or now that you are grown up,
I think we all can relate that
we do know how we want...
The imprint that we want to make in this world
in some way, shape, or form.
At the end of the day,
we all can maybe tap into that.
And so, how do you bring that out in a physical product,
or a service or an experience,
that people can then engage with?
We all say, don't judge a book by its cover,
but, of course, we all do.
And so, with that in mind,
that's kind of what happens with our logo.
What we use to create that logo
is super important to then attracting the customer
that you've set out to attract
and get the respect from that customer, you know,
that you really want and need.
For example, Chillhouse uses a sans serif font.
It's slightly customized to us
but it's a sans serif font which is
the millennial font category of choice.
Millennials know it,
they're comfortable with it,
they know that whatever brand uses it,
is a brand that they may be interested in exploring.
So, that's kind of why we ended up with a sans serif font.
So, every font category, typeface category,
kind of comes with its own little personality attributes.
And again, there are a lot of different resources out there
that can help you hone in on those.
So, obviously not everything can be the same font, right?
You need subtitles, you need copy.
There are multiple different copy breakdowns
that you'll need throughout the lifespan of your brand.
So, you'll need at least maybe three to four
different fonts that you use
throughout all of these different channels
and in all of your different assets.
So, definitely don't limit yourself
to anything less than three, I'd say.
You want to be able to play around with titles,
you want to be able to play around with
the subtitles or the copy, the description copy,
underneath all that.
And those all require different, kind of, scales
and weights of fonts
in order to really gravitate the eye
and let people know,
hey, pay attention here, right now,
and then pay attention here a little later.
So, visual identity doesn't stop at typefaces.
There are a lot of different ways
you brand can transpire through visuals.
One of which being photography.
So, photography, I mean,
you can definitely experiment
but at the end of the day,
you should find lighting
that works well across multiple things
that you're shooting.
It could be...
You could be shooting a face,
you could be shooting a product,
you could be shooting a location,
but there should be some sort of consistency across
the visuals of this photography.
Another thing that's important to your identity
are the people that you put forward.
If do you choose to put people forward in your brand,
what do they look like?
Who are they?
All of these different people
are obviously really important to your visual identity.
It helps the customer connect on a much deeper level
outside of just a logo and voice.
Colors are super important, of course,
because them too can evoke a feeling.
So, yellow,
does it make you happy?
I hope so.
Yellow is a huge color for happiness.
Red and orange, a little bit of hunger,
and yellow, that combination,
McDonald's, right?
You think of things that inspire hunger.
Blue, it's a very calming color.
A lot of times,
brands use it to evoke a feeling of tranquility
or sometimes a feeling of trust.
Color is actually a really fun thing to think about,
even earlier on in the process.
If you have a favorite color of like,
you're like, I'm dead set on having a brand
that uses purple in all of their branding.
Great, like, go with that
and let that kind of help you
dictate what those emotions are
that can carry through,
throughout your brand voice and the visuals of your brand.
Another element are patterns.
So, patterns can be very provoking
in so many different ways.
The patterns that we use are very, again, chill.
We use a lot of swirls
and a lot of like these curves
that kind of hopefully inspire relaxation.
Other people's patterns could be
very block-y and regimented,
geometric.
Geometric can make you feel
maybe a little bit more confined.
So, not every one can design their own brand, right?
I definitely don't know anything about (laughs)
how to run Illustrator or Photoshop,
that's not my jam
and may not be your jam either.
So, if you want to go in the direction
of finding an agency or a freelance creative
that can help you hone in on your brand visuals,
definitely look into who they've worked with in the past.
Have they worked with brands that
are similar and like-minded to yours?
If so, then they're probably a great candidate
to be the person that, you know,
puts these visuals into effect.
Otherwise, you know,
if you want to take a stab at it,
definitely, again, start looking at
other brands that inspire you,
that, you know, have a similar mission
and share a similar audience.
I think that's a really easy way
to start narrowing down the types of typefaces,
and the types of colors,
and the types of patterns that they use,
and see how you can obviously differentiate yourself.
But, of course, comparison is always a great way
to start putting those things into effect.
(chill electronic music)
- [Narrator] Thanks for watching.
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