If you are one who has a greater amount of creativity in you, you have a place at the table of God’s people and of humanity. You’re valid. Step up. Bring what you’ve got. Don’t you dare hold back. Not cringing back, not with arrogant pride, but with sane humility bring your stuff. Other people need it.
Jerry King, Why Creativity Matters
A friend of mine recently reached out to me for help with her brand. She’s been pouring herself into a new project, and while it was going well, she was starting to feel restricted by design. She’d developed a blog, and a brand to go with it, which let’s be honest, is the hard part. She had established a following, developed a content schedule, guest bloggers were lined up, connections were being made – the blog was gaining momentum!
But it just didn’t look right.
Now, she’s the first to admit that she isn’t a graphic designer. Creative? Yes. Attracted to beautiful design? Absolutely! Ready to sit down with WordPress or Illustrator and whip up some new branding materials? Definitely not. So she phoned a friend.
One big reason for the rebrand was that she actually wanted to refocus her brand name. Her blog had been know as The Church Girl Writes, but would now become Jesus in Everything.
Moment of transparency: I wasn’t nearly as excited about the name change as she was. Don’t get me wrong here – I am a Jesus follower, and I’m not ashamed of the name Jesus. As a graphic designer, however, I just had to acknowledge that The Church Girl Writes was a much more unique concept than Jesus in Everything. It offered some visuals that would’ve provided for some fun graphics, but alas, this was not my baby, it was hers.
This is perhaps the most important and also most difficult thing to grasp as a designer. It is your job to make the brand look beautiful, but it is not your brand.
She had used #jesusineverything as a brand hashtag for a while, but wanted this to become the focal point of her blog. We talked for a bit about the reasoning behind the name change, and I began to get even more excited about it!
- Reason #1 for name change? “More of Him, less of me.” I was immediately sold. We even discussed using this as a brand name, or a tagline, and maybe someday you’ll see it worked in!
- Reason #2: more gender neutrality. The blog is still her project, and she didn’t necessarily want it to feel entirely neutral or masculine, but she plans on featuring more male guest authors, and she didn’t want the site to scream “I’m for women!” if a dude happened to pop on to read a post.
- Reason #3: content theming. She planned on grouping her posts by subject, and “Jesus in Everything” provided for an easy way to do that! “Jesus in everything – especially parenting . . . especially finances . . . the bedroom . . . leadership, etc.”
Over the next couple of weeks, we nailed down a new logo, color palette, assorted graphics, and a new website! The new look is clean, modern, and more gender-neutral, while still feeling personal, fun, and friendly! She didn’t want to say goodbye to The Church Girl, so we kept some parts of her around – the signature font, the original homage to Tiffany blue, and the tagline, “by The Church Girl Writes” so that those already following would know they were still in the right place.
Bottom line: I didn’t do anything for her brand that she hadn’t done already.
Isn’t it funny how she has a “new website” but the content is exactly the same as before? She doesn’t have a new website, she just has a new look. Everything about Jesus in Everything is just as it was before, but to the reader, it gains credibility because of the packaging. And most significantly? As the brand developer, she is much more at-ease knowing that her brand now conveys to others like it always had to her. God placed this project on her heart, and she felt it was her duty to have it reflect His beauty – even if that meant asking for some help.
Jesus in everything . . . especially resourcing the talents of the people around you.
I think it’s immensely important that we value appearance and honor beautiful design. Not more than the message itself, but in order that the message would be heard! We are called to be like our Creator, and He is first and foremost, the Creator of all things beautiful! It only makes sense that we should strive for the same!
I’d encourage you to check out her site, jesusineverything.com, and give her a shout on social media! She is a bold voice with a humble heart, and is not afraid to speak what the Lord whispers in her ear. Plus, she has some really awesome guest authors lined up – a few have already posted, and let me just tell you, it’s good.
What’re your thoughts about branding? How does it affect your view of a product? Have any tips? Need help with a project? I want to hear!
