How to Root Your Branding in Something Real

For some of us, branding can feel like a superficial process, a glossy sheen that glazes over the day-to-day realities of running a business. Yet the best branding—the kind that meaningfully connects with customers—reflects the real-world experience of your business or services, as well as the values and personalities of the people on your team.

One of the common ways that brands end up feeling superficial is by following trends—rather than beginning with a process of introspection. As Bloomberg reported in the fall of 2020, the branding of many direct-to-consumer companies is starting to look eerily similar. Defining them as “blands,” the writer identifies a growing group of Instagram-famous companies that slavishly apply a similar aesthetic and tone of voice, regardless of the wide varieties of services and products they provide.

Initially, following this kind of formulaic “blanding” could seem like a safe choice. Yet what happens when these trends shift? That’s right: a rebrand—something small business owners shouldn’t have to budget for in their first several years of operations.

At Cognoscenti Creative, our goal is to provide timeless branding that feels modern and relevant without following such passing trends. It begins with a conversation about what’s actually happening at your business. Who is your target audience? What value does your product or service provide? How does your sourcing, manufacturing or style of service help you stand out in the market? What are your short and long term business goals? All of this information then gets distilled into moodboards that help us establish the overall look, feel and personality of your brand. 

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Take our client, Restaurant Olivia, in Denver. We translated their warm hospitality, thoughtful sourcing and pursuit of elegant, masterful simplicity into the following moodboard.

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Once an initial aesthetic is established, we then start discussions of logo design, typography and color palettes, as well as core brand messaging. In the case of another client, Carkella—a sun-protective hat brand for stylish travelers—we pulled their color palette directly from moodboards that evoked the cliffs, coasts and deserts surrounding many resort towns.

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When it comes to designing a logo, some businesses opt for an abstract shape or pattern, while others draw inspiration from a specific visual reference. For our clients at Juniper Mountain House, a boutique hotel with a modern lodge aesthetic, their gorgeous surroundings were an obvious source of inspiration. In their case, the primary challenge was differentiating their logo from the many other businesses inspired by Colorado’s natural landscape. As a result, we actually chose to stay away from mountain or tree imagery—drawing inspiration from the central turret of their guesthouse, while letting the “Juniper” name convey a sense of their larger surroundings.

While all three of these businesses have different audiences, products and services, each of their brand identities feel cohesive because they are based in something real, whether that be a physical place, a style of hospitality or the values that drive their company. Rather than opting for trendy, yet arbitrary aesthetics, each company now has a timeless brand to build on—something that will last them for years to come. 

Image Credit: Restaurant Olivia + Carkella Moodboard Images: Pinterest / Juniper Mountain House: Lyndsey Leach Photography