Font, Color, and Imagery: What You Need to Create a Cohesive Personal Brand

Sara Lohse [00:00:09]:

What is happening, everybody? I'm Larry Roberts. And I'm Sara Lohse, and this is Branded, your comprehensive guide to creative branding.

Larry Roberts [00:00:16]:

And on this episode of the podcast, we actually have a special guest.

Sara Lohse [00:00:22]:

I'm so excited to introduce her. This Danielle Lewis of Danielle Lewis Designs. I've already talked about her on the show several times, so you guys have heard her name, but she is a designer. She does graphic design and brand design and really helps people create that cohesive and comprehensive brand image. So she's here to talk to us today about what we need to do to make that brand image and make our brand guides, and it's gonna be a lot of fun. So thank you for being here, Danielle. Thank you for having me. I'm super excited. Super happy to have you here. Thank you for taking the time to join us today. You know, I was following you on Instagram.

Larry Roberts [00:00:57]:

taking a look at some of the things that you do, and you you have a very, very distinct talent in designing brands with graphic design. And I think that's why Sarah wanted to bring you on the show so badly because you you're very talented in that arena. I've seen your work. It's exceptional. And what we would like to do is kinda have that discussion today as to how individuals can leverage graphic designs and graphic elements to enhance and build their brands. Awesome. Yeah. That is my jam.

Danielle Lewis [00:01:28]:

It's interesting because I went to school and majored in graphic design but we got to choose like a it wasn't a minor, but it was something that you were interested in that wasn't graphic design based specifically. And I had this amazing professor who was teaching about branding, and I fell in love immediately. And so I've had the pleasure over the last 20 years of working with some great marketing experts that are all about the branding. And I have created this sweet spot. That's sort of an intersection between the 2. And I am just so passionate about bringing that to graphic design and helping people understand the importance of the brand and how they can work with those things without even necessarily having a logo. So I'm super excited to

Larry Roberts [00:02:21]:

dive into that a little bit more. Yeah. I gotta be honest. I'm a little jelly. just because I I wanted to be a graphic designer when I was growing up so much so that even my high school ring, you know, generally a dude in high school is his senior ring has his football number or whatever it may be on there, maybe his girlfriend's initials or something. Not me. I had art on one side, and a little business diploma on the other side. I was a super, super artsy nerd. And I actually wanted to go to the Art Institute of Lohse. So graphic design has been something that I have just loved and loved the idea of all all the way all the way back back then in the eighties when I was in high school. -- before or after you wanted to be a cowboy? Well, the cowboy thing was just a phase. This was not a phase. This was a passion. So -- The beach start by getting a timeline in my head with the many shades of Larry. There's more than 50. I could probably see that So, Daniel, tell us what what are some of the main components of building a brand through graphic design? Well, some of the main components, and I'd say the 3 most important ones are font color and imagery.

Danielle Lewis [00:03:24]:

So when you think about that, these are the things when I when I try to explain it and how it intersects with advertising or or marketing is that what is it that makes that brand visually knizable. I use Starbucks and McDonald's a lot because people know those brands. Right? But they have a very strong brand image. And when you think about Starbucks is a really great one because they had that mermaid and they had that coffee thing down packed from the beginning. But that mermaid, if you look back in the evolution of the the Starbucks logo, is really creepy.

Larry Roberts [00:04:01]:

Really, really creepy. It's super and I didn't even know it was a mermaid. I thought it was some kind of goddess or something. I had -- I figured out it was a mermaid, like, maybe 2 years ago. I had no idea. Most people didn't know. Right? But as someone who was so,

Danielle Lewis [00:04:15]:

like, had a love for graphic design and branding, I watched this evolution. And I loved that they finally eventually phased out a lot of that stuff and really just close cropped it in. Right? But it is a great example when I'm explaining to people what that is and how it it how the 2 play and go hand in hand. Because now when you see that green or you see that mermaid or you see any sort of green or mermaid, right, you're like, oh, I want Starbucks. Right? There's there's and it's the same with McDonald's. But if McDonald's were to change their color to green tomorrow, people would be confused. And so I always explain to people that it is kind of the silent marketing piece. It's the calling card that people we're bombarded with so many images and so many logos and so many things throughout the day. Right? 1000 of images. What do they say? There's it takes seven times for you to market to someone at least 7 to 10 times before that person is actually like, oh, I'm gonna buy your thing. So when we think about that, I always try to explain. The more consistent that you can be with all these visual pieces, regardless of whether you have a logo or not, people start to commit that to memory. And it's just as important as the tone of voice that you're using in marketing or in branding and that personal brand that you've developed. Right? What is that back end piece and all of course, all of those things are important, and that's the substance behind a true brand. But all of those visual things, if you think about it in terms of a layer, The logo is actually like the cherry on top. So I'm always so passionate to explain to people. Here's the things that you can start with. Even if you're starting to grow the brand, even if you're starting to add the things. If you haven't done your marketing plan, if you haven't done those back ended things, you can start to develop a personal brand just by doing those things. Right? Even if you're even if you're running your Instagram page, and you want people to start noticing that you do a certain thing. Start following these things in this very simple steps that people just don't think about. So, yeah, it's really interesting.

Sara Lohse [00:06:34]:

I love how you talk about that as a graphic design point, but it's also something that Me and Larry talk about a lot just from personal branding. When you have people have to see it 7 to 10 times, though, Larry, the way that you put it is you have to keep showing up. So when we talk about these events that we go to and kind of building our personal brands and making a name for ourselves in different industries, it all comes down to showing up. And we talk about that. Literally, we talk about going to these events, going to these meetups, going to all of these different things within the industry, but it can be the same digitally if you just keep putting out those same brand elements that are recognizable and very much unique to you. I thought it was really interesting because

Larry Roberts [00:07:15]:

You were talking about McDonald's and Starbucks, and I don't think they could be any more different than one another. with Starbucks having such a very complex Lohse, and McDonald's is what? And then It's just some very simple golden arches. Everybody knows the golden arches. But even right now, I literally did not know that Starbucks was a mermaid. I mean, I'm not a big Starbucks guy. I've been there a few times. But I still know I recognize the logo regardless of whether I go there often or not. Talk to us a little bit about the differentiation there. It doesn't have to be super simple. but it it can be super complex, but it still has that recognizability. There there's gotta be some psychological differences there or at least a thought process that's involved there. how can we take that into consideration?

Danielle Lewis [00:08:01]:

Well, I think it kind of goes hand in hand with the podcast that you guys were talking about personal brand. And it's interesting because when I create a logo for someone to go back to McDonald's and Starbucks, every person is so different. And when I am interviewing someone or going putting them through the paces and asking them to fill out a survey, I ask them things like, what do you want the brand to represent? What do you want them your target audience to feel What do you you know, if you were to think about how you would explain yourself, like, what would it be? And at the end, I always say, if this is not an extension of who you are, then I haven't done my job. If you're not ready to, like, whip out your business card or show everyone your logo, then I've not done my job. If you don't get a full body yes, when we've created something for you, then it's not that's not what it is. Because to me, the visual brand is the extension to the personal brand. In a lot of cases, like, I know there's been trends over the years of branding in graphic design, like, all the things. Right? There was a time where everything was a script or everything was a signature or it was whatever, or it moved to this idea of personal brand because I think we're moving into this era where you know, AI is so rampant, and it's everything is digital that we want that personal touch. And so personal brands are huge, but the visual and the back end, the marketing piece the branding, it has to connect. And so if they don't connect and if it doesn't especially connect to the person that is holding that brand, then it doesn't make sense. And, you know, things can be as simple or as complex. But at the end of the day, has to be consistent. And if those pieces aren't consistent and going back to font color and imagery, if those visuals are not consistent, then people aren't going to commit them to memory. It doesn't matter how many times you show up. It would be like if you had, you know, 10 different hats, but also you had 10 different personas. And you went to 10 different conferences and acted a different way in each one, people aren't gonna remember you. Right? They're gonna remember you. You're the same every single time. Of course, like, I know that Sarah said, like, people know my persona like, my my conference persona, fine. That's great. But as a brand, you have to have one persona. Like, it has to be and you have to fully embody and encompass that. And I think the visuals have to reflect that no matter no matter what. Right? Because at the end of the day, that's your calling card. The visual piece is the calling card. It is the thing that's going to be the silent marketer

Larry Roberts [00:11:02]:

when you are not there. Right? I think you know that they're with consistency, and that's one of the the biggest challenges that I see people having is that consistency. I do a lot of podcast audits where I review people's shows because maybe the show is not performing to their expectations. And that's one of the biggest gaps that I see is consistency. There's inconsistencies in the description, in the title, in the cover art, in the logo, in the imaging, in their social media. they're just not consistent. And I I think you're you're spot on when we're talking about that consistency being absolutely critical in everything we do, And I saw that once I adopted the red hat. Once the red hat became my identifying element or my logo per se, ended up being my logo over time. Things changed dramatically because people understood that the red hat. And It's funny because people don't even a lot of people don't even know my name, but they know the Red Hat, and they know the Red Hat guy is all about podcasting. So that in and of itself says that I have a strong brand under the hat. The hat just the identifier. The logo is just the identifier, but I'm very, very consistent in where that hat is. It doesn't matter what stage I'm on or what podcast I'm on or Hell, if I'm in the shower, I probably have the red hat on. So I'm constantly and consistently showing up with that same brand identifier in place. I wanna talk a little bit about social media and something that I've seen a lot I've seen some people do it really well. Some people struggle with it, and I know that I struggle with it. How do we get, like, our Instagram

Sara Lohse [00:12:42]:

feed? How do we get everything to feel branded with out everything looking identical. Can you talk about that? Oh, man. That is one of my biggest

Danielle Lewis [00:12:53]:

pet peeves. Will you say? And the people who do it really well do a great job at it, but it's interesting because I try to teach this to people, and some people pick it up right away. And others struggle. And even when I create templates So that's one of the other things that I do because I'm so passionate about that consistency piece. But I also want to give people variety so that they don't feel so stuck. Right? And the way that I explain it to people is that you for you want it to look like a magazine. You want to feel like you're scrolling through, and there is this consistent rhythm without realizing Right? Because if I were to throw my my Instagram feed is a little bit different because I like to post when I feel inspired to. So there is not a particular rhythm, although I will say there is a rhythm of image and graphic I make sure that I give some breathing room. So that is one of the things that's really important. And if you were to only do one thing on your feed, it would be to look at things like, are you posting a meme and then you're posting a meme and then you're posting a meme and it's just this wall of text And when people go on and they look at your full feed, they're like, ah, I can't. It's there's too much. Right? You there's your eye doesn't know where to look. So when I design templates for people or I teach people how to use a template that I've created, it's also going back to that consistency. Okay. I'm gonna show you how how this looks if you add a little bit breathing room. I'm gonna show you how to add variety by putting a few colors in or adding a few different templates. Right? And when you get it right, when you do it consistently and you look at you pan out and look at the whole picture, it looks really seamless. But it takes it takes a while to create that. And I guess when I try to explain to people how to do that, I'm always I'm always saying, look at it, like, in the grid of 9. Because when you're on your phone, right, there's mostly, like, 9 to 12 is what's visible in that screen. So I will always say take it 9 at a time, but also if you're gonna develop it from a marketing perspective or from a how do I plan this Right? because everyone does things in a different way. And so some people wanna plan what twelve posts are gonna look like. Some people are gonna wanna see what twelve posts look like visually. But I'm always encouraging people to sort of pan out. Okay. What do you wanna talk about, or what do you wanna say, or How do you want it to look? Right? And then you can zoom back in into what the nitty gritty of those things are. But if If at the very least you teach people how to sort of have a few little rules, then it makes the whole process

Larry Roberts [00:16:01]:

easier. Does that make sense? It definitely makes sense to me because I'm sitting here. I'm I'm looking at your IG right now and looking at the way it lays out. I was like, is there 9 or is there 12? let me go pull that up and see what's happening. And and and and, actually, there's about 12 a half that you can see there. But at least on my phone, But I I love the way that you have things lined out here because you you have a mix of not just branded content, but you also have a splash of personal content in there as well. and you're sprinkling in that humanity. You know? You've got some of your rugrats on here. It looks like you may have your your significant other on here as well. And then you have some some poke card type post as well, and then you've got some branded content on here too. and you sprinkle it in and mix it up. And especially these top 9 that you were talking about, it looks like a magazine layout. You can see here on the screen, there's four photos and in between those 4 photos or quote cards. So it's laid out beautifully, and it looks exactly like what you're talking about. So I wanna reinforce for anybody listening that may not be watching the video that what Danielle is saying on her Instagram, which is Danielle Lewis Designs, be sure to follow her over on Instagram. But what she's saying, she actually follows through and applies in her own Instagram. So that's pretty amazing to see. So I just looked at mine and help.

Danielle Lewis [00:17:19]:

If you go to one that is even better that I curate and I do very meticulously. link.ammm is one that I've been working with for probably about 3 years now. But this idea of the magazine layout, that one is from top to bottom, side to side, I design that every month, and I have a formula that I follow so that it is seamless and consistent. but it goes back to this, again, the fonts, the colors, the imagery. So in this team, we have a huge team. So we have someone that comes up with the ideas, we have someone that does the writing, we have the brand owner that does the overseeing and then I I do the posts. So we get all of this stuff, and it it is like a recipe now. We've got it down packed that you know, we develop the ideas. And then from the ideas, I then take it, and I Work with it like a jigsaw puzzle. So sometimes I'll say, okay. Well, you want 3 video Lohse. We're not putting 3 images. We need a cover. So some of them have a cover. Some of them have the images. And and I think this is also relevant or important with all of these reels. that are coming out. Like, I have another client that I work with and sometimes so she did a Instagram live. And so she follows my formula. I have a special formula that I that I give my clients when I do branded content for them. And I say, like, follow this and follow the colors and follow this grid. And she sent me an SOS and said, oh my goodness. I just did this, and I messed up my grid. And I said, it's okay. Like, either you do one of 2 things. You delete it? or we figure out how to work it in. But also showing showing people that, okay, you're gonna run a whole bunch of reels You can have a branded real cover. You can you can do all these things in a way that adds a different rhythm and uniqueness to it but then also brands the content. Right? So it's it's interesting because it can be super overwhelming And to, you know, your point that you made, Sarah, you said that yours is a mess. Sometimes it also depends on how people view it. So if you're on Facebook, none of this matters. I mean, the consistency piece for font color and imagery, sure. but that whole magazine layout look, it it's not relevant or if you're posting on LinkedIn. So I always ask my my clients, like, where are you showing up? What is your goal? What is your intention? Because everyone digests social media differently. And so I always wanna make sure that we're designing for the audience. So just as much as you are designing for consistency so people commit you to memory, You also wanna make it relevant to your audience. So, you know, going going back to that consistency piece or going back to if McDonald's were to be green tomorrow, there is this, like, the younger audience that's on Instagram. They're very fickle. So if they're on Instagram and they like, you put in something that's not relevant, they'll unfollow you. They don't care. They're like, This is not. No. I don't subscribe to this. I'm out, and they literally unsubscribe. So it's so important to you know, have all these things in there so that you remain top of mind, but also for the people who really like, have such a low attention span that it's it's always it's always brand it's always branded.

Sara Lohse [00:21:07]:

I'm I'm gonna need that formula.

Danielle Lewis [00:21:11]:

Well, I have a fancy PDF. I'll send it to you. Amazing.

Larry Roberts [00:21:15]:

Talking about that fancy PDF, where can folks go to find that PDF?

Danielle Lewis [00:21:20]:

So I have created a special PDF for you guys, and it's the 3 things you need to create a cohesive brand image. So it's all the things we've been discussing in a cute little format for you. I've also created a a leaf behind that has this piece that you can pop in images and colors and pull all those things together. and I give you some tips in there. You can find it on my Instagram page in the link in bio. It's right at the top. So it's a free guide. You can download it. and start pulling all your things together.

Sara Lohse [00:21:54]:

Amazing. I will definitely be getting that myself because I I need you. Girl, any drill.

Danielle Lewis [00:22:01]:

I got you. You know, I think I think that with all of your all of your ambitions, you will be able to follow that formula just fine. As much as you think that you're probably SOS right now, I think that you just need to take a little bit of time to pull it all together.

Larry Roberts [00:22:20]:

I I think I'm actually SOL. But we'll see how it goes. I'll read that PDF. and see what I can figure out from here. So, Danielle, I gotta say thank you so very much for joining us today. This was extremely insightful. I think there was a ton of value that you brought for us and our listeners, and I can't thank you enough. Thank you for having me.

Sara Lohse [00:22:39]:

Everyone definitely go download that content, Danielle Lewis Designs on Instagram and use it. I I know there's also, like, Canva templates in there, and there there's a lot of really great content. I took a look at it yesterday, and y'all are gonna wanna get it.

Danielle Lewis [00:22:54]:

Oh, thank you. It's pretty awesome. And you can always reach out to me via DMs if you have any questions. I love to share my expertise and help people on their way to being more consistent with their branding.

Larry Roberts [00:23:08]:

Amazing. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you again, Danielle. Hey, everybody. If you've got some value out of this episode, do us a favor and smash that subscribe button so we can continue to bring you these episodes unbranded each and every week.