The Intersection of Creativity and Strategy in Branding
In Episode 2 of the Design Distilled podcast, hosts Lianne Castelino and Steve Goode, founders of Distill Designs, discuss the intricate process of naming a company and establishing a visual identity, both of which are pivotal in the realm of entrepreneurship.
The conversation delves into the multifaceted considerations that accompany the creation of a company name, emphasizing the need for it to resonate with the essence of the business.
The significance of visual identity, which encompasses the logo and overall branding, as it serves as a reflection of the company's unique value proposition. Through our own experiences, we elucidate the challenges and creative processes involved in arriving at a name and design that encapsulate our mission. By the conclusion, we aim to provide insights that will assist aspiring entrepreneurs in navigating these foundational elements of their businesses.
Takeaways:
The process of naming a company is both exhilarating and daunting, requiring careful consideration of identity.
Establishing a unique value proposition is essential for differentiation in a saturated market.
A well-defined visual identity plays a crucial role in effective communication and brand recognition.
Brand identity is not static; it evolves and must adapt to various platforms and contexts.
Simplicity, memorability, and meaningfulness are vital elements in the creation of a successful brand.
Choosing the right name and visual elements is fundamental to ensuring long-term brand success.
Links referenced in this episode:
Transcript
The Design Distilled podcast breaks down the latest trends, tools and techniques in communications, marketing and graphic design.
Speaker A:Hello, and welcome to Design Distilled.
Speaker A:My name is Leanne Castellino.
Speaker B:And I'm Steve Good.
Speaker A:And we are excited to talk to you today about two key pieces if you're deciding to go into business for yourself or maybe considering changes to an existing business.
Speaker A:And specifically, we're going to be addressing the idea of naming your company.
Speaker A:So how do you come up with a company name that makes sense and then talking about your identity, specifically your visual identity in creating that?
Speaker A:What are your opening thoughts on those two items, Steve, to start us off?
Speaker B:Well, I think it's.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:It's a very scary idea, I think, for most people to do that.
Speaker B:So I'm hoping with us taking you through sort of what we went through that you'll get something out of it.
Speaker A:Scary, but fun.
Speaker A:Because there's no.
Speaker B:Yes, there's.
Speaker A:There's so many elements of being an entrepreneur that certainly could come under the banner of scary, but we like to think of it as scary fun.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:So when we sat down and decided to start a business together, we quickly fell upon what are we going to name this?
Speaker A:Because obviously it's linked to your, you know, your website.
Speaker A:It's linked to absolutely everything to do with marketing and communications.
Speaker A:And we went through a bunch of different names.
Speaker A:Do you remember some of those names, Steve?
Speaker B:Yeah, I think there was.
Speaker B:There was sort of three that sort of really, really stuck out.
Speaker B:One specifically because we spent a lot of time on it, but we did sort of try to incorporate.
Speaker B:Because we liked it so much, we did bring it back to those things and incorporate them in.
Speaker B:But why don't we talk about the main one that we sort of almost went with that.
Speaker B:That still is sort of one of the things that we.
Speaker B:I think we both fell in love with and we, like is the illustrating impact.
Speaker B:We can talk.
Speaker A:Yeah, well, we.
Speaker A:We talked about.
Speaker A:So, yeah, yeah, we looked at, you know, maybe calling the company Illustrating Impact, but it kind of didn't sound.
Speaker A:It sounded incomplete.
Speaker A:But we held on to that thought and do use it as messaging around marketing.
Speaker B:That's right, yeah.
Speaker B:Because it was more of a verb and it was more of sort of what we do versus who we are.
Speaker B:So, yeah, I think that's a good point.
Speaker A:So we also talked about, in trying to develop the company name, like, what is it that we do?
Speaker A:And also what are we doing that's different?
Speaker A:What is our unique value proposition?
Speaker A:What is our differentiator so we landed on show and Tell as a potential name as well.
Speaker B:That's right, yes.
Speaker B:Me being the visuals and you being strategy and words.
Speaker A:But that also did feel a bit incomplete and I think we did a URL search and.
Speaker A:And it just didn't work out.
Speaker A:Were there any other ones that you recall, Steve?
Speaker B:Yeah, Better by Design was the sort of.
Speaker B:The last one that I sort of have that sort of stuck out in my mind of remembering.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And again, really like the concept of what it conveyed.
Speaker A:But did it really speak yes to us as a company name?
Speaker A:And that's.
Speaker A:That's the difference, right?
Speaker B:That's right, yes.
Speaker B:That's.
Speaker B:I think that was the problem.
Speaker B:It just sort of.
Speaker B:It didn't really say, or it said a lot, but it didn't say sort of what we wanted to say.
Speaker B:I think it was too sort of general, too broad.
Speaker B:So I think it was better that we did that because it.
Speaker A:We.
Speaker B:I mean, when we were talking, I remember it's.
Speaker B:It made so much sense that.
Speaker B:That for us to be together just made so much more sense.
Speaker B:So it was.
Speaker B:It was one of those things that.
Speaker B:Yeah, we just.
Speaker B:We should.
Speaker B:We should do this.
Speaker B:And then that's what started.
Speaker B:You know, what is the.
Speaker B:What is it all going to look like?
Speaker B:What is it all going to say?
Speaker B:So this is when we started like brainstorming on how.
Speaker B:How do we get there?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And in our process, as I recall fondly, because it was not that long ago, we started in person, we had a meeting in person and we jotted down a bunch of different names and we brainstormed and you.
Speaker A:It started with names and then it went into a list of, you know, what is it that we do?
Speaker A:And then it went into a list of what is it that we want to do differently?
Speaker A:So words like simplify came up and words like, you know, design and nimble and agile and all these things came up.
Speaker A:Do you remember those?
Speaker A:We had like pages and pages of words.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:Yeah, it's.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I mean, it was great because we all.
Speaker B:We sort of had a general.
Speaker B:We had a sense of.
Speaker B:It all sort of came together.
Speaker B:Like it was.
Speaker B:You were saying one thing and it just all made sense to us.
Speaker B:So it.
Speaker B:It was great because we sort of had the very similar answers and very similar thoughts.
Speaker B:So it did make sense.
Speaker B:And it.
Speaker B:And it just sort of became together beautifully actually, at the end of it all.
Speaker B:But it.
Speaker B:It did take some time.
Speaker B:Like, you've got to go through it all and see it all.
Speaker B:But it did eventually came to distilled designs, which I think is still, you know, good.
Speaker A:Well, and let's talk about the word distill I think I shared with you at the time.
Speaker A:It is one of my top 10 favorite words in the English language because it just, it is, it is distinctive.
Speaker A:It crystallizes.
Speaker A:It is about clarity.
Speaker A:And that's what we're trying to do through communications, marketing.
Speaker A:Marketing and design is distill ideas, concepts, creative into down to one, one thing.
Speaker B:Or, or, or a simple thought.
Speaker B:You know, simplifying.
Speaker B:But do you remember the original thought was.
Speaker B:Or at least visually, when I was sort of working on the idea of distill was using distill equipment.
Speaker B:And I, I found all these great engraved illustrations, like sort of the turn of the century of these, you know, glass pipes, hoses, beakers to, to the tank.
Speaker B:But it was sort of this idea of starting up these different things and then, you know, the whole way distilling works when you're making alcohol, like, it just goes down to that one thing.
Speaker B:And visually it made sense.
Speaker B:We just, we just never used it or we never, it never sort of made sense.
Speaker B:But we'll, we'll, we'll, you know, we'll include this stuff as we sort of go along.
Speaker B:I'll show some visuals just to have some, some connection to what we're talking about.
Speaker B:You see how we sort of got from what we talked about here to how it ended up the final logo.
Speaker B:So we can show that.
Speaker A:So we, we met, we brainstormed, we wrote down ideas, we, you know, took them away, thought about them in our own lives and came back.
Speaker A:I mean, it was a pretty quick process in the end.
Speaker A:And I think part of the joy of, of coming up with a company name is when, you know, you know, that's right.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker B:And I think it was just.
Speaker B:And it's one of those things that once, Once, you know, then the whole process of developing the brand identity is.
Speaker B:It is a lot of fun actually, at that point, you know, coming up with.
Speaker B:With whatever the visuals might be like.
Speaker B:Even at one point when we talked illustrating impact, one of the thoughts that I had was, you know, I had all these great visuals of, of explosions, bombs going off, like all these things.
Speaker B:But, you know, you've got to try them.
Speaker B:I think, I think that's the key to sort of developing brand identity is sometimes you just, like, you've got those thoughts in your head and you just got to actually execute them out or try them to see if they work.
Speaker B:And then sometimes they work Sometimes they don't work.
Speaker B:But until you do all those things and exhaust all the sort of possibilities, I think that's when you realize that what you've got is, is what it, what it should be.
Speaker A:And I think, you know, part of the consideration when we're talking about naming a company and visual identity is UVP or unique value proposition.
Speaker A:I think it's so central to consider a lot of people don't consider that in that part of the process and it of will derail you to a certain degree because you want to stand out and in a very busy world in, in a, you know, a clogged marketplace, some would argue with respect to lots of entrepreneurs starting businesses and things, what makes you stand out.
Speaker A:So for us with Distil Designs it was about purpose built, it was about being agile and nimble and illustrating impact.
Speaker A:Is there anything else, Steve, that you recall when we were coming?
Speaker B:No, I think that was it.
Speaker B:I think once we sort of had that sort of figured out, I think we both in agreements and we.
Speaker B:Then I went away and sort of started working on the brand identity.
Speaker B:I think that's really sort of.
Speaker B:Once we sort of had those, all those things that sort of made sense to us was it was just a question of, you know, me starting sort of the visual journey and the, the testing ground of all these things.
Speaker A:So once we said yes to Distill designs, take us through from an artist perspective, a graphic designer perspective, like what your journey looked like to develop the logo and the brand identity.
Speaker B:Well, I think the first thing that I love doing is, and it's a very time consuming process is I start going through my font library.
Speaker B:I have a very extensive font library.
Speaker B:There's probably like, I don't know, 20,000 plus fonts in the library.
Speaker B:But it does take me hours to go through it.
Speaker B:But it, what I ended up doing is, is you put in the, the actual letters of the, the name to see because each fonts, like some of the Ds are different, some of the, you know, the different characters are different on different fonts so they have completely different looks.
Speaker B:So it does take a long time.
Speaker B:But I, I love going through all the fonts because of the styles and the, the personalities.
Speaker B:They have such diversity and character.
Speaker B:So I, I like to start sort of there with, with fonts and then you know, once we sort of find something because I, the other thing I always sort of look for is finding something classic, bold, timeless, like simple, clean, you know, obviously fits in with the brief.
Speaker B:If, if, you know, it makes sure, it works with the brief as well, but those are the sort of the key elements that I sort of look for for a, the start of a logo anyways.
Speaker B:So that's, that's generally how I started.
Speaker A:So anytime you say font, I get really excited and I think you know this already about me, Steve, like I do.
Speaker B:And it's so funny because even the second font.
Speaker B:Do you remember the second font?
Speaker B:And we'll have to show that the second font, there's, there's a letter G in design, the G in design that we sort of both fell in love with.
Speaker B:So it's, it's so funny because, you know, obviously it's, it's, the fonts are sort of my thing.
Speaker B:But it is funny that you have such a, a keen sense or, or interest in fonts as well.
Speaker B:So it just, yeah, when we sort of put it all down on, on paper, it just sort of made sense because it's, you know, it ended up being so bold yet simple.
Speaker B:But there's something about, there was a, these square dots that we sort of had in the fonts that we found for distill that I love so much.
Speaker B:But I'll again, most.
Speaker B:We'll show that in there.
Speaker B:But that's, that's sort of how I sort of start the whole processes with fonts and then we obviously move into color.
Speaker B:Maybe I can, should I, should I talk about color?
Speaker B:Sure, we can talk about color.
Speaker B:Color palettes.
Speaker B:So one of the important pieces I think is the color palette and sort of how does it look and how does it work with other things?
Speaker B:And so like depending on what it is, you know, does it go on a light background, does it go on a dark background and sort of how does it all work?
Speaker B:So I think we ended up developing five color color palette as well as three color combinations.
Speaker B:So just for those, those things, I just talked about the sort of light dark scenario.
Speaker B:So I think between the five and the three color combinations we sort of covered most scenarios that you can use it.
Speaker B:So I think it's, it's sort of.
Speaker B:It turned out well.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And you know, for the non graphic designer out there, there's so much to consider and just to kind of know about this in general, when you think about where you see logos being used and in what ways they're used.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So obvious ways that they appear on your website, but then you've got different versions of the logo.
Speaker A:It could be just, you know, an infographic or an anime or a graphic of some kind.
Speaker A:Or you could just have Words and text.
Speaker A:If you look at, you know, profile images, they all come in different sizes and shapes depending on what, let's say, social media platform you're using or wherever.
Speaker A:So what we're getting at here is, you know, how you name your company, then how you create your logo, all speaks to your visual identity, which is central to developing your brand guidelines, which we're going to talk about in a future episode.
Speaker A:But it really is important to have these concepts down as a fundamental starting point before you can be successful with developing brand guidelines.
Speaker B:Correct.
Speaker B:Yeah, I would say that's.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Because it's so.
Speaker B:Nowadays there's so many different platforms and so many things that you sort of.
Speaker B:It has to.
Speaker B:Like, the name is one thing, but then sort of the brand mark, the icon, if you will, has to work on so many different levels.
Speaker B:So it's, it's.
Speaker B:There's a lot to sort of test to make sure your brand identity works for that.
Speaker B:And, like, you're right, it is.
Speaker B:Once, once you sort of try all those different possibilities and it never just sort of stops, you know, after you come up with the logo, it's sort of.
Speaker B:It's sort of always evolving.
Speaker B:So you've just got to be aware of that, but it's something that, you've just got to be.
Speaker B:Make sure that it works for all those things.
Speaker B:It's, It's a, It's a tough process, but once you get it sort of down, it's, it's, it's, it's.
Speaker B:It'll make things a lot easier for communication, that's for sure.
Speaker A:Well, and the beauty of the process is it's never the same.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Like, you've worked with different clients over, you know, multiple years and with similar requests, but it's never the same journey.
Speaker A:And I think when you talk about how we landed on distilled designs and how we landed on our brand identity, you talked about bold and simple.
Speaker A:I would also add memorable and unique.
Speaker A:And I think, like, what we're trying to do with our business from a boldness perspective is really sort of push the envelope in our design and in our approach and say, okay, you know, this already exists.
Speaker A:How about we try to see and try to do something that no one else has done or, you know, just kind of push the envelope on that a little bit.
Speaker A:Unique.
Speaker A:You know, I think we all like to think of ourselves as unique, definitely.
Speaker A:But memorable.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And when I look at the font that you chose and the colors that you chose for our brand, like, that font to me is so memorable because it is really a bold font.
Speaker A:It does speak to me personally as a font lover.
Speaker A:Hopefully it speaks to others as well.
Speaker A:But I think all those things, it's.
Speaker B:One of those things that you've sort of tried to keep is classic, bold, timeless.
Speaker B: ant to look like it came from: Speaker B:You want to sort of be able to, you know, keep it classic so it doesn't look like it came out in a certain year.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:It's sort of always works.
Speaker A:So there you have it.
Speaker A:Some thoughts and suggestions for you.
Speaker A:If you're considering a company name, a logo, your visual identity.
Speaker A:Certainly important to keep these things in mind, whether we're talking about simplicity, meaningfulness, memorability.
Speaker A:And also, we didn't talk about this, Steve, but also important is, does it exist?
Speaker A:You know, is it a URL?
Speaker A:Currently, all of these things factor in to finally make that final decision.
Speaker B:Yes, that's a very good point.
Speaker A:Thank you for listening to this episode of Design Distilled, and we hope you join us next time.
