[MUSIC]

So today I'm gonna be talking about the creation of a brand.

I'll start with a little introduction of myself in

several different brands that I have.

My name's Christy Harner.

As a person, I am a UX designer and a film maker.

I've been doing that for about ten years.

So, I love making stories, film, designing things and

my real big passion is to take somebody's story or somebody's idea and turn it into

a real product or a brand or a business and so, that is really my passion in life.

I also have another alter ego, Christina Harner.

I'm an author, and

I write young adult novels so, that's another one of my brands.

As a young adult author, I help teenagers with creative writing and

I've written [LAUGH] several books about fairies and the environment and

things like that, and I don't normally mix those brands together, but

that was just an example of another brand that I have.

My third brand is that I'm a Chinese language student, and

that's something that I do on the side, it's a passion.

And where that comes into play in my business is that I work with a lot of

development teams and some of the mare in China and so

I'm really trying to understand other cultures and other languages.

And also when the US isn't as important anymore and

the world's turned upside down I'd really like to learn some of

the major languages so that was another goal of mine.

My fourth brand is Mommy.

I'm a single mom and I was at three soccer games today so,

if I seem a little like messy, I was on the ground screaming at a five year old to

remember to look at the ball instead of at the flowers off to the side and

I also took him out to the woods to pee once so that's-

>> [LAUGH].

This may be my real brand, [LAUGH] but this is the one that I do normally.

I am the boss, I am the co-founder of Binary Ventures,

which is actually a company in Charlotte, we've about two years,

I'll tell you a little bit more about that as I go along because that's really where

my my speech today comes to play.

So I'm the creative principal and so I, nobody calls me the boss and

my UX designers here didn't even want to come to my speech so,

who knows how important I really am, but that's another one of my brands.

Just a really, really quick background that relates to the creation of a brand.

When I was in school I actually didn't study design,

I actually studied cultural studies.

I absolutely love how people think, languages, world views,

religions, it's all fascinating to me.

And so I've traveled all over the world.

I would say I've been to 25 countries, but I think it might be 26 now with Scotland.

I'm not sure what it is.

My sister and I had a debate, and

so as of this week, I think I've beat her, because we're both at 25.

And she's never been to Scotland, so, I think I'm at 26 now.

Some of the places that I've been the most are things like West Africa,

I studied in West Africa for a Summer.

I've been to Europe many times, my sister on the top right is getting married, she,

she lives in India now, I have a little half Indian niece, so I'm really excited.

China and my parents live in Pakistan so

my cultural experience started in college and has gone throughout my life.

And now I actually run development teams all over the world which is super fun and

it's awesome because a lot of my teams, you know,

when you talk to somebody in Indian or Pakistan.

You know, usually, you, you as the project manager doesn't know them, but

I can actually say, oh, I've been to your town and it's very fun.

So, I'm very thankful for my background in that culture.

So, right now, I work at Binary Ventures and I started that company two years ago

with my business partner Steve Nolan, who is the Managing Principal.

So he told me when we started that he would take care of all of the things that

I hate.

So he manages things and does the payroll, and the sales, and

all that and my job is to work with companies and help their brands.

And so, what we do is we work with startups.

About 70% of our customers are startups.

And so what, what we do is we help these people who have this really cool idea,

whether it's a mobile app, or an online store, or

maybe it's a web application that doesn't relate to mobile, they have an idea and

they're very very excited about it and

they're very passionate about these ideas, but they haven't built anything yet.

And so what we get to do is come in and listen to that idea and it's really really

fun because instead of just working with an existing or an existing brand,

I get to actually hear them pitch this brand from the very beginning.

They've got nothing,

they have, sometimes, most of the time they don't even have a name.

And so I get to hear them pitch their idea and then I get to start with them and

build this brand for them.

And it's so exciting.

And I say for them and I really should say with them, because.

My job isn't just to take their idea and build what I think is a brand, but

I need to take their idea and make it them in the best way and

that will get results as Nora talked about before me, I know.

She talked about getting the results and not just listening to just the customer,

but making sure they're going to get results.

And I have to go back to the very beginning.

And I have to actually find out who this person is.

[COUGH] And I have to help from the very,

very beginning, finding out who they are and how we're gonna build this brand.

So, before I really get started I wanted to show you a comic that I,

it's about eight or nine years old.

But, it perfectly represents the bad parts of starting to create a brand.

How many of you have seen the How Web Design Goes Straight to Hell comic?

Okay, I know a lot of you have seen it.

Its been around for awhile and

especially when i was starting out this kind of thing happened to me all the time.

But it's a really, really amazing representation of how a brand can go.

And so you just take web design and change it to brand or

change it to anything with design it's all the same.

So I'm just gonna go over it really quick,

because it really relates to what we're doing.

First of all everything's cool in the beginning.

The client communicates their needs, you set expectations.

Everyone's like super happy.

They think you're awesome.

They haven't seen anything yet, but

they think you're great, you're a good sales person.

Then they show you the current website, and you're like, oh,

my god, that's the ugliest thing I've ever seen.

[LAUGH].

Everybody's laughing, like this is a si,

this crime is a site to humanit, a site is a crime to humanity, it's horrible.

Our last designer was an idiot.

Note to self.

Whenever they say that, they're gonna say that about you in about five years.

So, just be really careful what you say.

We're all idiots five years, like looking back, right?

So, anyways we're all laughing.

Oh my God comic sans.

And then you redesign the website or you rebuild the brand or

you redesign the logo, whatever it is.

It looks awesome cuz you're designing it.

So it looks really amazing.

And so, that's where the best part of the whole brand comes into play.

Ta da, you've got this awesome brand.

So then they come in and they say, oh, just a few minor changes.

Because what's happened is you didn't want them design it.

So, you designed it, and now they feel like they need to design it.

So they're like I feel obligated to make changes, and so

they start adding, making pop, more edgy, doesn't feel right.

And so, this comes with these weird feelings and

they start suggesting I want the color blue here and brown here and

it's just, you have, you start making the changes for them.

So then we go switch back to the,

you know, comic sans, and then make it less liney.

I love when he writes under here that this is happened to me,

I've had the weirdest suggestions and they've all happened to everybody.

And then it gets really bad because, you know,

he gets other people involved, co-workers, pet hamster, uncle.

You know, I love, I've looped my mother to this conversation.

She designed a bake sale flyer back in '82, so

you could say she has an eye for design.

>> [LAUGH]

>> That has so happened to me, and I'll talk a little bit more about that later.

So you know, the design needs to,

you put together needs some colors, perhaps a little pink.

Throw in a kitten, everyone loves kittens.

I actually did just do a kitten in this presentation, I realized.

So anyways, throw a kitten in it, yeah, that's great.

So, then, all hope is lost.

Seriously, you begin to fantasize about other careers.

You know, you've got miffles,

the stream of consciousness dog that's going to end up on this presentation.

Just gets really, really bad.

You are no longer a web designer, now you're a mouse cursor inside a graphics

program which the client can control by speaking, emailing, and instant messaging.

It's so bad.

Finally, at the end an abomination's born and

you really do think, I think this looks like it originally did.

And you really just want to quit your job and go somewhere else, and

they're happy, which is the scary part because they don't know.

And so you've failed at your job.

They may think that you've won, or you've done a good job, and

it's just [LAUGH] everybody's sad.

So, that [LAUGH] is the intro to my presentation because I, this really,

really represents how things can go south quickly.

So because of that, my motto is, or one of my mottoes is the brand starts with

the founder, or the client, or whoever it is, that is where the brand starts.

It is in their head, especially for a new client,

a new product whether it's a new product for a company or a new product,

especially if you have more of an open table, the brand starts with the founder.

Scary thing is that the founder can be anybody.

So, I get people doing all sorts of things, I've got clients who you know,

an older lady, 75 years old, came in wants to start a new clothing line.

And she's you know in her 70's.

That's one of my challenges.

I've gotta work with her.

I've got, you know, a 50 year old guy that wants to do a Christian online store which

is there's so much competition.

You know, and I've gotta work with it.

I've got all different people, young, old, everybody.

And you've got to work with the person that you've got.

And you can't make them somebody they're not.

So, the first thing you need to do,

is make no assumptions when that person comes in.

Whether it's by looks or the crazy idea they have.

Don't make any assumptions.

And so, what I wanna do is I wanna give you some tips.

For how to make that brand session go really well.

And what I do when I first start a brand is, I'll give you an example,

the other day I had someone call me on the phone, so I, first of all,

I know no idea who this person is, I don't know how old they are, I know it's a guy.

I don't know what race they are, I know nothing.

So he calls me up and he says I want to start, this is a guy says,

I want to start an online Christian accessories and gifts store.

And I'm thinking, like, okay we're going to make it, like really hipster and

it's going to be reaching toward young adults and okay, I can do this,

'cuz I already, you know, I kinda grew up real fundamental so I, I totally went to

these Christian bookstores, but I don't want to make it like that.

I want to make it really cool and I have this whole idea in my mind, and

then I have to remember I don't know who he is.

I don't know if he's my age, I don't know if he's 50.

I don't know who he is.

And so, I have to start by, when I go and

meet with him, I have to really start from ground zero.

And, oh, yeah, here's the cat I threw in.

So. >> [LAUGH].

>> When you start talking to your clients,

you need to remember that you're basically asking them all about themselves.

And so, what I'm gonna do is give you a bunch of questions that we can ask.

And this presentation is really going to be questions that, I ask.

And when I do, when I do meet with that client.

For example, when I talked to him on the phone, I said, let's meet in person.

And he had agreed that he wanted to have us build a website,

do his brand and do his initial marketing.

We don't do on, ongoing marketing, but we build the brand and

then give you the tools and hook you up with a marketing team.

And so, I came with an 80 slide questionnaire where we were just going to

sit down and ask questions.

And I made no assumptions whatsoever.

And that made it so that I could create a brand that he felt really good about.

So, when you go and sit down with this cat meme, you think, this guy is just

somebody that's just coming to me and he's going to tell me his whole life story.

And you gotta be really interested him, and really get to learn about him.

So, the very first question I ask is, why are you creating this brand?

What is it that you're doing?

And this is such a good question for anybody to ask, especially a start-up.

Because they may not have a really good reason for creating the brand.

It's, there may be a nugget in there somewhere but something like,

I wanna make a bunch of money isn't really a good reason.

And, although it's not my job to tell them not to build a business,

it's my job to take that idea that they have and

that reason, and turn it into a really good reason.

And a really good window a really good product that will actual have a,

a chance in the market.

So I need to know why he's doing it.

Because I don't want to veer off too far from the brand that he's done.

And I'm gonna try to focus more on the design side of things.

So the first example is this, this christian accessories and gift store.

He wanted to call it godlygiftshomedecorandmore.com and

I said that no one would ever remember that name.

So, we do have that URL and

you'll be able to check it out, but lovethelordinc is what we went with.

Because we are gonna be building some products for,

and I wanted t-shirts to look really nice and the other name was kind of long.

So, when I started and

he told me he wanted to build this I had this idea in my head that he was maybe

like 80 years old and he wanted to do like a you know Joel Osteen kind of bookstore.

And that was just a bad assumption so, I had to really sit down and

say okay, what do you actually wanna do and when I met him I found out

he pretty much looked like this guy, early 50's although he looked a lot younger.

He came from corporate America.

He had been recently married was a very strong Christian and

this was a dream that he'd always had.

And I had none of those assumptions in my head when I first started.

So, I was really excited to meet him because then I thought okay,

awesome, I've got a blank slate, I have no idea what this guy wants but

he seems really cool so that's, that's good.

Started with my like are you okay with hipster question?

The guy said it always helps me with design.

Anyways, it was really awesome to meet with him and just say oh,

okay, this is who you are now let me ask you more questions about yourself so

I found out you know how old he is.

I know that's crazy but

it helps with kind of figuring out his pop culture references, his style and taste.

And then, you know,

his, where he came from, and even his relationship, I know that's crazy, but

those are all things that really help me when I'm building a brand.

The other thing that I found out during this,

which is the answer to the why question, is this verse, and yes,

he wanted this entire verse on the homepage of the coming soon website.

So, it made it, I had, it made it so I really needed to make sure that when I

built this brand that this verse was prominent, or

at least was represented in design.

And so, we've been able to cut down the verse a little so

that it's not the entire love the Lord with all your heart commandment but

the entire design of the website is going to be represented in this verse, or

this verse will be represented in the design kind of both ways.

But basically, he really wants to make sure that every part of

this website is refle, reflection of the fact that people who

have the faith that he has will want to live God in every part of their lives.

Whether it's at home, whether it's at school, whether it's at work.

And so what we decided to do is really take all these pictures and

accessories and gifts that he's gonna be building and in the final site,

this is just the coming home site.

As you can see we still have the full verse down there.

But this the coming soon site and in the final site,

what we're gonna do is the homepage is gonna have these giant pictures

real beautiful pictures of a living room and a kid's room, and a classroom.

And throughout the page, you will see all the different gift items and

accessories and things that will really represent God in that room.

So that was his passion and so what we wanna do is make sure that the design,

that his passion comes out in that design.

And so, that was an example of a why, why are you doing this, and

there are so many different reasons why.

That was just one example that I really liked because it was a challenge, taking

that, he was a, this is why and here's my verse now make it into the design.

So now it can represent inside of the name, and inside of the homepage and

inside of all of the photography that we do.

Another question that's very important is, what is your background?

This really mostly comes into play when you're starting a new company but

it's very, very important.

So, one of the examples that that I wanna share is Paradine.

And Paradine is a new mobile app.

And what Paradine is, it's an app for businesses.

And so, let me tell you a little bit about Jake.

Jake is the owner of Paradine and he, he started this business,

he was working for Goldman-Sachs.

And he was a sales guy.

So he was travelling.

All over the world selling.

And so, he was always going to these new cities, and he would say, he

would show up in Seattle and he wouldn't really know what to eat or where to go.

And then if he had a client that he needed to meet with,

he wouldn't know where to take them for dinner.

And so, yes, there's Yelp, and there are other things like that,

but what he found was that there was no app that really said, okay,

I'm gonna pick out the best places.

And so if he goes to Seattle, he can actually click on

the different filters for a restaurant say, that he took his client to.

And then the next time somebody else from his business goes who

is linked to him from LinkedIn, they will go and

they'll see that there's a really good restaurant for taking a client to, or for

having an evening with somebody, or having, going to a coffee shop.

And so his entire goal, and

his entire reason for building this app was to solve a problem.

And that was because his background was in sales.

And so, I was very excited when we got to start working with him

because he actually was solving a problem.

And the problem was that, you know, this 97% would

rather get a recommendation from a friend or a colleague, rather than going to Yelp.

And so, when you're solving a problem and your background is in something.

Whether he had a background in you know,

technology, or a background in sales, I love that he had a background in

sales because he was passionate about solving that problem for sales people.

And so, the reason that plays into the design is that because he

knew that Paradine was a solution for sales people and there are hundreds of

thousands of sales people that travel all the time, all of our designing and

all of our branding was directed straight toward the sales people.

It wasn't directed toward everybody.

It was directed toward people just like Jake.

And so, as we went through our Twitter, and our social media, and

out videos and even you know, banners for tech crunch, and things like that.

We designed everything with the business, the business guy in mind, or

the business girl in mind.

We wanted to make sure that we represented Jake.

And that Jake's background and passion and need for an app that helped him as he

was going through his day would be represented in the design.

But I wouldn't have necessarily have know that because if I hadn't really asked Jake

why he was doing this and what his background was in.

Because honestly Paradine could be an app for people,

just anybody who wants to learn about new restaurants, and

wants to hook up with there friends and find out where friends like to eat.

That's also a solution but Jake really wanted to make it a solution for

sales people.

And so our first round in our first year campaign of design for

Paradine was specifically for those people like Jake.

A third question that is very helpful to ask and is

honestly as you all probably know one of the most important is, what is your story.

Now, you could say that it's part of that is their personal story.

Like, for example, Jake's story, pretty much anybody that I'm working with,

their personal story is very, very good for actually giving the brands some,

some some personality, right?

So the story can come out and

design through video that shows how this app works or it can come out as

simple as a logo where you've got the little tassel to show that it's for

schools because schools is spelled wrong so you have to give a hint to that one.

And [LAUGH] then there's things like a video where it just explains information,

but when I talk to a client sometimes they don't really know that their

story is important.

And so I, I want to tell them ev, even more things.

So I'll, I'll honestly spend a little more time explaining to

them that their story's really important.

And I wanna know everything about their story because there might be something in

there that's, a really interesting item to focus on.

So I tell them, I give them this list of things.

These are some of the most, the reasons why I need to know your story.

Improves the brand image and industry authority.

And then it expands added value for websites.

And it increases time on the site,

increases the social-share and cross-promotion.

Increases visits and leads, widens the competition gap and decreases cost and

intrusiveness in advertising.

And where this plays into the actual design can be very different,

whether it's a video or a website or an illustration.

And one example that I have was a company called Derwent.

Now, the name Derwent will probably be changed with the,

the website's launch, but we're still working with this company.

And when he came to me this guy Tim, he's the owner of Derwent.

He actually wants to start this company where they work,

they address the technology readiness levels.

And I'm probably not going to explain this quite right,

cuz it was a little confusing to me, too.

But basically they're, there's this arc of innovation, and

when somebody has an idea that something maybe the construction industry can use,

they have to go through various levels.

And so he sent me this dial and he's like I drew up a dial for you.

You can use it on the website.

[LAUGH] So, like okay.

So we did kind of and but I did, I did love this and this was very important

to him and he said, people don't know all of the, the different readiness levels.

But when I,

after I talked to him for a while, he didn't really want much on his website.

He really just wanted to explain what the technology readiness levels were.

And then where they fit into it.

And so that he could then talk to them in person.

And say, we fit between seven and nine.

And that's where they fit in.

Where they're going through the actual commercial application and

real world trials.

So he's the trial guy.

So I had to learn his story and that's a different kind of story where it's

an actual just kind of showing how it works.

So when we actually did the website, it's a little different than a site that I

would normally do because I did it in illustration because I didn't have

any real case studies because he was brand new.

So what I did was I just did illustrations for it and

we started by talking about bridging the gap from innovation to application.

And if you want you can just click on one of the circles like I am an investor,

I am in industry, I am an innovator, and you can go and

learn just a little about what those three different people do in this industry.

And then you're supposed to call him or you can actually read down this list and

learn about it.

And so on the website I was gonna do like a video of it but I was scared that it

might not work here so what I did was I was just gonna show you some examples.

You scroll down and you see the list of exploratory research concept development,

proof of concept, laboratory testing, laboratory validation.

And they just kind of animate it and

then you see where we can help which is six, seven, and eight.

And then why is this important and you go down and

you learn that as you scroll down these things animate in you learn that US is

actually not doing as many patents as China, and so we are really trying to

really increase our patents and increase our innovations and invention.

Especially in this industry, so that was very important to him.

So I included that as a design.

And then we went down thru the ten and so.

As you scroll down you can see number one is the basic idea.

An innovation starts with an idea, and then it goes to concept development.

And you know you can see what you know really little bits about it because I

didn't want to overwhelm anyone with the design.

But there's just that story, the proof of concept, the laboratory testing,

the laboratory validation, and then how can level seven help.

Which was the other name we were going to do for our company.

So this was kind of a test on the names.

I don't think we're going to do either of them.

We have like a, some Greek god now it's about technology,

which was a lot cooler name.

And then the initial commercial application defined.

And then you just keep scrolling down basically.

And you see this is another example of how to take someone's story and

turn it into design.

But it really requires sitting down with them and

asking all these questions, you know, what is your story and why are you doing it?

So that's part of my initial brand with somebody, is just finding that story so

that I can figure out how we're going to represent it in a design.

The next thing you do is, the next thing I address is what is your style?

So this can be a little more elusive and difficult for people.

Because you know, I kind of know my style and, well you saw all my different people,

you know, things that I am.

I'll wear like a moon lawn t-shirt and then I'll wear, you know,

nice clothes and I'll wear mommy clothes and those are different styles and

a lot of people don't really know what their style is.

So what I end up doing with this one is I start showing them different styles.

Like, for example, this is funny and witty.

And the reason that you want to ask them about their style is actually very

important, because when you start designing their logo and their website and

their videos, you don't want to go off and

do something that looks kind of like Instagram and is really cool and, and,

I don't know, young, fresh, if they really want something that's very.

For example, like, Paradigm, which is very business-y and, and elegant.

And so I have to ask these styles and I show them different designs.

And I really recommend doing this with a client when

you're working through a brand, is just showing them different types of design and

different types of style.

So I say this one's really funny cuz it says the journey of

1,000 miles sometimes ends very, very badly.

And [LAUGH] I, they love it.

If they love it, you kinda write it down like,

ooh they really liked the funny stuff.

And you go through it and then this is youthful.

And do you like bright colors and are you trying to reach out toward teens?

And we will talk about target audience.

But as far as the style itself goes, that,

you kinda need to help them along with this one.

And just show them different ideas of things that maybe they would

really like to do.

[COUGH] And hipster [LAUGH] I don't know I keep saying hipster cuz I'm.

I'm like a wannabe hipster.

I'll never hipster but like are you hipster?

Do you like this kind of stuff?

Do you like the minimalistic, whatever it is and, and then there's something like

clean and personal and that's again on the story side.

Are we really focusing on the photography and what are we focusing on?

And then, then you can start giving a list, because you know,

it's kind of just to get an idea of things that they say absolutely don't want to be

silly or friendly.

I don't know.

But you just go through and figure out what it is that they really like and

what's their style and so

this is an example that that was kind of a fun one for me which is SpendBoss.

And SpendBoss was a company that I've been working with for a couple years.

I was actually one of the founders of it.

I wasn't the, I had I was one of the founders of it and

it's this software for retail industry.

So, basically, high end ret, retail like well Coach,

Jo-Ann Fabrics big companies like that.

They, they will use this software a the highest level to adminit,

to be in charge of, all of the different stores throughout that company, and tell

each store how much money they're allowed to spend every month on everything.

So they can spend x amount on buying new refrigerators might be once a year.

They are allowed to spend x amount on toilet paper.

And it's basically anything that's not retail, so anything in their store,

the, the carpeting, the lighting, the you know, electronics, anything.

They have to regulate through the software.

And, so, we built the software and helped, we actually helped name it, SpendBoss,

because they wanted to be, kinda, kinda cool and kind of about the fact that

you are in charge and you are the boss now, and this helps you take over.

So, when I was talking to the guy who was their marketing person.

And as we were kind of starting this team, but they had some ideas, and

I had some ideas.

I was letting him come up with the ideas.

Because he was the one that after I exited the company,

he was gonna be really running the marketing department.

So, I wanted to make sure that anything we designed for

our overall concept would be something that he really owned as a person.

And so he came up, he came to me and he's a super awesome person.

He's like 55, he's crazy.

I think he's ADD.

He's probably like 10 inside and he's just 55.

He's just awesome.

And so he's like, I have this idea.

We're going to be Mad Men because it's like the boss.

And so like, okay, like I love Mad Men.

That's, that's fun.

Let's do it. And so he's like,

we're going to be Mad Men and we're going to be bossy and

snarky and professional and clever and.

So I"m thinking like, you know.

Also we'll do like cigar smoking and whiskey and

all this stuff and so we did we even went as far as doing like photo shoots.

And it got a little out of hand in some ways because started realizing first of

all it was a little chauvinistic and there were females.

I was the only female in the company.

It's like so you need to wear a bright red dress Christie and

like be standing there and I'm like, is this kind of like sexual harassment.

I'm doing it to myself, I'm not sure what's going on.

So I'm cool with it, but then you started really thinking about it

because you have that first crazy idea right?

So kind of had to reign it in.

But that allowed him to have the idea and then it was my job to

make it actually marketable because I didn't want to get in trouble.

And so my job is to make sure that, that guy owns the brand, owns the idea,

but I'm actually managing the brand and making sure that we stay on track.

So, we kind of pulled back a little and went very classy and elegant, but

still with the boss name.

And I think the tagline is get bossy and take control of your spend.

So.

I did a couple of things.

We started with the logo and just kinda picked some really classy clean colors.

Made it real simple.

And then started with this whole suit thing.

So everything's got the suit on it.

And, and that worked a lot better because there wasn't the whole

cigar whiskey thing anymore.

It was really just about like I'm the boss, real classy, clean.

And everybody loved the business cards because every single person on the,

on the C level execs has like a different suit.

So like I got a little necklace instead and somebody else got like a little

girl's scarf thing and then they had pockets and everything was very unique.

So this was a way to represent that Mad Men idea without going too far into it.

And representing a brand that could, could transcend some time.

It would just be you know while AMC was still running Mad Men.

And then we also brought in girls so you know, we have a little bit more,

the girl was actually doing boxing gloves and she's the boss.

So that was very, that was a way to balance the, the cool idea of

using Mad Men and bring in the less chauvinistic, more modern times design.

So, as an example of knowing your style.

And this was very much a style piece where everything was style.

And in fact, the CEO, even today, when he goes and does a sales pitch, so

if he travels to another country, I mean another state.

He will actually wear his black suit and

his little you know, whatever that thing is in his pocket.

And he looks just like the guy in the business card.

So then he gets to hand out his business cards and its, it's very styled.

So that was a really fun brand to create and so that's an example of

going a little too far but letting them come up with the idea and the style.

That was their style and then I kind of made it more mainstream.

Another thing that I, you only really have to deal with when you're a new company,

but it's really fun and

a little nerve-wracking to do is come up with a name.

And so, everybody has a name when they start.

One of our companies I'll talk about a little bit later was called Mobile Money.

And it was about local merchants and

so, we really didn't like the name Mobile Money, so we changed it to Localtopia, and

that's an example of changing a name.

And it's very important to do at the very beginning if you have something where you

feel the name isn't a good example.

Fit Race is one of ours.

When they came to us they were Sociercise.

And I'm not even sure if I spelled it right, to be honest, just now,

even though they're one of my clients.

And you know, the,

the dot-com is available, so it was really awesome for them.

But, we, you know, I met them and they said, oh, our name's Sociercise and

they really didn't have like a game plan exactly, but they had built an app, and

I couldn't find a, a screenshot of it cuz they took the website down, and

I forgot to screenshot their original app.

But basically the, this is a applica-,

we application mobile app for

people who want to have you ever heard of Charity Miles?

Where you can run and every mile you go you're donating?

Well what they wanted to do was one step further where instead of just a company

that already had basically allotted money to to people who wanted to run for

charity miles.

And then you would basically be giving that money that they had already allotted.

It was you actually going out and

finding sponsors from around your friends, online, Facebook, social media.

And then and then every time you ran they would sponsor you.

And then it would show up on your Facebook and show how, how many miles you'd run or

how much you'd bike.

So the name Sociercise was nice because it was social and exercise, but

we really didn't.

It just didn't work.

Because no one remembered how to spell it, and what the name was.

So we had to change the name.

And so, when we were working on the design itself and

really asked them what else is the point?

What's the purpose?

He said we really want people to get fit.

We want people to be healthy and we want to raise money.

So, to be honest, they came up with the name fitRaise after we

helped them come up with the idea and the brand and the words fit and raise.

And so they came up with this.

And the exciting part about that is that,

we were able to guide them toward that name but they came up with it.

So they felt very much like, been team effort.

And they had that, the idea themselves.

And that's the best, that's a win because we helped them get there, but

they really owned the brand.

So our job was really just to design it.

But we, and to guide them toward getting the right name and

the right look and the right feel for their company.

we, we rename probably half the companies that come to us because it's very,

very important, as part of your brand, to, to come up with the right name.

And then your logo's gonna be easier to figure out, and

your design, and all of that.

So, asking them about their name is part of branding something and

don't be afraid to ask them.

Cuz to be honest I've talked to companies who, if they're maybe six months old or

a year old and they have some customers or they're in beta.

And you say do you like your name?

Do you think you need some help with your name?

They're, they're very willing to look at it,

because they want to make, they want results.

They wanna get more customers.

And if they haven't had customers.

And changing the name is not always a bad idea.

So that's something that I ask at the first meeting,

is just throwing it out there do you like your name and if they like it and

that's you know, godly gift to [INAUDIBLE] home to [INAUDIBLE] or more.

You know, sometimes you fight it a little more cuz you wanna make sure that they

make, they make money and they, they get results that they want.

So it's important thing to do.

Who do you listen to?

This is basically who are the people that are going to be in,

influencing this brand.

Now it can widely vary from the uncle and pet hamster that we mentioned on the comic

to you know, a spouse because that one is actually more common than you think.

One example I have, and I don't have any like, visuals for

this, but I had a customer who I started working with the brand and design and

I showed him, you know, went through do you like this kind of design or this,

do you like these kind of illustrations, this, what colors do you want?

We went through this whole exercise.

And he got back and showed his girlfriend what he decided and

she was like, oh hell no, and then she started Skyping me and

saying, I think I wanna do this and I wanna do that.

And it's like, oh my God, we were halfway through designing.

And so, what you have to do and what I do now up, up front is, do, are you married?

So always ask like, what's your wife like?

Is she going to be part of this?

And if they say, oh,

she's, she wants nothing to do with it, you're like, okay are you sure?

or, you know, if she, oh, yeah, she's super excited about this brand.

If she says that.

[LAUGH] Anytime you send them a design just ask them to run it by the person.

[LAUGH] Because it's gonna really matter in the end.

You know, and, and even include them.

If there's other people, and, and wife is just one example.

But if there are other people that are like you know, another boss or

a partner or something like that,

make sure they're there when you're making decisions about that brand.

Because otherwise they're not gonna listen.

And also remind them that you were the expert in this and so

you need to have everybody that's gonna be part of that brand to make decisions, but

also be able to establish with all of those people that this guy or

this girl hired you to design this brand.

So they need to be part of that as well.

Another thing that you need to talk about is what are your unique factors, and.

So one example of this would be a company that's called Dance for Good and Dance for

Good was a unique factor because what they did was they had an online online music.

It was like American Idol on the Internet and that's a little more common now.

This was several years ago when they came up with this idea.

It's crazy how things change.

And so we had this idea where, well, they had the idea and

we were supposed to design this for them.

So we designed their logo and their website.

And the goal was that every time that a new musician came on,

there'd be a contest every six months or so.

And there'd be about 30 to 50 musicians and

they would all perform songs online and then you could vote once everyday.

And if you voted more than once, you would buy votes.

And so you would actually be buying votes and the votes though, and

I know that sounds kind of weird, but the votes would actually go toward a charity.

And so because that was their unique factor, no one was doing that where you

could donate to a charity in order to help your artist get get more votes for

the contest and so we really focused on that.

Every, every design that we did, everything that we did we

focused on the charity and the fact that hey you can add more votes and

this is really about the about veterans.

The first one was veterans.

So we really focused on that.

And our branding and our designing was that, that was you were doing good and

the doing good network was what they were kinda their overarching company.

And so we focused on that do good and that this is for charities.

So it's important to find that unique factor and

everybody has a very different one.

So as, as important as that goes there's also the fact that

the brand continues with the audience.

And we all know that, because as you know the, the founder, the client is important.

And their style, and their tastes, and their desire, and their naming.

Their passions are very important.

But they obviously, it actually continues with the audience.

So, I know you know all this about target audiences and ROI and

the people that you're reaching out to.

So, I'm not really gonna go into that.

What I'm gonna go into is more talking about how you would talk to your

client about this.

[APPLAUSE] And so when you, when I,

when I go through all these things with the style and the ideas and the passions.

I have to tell them as well, especially with a new person.

But remind them even if they're, they've been around doing branding for a while, or

new products for a while is that you need to remember who your audience is,

because this plays into the design as well.

And as I mentioned Localtopia before.

Localtopia is kind of like Groupon but or an entertainment book.

Basically what it is, is that any local merchants in a city that are on

Localtopia, they will give maybe $2 or

$5 a month to anybody who's subscribed to this Localtopia app.

So I will have a, I will have a Localtopia app for $5 and

I will pay $5 a month and then 100 local merchants will give me discounts.

Not buy one get one, but like an actual genuine discount every month.

And so it's, it's not a unique, but

it is a unique thing because it focuses on local merchants.

And so the real question was when we started this brand and

we started our marketing, were we reaching out to the end consumer or the merchants?

And the real answer was this first launch is really all about the merchant.

Because the merchant is the one that's going to actually make the brand

happen because they need to be on this platform in order to get consumers.

So who is that merchant?

And we began to talk about who the merchant how is this gonna be

played into the design of the website and the brochures, and the print materials.

And so everything we designed and

everything that we built was around that merchant.

And even the actual app itself, we wanted it to be very pleasant for merchants.

So they felt like.

Great. I want to get my name on this platform

because I think this is a quality platform that encourages local use and

that's why we had to change that name from Mobile Money to Localtopia and

we said it's all about local.

And so that's very important is just figuring who your audience is so

that when you design, your designing with those people in mind.

And we're almost done, I promise.

So one of the last things is who's the competition?

People often when their starting a new product are like, oh, I'm a lone wolf.

I am the only person doing this app in the entire world.

And so one of the things you have to remind them when you're working on

that initial branding and design is you say no you're not.

These are all the people that I looked up on Google in like the first two seconds.

That are doing exactly what you're doing, And then here are like 13 award

winning e-commerce sites that are doing exactly what you're doing.

And then I go through and explain these people are doing it and

these people are doing it, these people are doing it, these people are doing it.

Amazon's doing it, you're screwed.

And so they say.

>> [LAUGH].

>> And you know, it's kind of cuz I'm almost at the end of my presentation and

I never really had like, a good answer exactly, but how can I compete?

And the answer is, and so when I do talk about the audience and

like, this is who you're gonna be competing against, the answer really,

really is all the things we just went through.

If you, you know, you, you know who you are, and you know what your name is and

you know your message and you've got that design down, you know what your story is,

and what you're trying to do, and why you're doing this.

And then you have us help you create that brand directly around that, you know,

that idea and that passion and that love and we figure out your style.

Then you're actually going to do a good job and

you're going to be able to compete, because I've been able to listen to

you tell me all about yourself and all about your brand of what you want.

And now I'm going to be able to, if I'm a good designer, listen to all of that and

create something that really is unique in the marketplace and

actually has a chance and is, is personal and awesome.

So, that's kind of the answer.

I mean, it's the very beginning of the whole process of building a brand, but

if you can go through those steps and learn all about the client and

figure out all those different parts of the brand you won't have that,

you know web design goes to hell experience because you will

know everything about this client and when you come back to them.

And you say here's your logo and here's your web design and here are your colors.

They are going to be, like, oh my God, you perfectly understood me.

And I'm telling you when I've gone through this process and

I listen that hard to a client, they are just blown away.

And they trust you now,

because they know that you know just as much about them as they do.

And I also say to them, this is your baby.

This brand is your baby and I'm gonna take care of your baby.

And I said that to someone the other day and they were like, oh my god well

you're like the mommy and I hope that you can get that baby out really well and

take care of it and love it.

And I'm like, okay, this is weird but yes.

We'll do this together and

so that is the way to make a brand that really makes that client happy and

actually has the chance of being a real honest, awesome brand in the marketplace.

So, thank you very much.

[APPLAUSE]