Been wondering how to create a soulful brand identity for your business? In this post I’ll talk about the simple, key principal I’ve uncovered that helps me to do this for my clients.

There’s something I’ve been trying to articulate. A feeling about what is at the heart of all the work I try to put out there for my clients, but I’ve not been sure how to put it into words.

Have you ever felt like that? There’s something you understand and embody, but you don’t quite have the words to describe it and explain it to others?

Then, I saw someone talk about art practices for painting and drawing as part of a personal course I’m taking. It finally clicked into place.

The simple, key principal I’ve uncovered for creating a soulful brand identity

You see – what I’ve been trying to articulate is really at the heart of everything that people create. No matter if it is art, music, a piece of writing, cooking, dance, film-making, architecture…a brand identity.

The creator wants the viewer/listener/reader/taster to feel something. And we are always looking for things that make US feel something too. Things that make use feel something stand out to us.

But what exactly is it that we want to feel? What makes a piece of Art, music etc either good or…forgettable? I’d argue it’s whether there is a sense of aliveness in the piece.

Whether ‘the thing’ makes us feel alive. Whether we can see the aliveness in it. Whether we can feel the aliveness of the author or artist. By alive what I mean is that it feels like it has heart and soul. It isn’t bland.

So, how do we make what we create feel alive?

Here’s that key principle:

It’s through contrasts and differences. Subtlety mixed with boldness. Lightness and dark.

This is what I already bang on about with branding, but I’ve only just connected the dots back to why it works.

Annoyingly, if you’ve ever worked with a client or employer on any kind of design or artwork and they’ve said ‘Can you just make it pop?’ (or something to that effect) this is what they mean. It needs more contrast, more differences. It doesn’t feel alive yet.

As a person, part of what makes you so wonderful and interesting is your unique mix of personality contrasts, contradictions, and differences. This is your aliveness, your soul.

When you add contrasts and differences into your brand identity, you’re infusing your brand with heart and soul too.

How to build a sense of aliveness into your brand identity

Building a sense of aliveness into your brand identity through contrasts and differences can work in many ways. It’s important to note that it really is about subtlety mixed with boldness, because when you have too much ‘middle’, things can begin to feel muddy, rather than clear and alive.

Here are some ways to begin thinking about this. you don’t need to harness each way of creating contrast, there are no hard and fast rules. We’re talking about how things feel here…so feel it.

Choose your own adventure.

Colour

In your colour palette, you can quite literally choose two or three main brand colours that are opposite each other on the colour wheel.

Colours and the way they interact with each other, what they mean, and how they make us feel is so fascinating to me. I have a lesson all about it in the Rebrand Roadmap.

The complimentary and triadic opposite colours here create a bold contrast, so you need to make sure you have subtlety elsewhere.

For example in my main branding for Lemon & Birch, I use a bright blue, pink, and yellow. This is roughly speaking a triadic palette, and so you’ll see less bold contrasts in other areas such as the fonts I’m using. Apart from differences in size, the fonts I use are simple, clear, and easy to read.

If you were to use an analogue (sometimes called a harmonious) palette, these colours have less contrast between each other, and so it would be important to create bold contrasts in other areas of your branding.

It’s always about balancing boldness with subtlety.

Brand Photography

This is something the photographers amongst us are already masters of. Balancing light and shadow, and framing a photograph so that there is ’empty’ space balanced with ‘filled’ space.

There are some really bold contrasts that can be created in an image when you know how to capture them. My client Caro comes to mind when I think of light and shadow play in photography.

You can also create a sense of spaciousness with your brand photography, but couple that with perhaps a detail rich illustrated logo, and you have a beautiful, balanced contrast.

Inversely, if you have busy floral photography for example, keep your logo and even your colour palette on the minimal, chilled-out side.

Typography

The typefaces you choose for your brand identity are a lovely way to bring in more contrast. You can use one type of font for headings and another type for body text.

You’ll probably instinctively be able to tell which fonts contrast with each other; but here’s some quick examples:

• Bold font weight with a lighter font weight
• A chunky slab serif with a simple sans serif
• A bold retro display font mixed with a simple sans serif
• Don’t forget how font sizing can play a role in creating contrast
• Colour can come into play with your typography too

I hope that discovering this principle has opened up a new way of thinking about branding for you. One where the rules are less constrictive and it’s more about creating lightness and darkness.

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In this blog post I’m sharing advice for creative small business owners, written by members of my online community, the Tree House.

I recently realised that what I was really craving something in my business – a feeling of community around my brand. Many people do a gorgeous job of creating that sense of community through their social media accounts or through their email list. But since I had my first child in 2020 I’ve found it hard to stay on top of the amount of time it takes to really build that up.

As a result, when launching my first online course and my course platform the Tree House, I knew I needed to get serious about community building. It’s a brilliant way to help people get through the whole of your course, create a sense of accountability, and allow people to connect with others going through the course at a similar time.

I set my community up on Circle and I am loving seeing it grow slowly and organically! After setting things up, I decided to create a Digital Magazine inside the community platform so that I could post Interviews with members, enabling us to get to know each other and learn about the ups and downs of our business journeys.

Here I’m sharing some of the amazing words of wisdom that have been written by 5 of the community members 🥰 They’ve given some wonderful advice for creative business owners. To read the full Interviews, sign up to the community here.

Helena Murphy – Commercial photographer capturing product, places and people.

What’s one piece of advice you would give to past you?

Nothing that is meant for you will pass you by. Don’t stress about your ideal timeline – it’s going to unravel in the way it’s meant to, and it’s not a race.

What’s one thing you learnt or implemented in your business where you thought ‘Why didn’t I do this sooner?!’

I definitely would have done the SEO work I’ve done this year much sooner, if I could go back! Because SEO is a slow piece and takes a long time to make an impact, it would have been beneficial to work on it from the start and not be so dependent on a platform you can’t control, like Instagram or TikTok.

Read the full Q&A bu signing into the community here

See Helena’s website here

Lauren Clegg – Jewellery designer and maker creating sterling silver jewellery inspired by nature.

What’s one piece of advice you would give to past you?

Trust my instinct and listen to my inner voice for guidance more. I’ve spent a long time looking externally for direction, thinking that everyone else had insider info that I was lacking, but when I’ve followed advice from external sources, it hasn’t fit right. I realised I just need to trust myself and follow my own path.

What’s one thing you learnt or implemented in your business where you thought ‘Why didn’t I do this sooner?!’

This is going to sound really behind the times, but downloading apps onto my phone for the platforms I use for my business. For example, I sell on Etsy, and I used to transfer all the photos from my phone onto the laptop, to upload them onto my listings. It was so time consuming, then I realised I could download the ‘sell on Etsy’ app, and I can upload images and edit listings straight from my phone. Game changer (that probably everyone else is already aware of!) Lol. 

Read the full Q&A by signing into the community here

See Lauren’s work here

Sophie Carefull – Coach for introverted creatives and a business mentor for personal branding photographers.

What’s one piece of advice you would give to past you?

I’d say: “Everything will get so much easier when you stop fighting against yourself.” I spent so many years focusing on all the things I disliked about myself, and rejecting my true nature as an introvert and someone with anxious tendencies, and actually, the more I’ve been able to face and then embrace those parts of myself, the more peace I experience. 

I never used to believe in the power of self-compassion (“If I stop being horrible to myself, surely I’ll never get anything done?!”), but now I see it as an absolutely essential ingredient for a happy life.

What’s one thing you learnt or implemented in your business where you thought ‘Why didn’t I do this sooner?!’

One of the most important lessons for me has been “be a farmer, not a hunter,” as I think the saying goes. I spent so much of my first couple of years in business on a constant (and tiring) treadmill of trying to find my next new client, that I’d often neglect to appreciate my existing clients. 

It dawned on me that it’d be much more worthwhile to cultivate longer-term relationships with everyone I worked with so that I didn’t have to rely so heavily on outward marketing. I started to get more repeat bookings and referrals when I actively encouraged them, which may sound obvious but I think a lot of us overlook this, especially in the early days when your confidence may still be wobbly and you’re just so relieved when a job goes well that you quickly move onto the next thing without looking back.

Read the full Q&A by signing into the community here

See Sophie’s website here

Ammaarah Jeewa – Creative copywriter for creative women

What’s one piece of advice you would give to past you?

Stop letting other people tell you your limitations. Only you can decide what you are and are not capable of doing. You get to dictate what happens in your business, not everyone else.

What’s one thing you learnt or implemented in your business where you thought ‘Why didn’t I do this sooner?!’

Be authentic. It sounds simple, and maybe almost obvious, but it’s so easy to feel like you have to conform to some type of ‘appearance’. Even when I thought I was being authentic, it turns out, I was still trying to hide. It wasn’t until a gentle marketing coach suggested that I look at what I do through the lens of, ‘Does what you’re doing make you love yourself?’ that it really opened my eyes.. 

I was genuinely surprised at how often the answer was ‘no’. It prompted me to take a good hard look at what I was doing, especially in terms of marketing, and adjust things so that I could finally answer ‘yes’.

Read the full Q&A by signing into the community here

See Ammaarah on instagram here

Rebecca Broad – Writer and social media manager

What’s one piece of advice you would give to past you?

Charge. More. Money. 

What’s one thing you implemented in your business where you thought ‘Why didn’t I do this sooner?!’

Oh, I love Starling Spaces. In my business account with them I have Spaces for all sorts: different tax years (I automatically put away 30% of all income), Christmas bonus, my next three months’ wages, new tech fund, and ‘investment’.

It’s made everything to do with finances so much more visible for me. I never used to feel financially safe enough to spend any business money, but Spaces help me to see what I can afford to spend.

Read the full Q&A by signing into the community here

See Rebecca on instagram here

If you enjoyed reading this wonderful advice for creative business owners, you can join the Tree House Community here!

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