Imagine your brand felt like the perfect fit. It reflects your business perfectly and is attracting your dream customers/clients. All this without hiring a designer or having to use expensive and complicated software.

Sound impossible? It’s not.

It’s easy to believe that you need to be an expert in design or spend thousands hiring a designer to achieve that brand dream.

We all want a memorable and recognisable brand that draws in our dream people and feels like the perfect fit, but when you don’t have design skills or a big budget it can seem a far off dream, however it doesn’t have to.

The truth is, you can confidently build that dream brand yourself. (Yes I mean it)

I am going to walk you through my DIY branding process, to show you how you can go from an overwhelmed hopeless designer to confidently becoming your own designer with ease and create a brand you are proud of..

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Why go the DIY Route?

The DIY routine might not be for every business owner, but for a lot of small solo business owners it's a smart move.

1. Affordability. When you DIY your brand and graphics, you save yourself the high costs of hiring a designer. While it can be worthwhile investment for some, a lot of smaller businesses just don't have the budget to hire their dream designer, and don't want to use a cheap designer who may do a botch job that they don't feel good about. Learning to DIY your brand well, means you can have an amazing brand without the big investment.
2. Personal Connection. Know one knows your brand better than you do. It's your baby and you know it inside out. It holds deep meaning to you and being able to express that yourself will allow you to create something you are truely proud of and feel like the perfect fit, rather than feeling like you are trying to fit in someone else's shoes. When you take control, you can infuse parts of your personality, your unique vision and story to create a meaningful identity.
3. Flexibility. There is something so freeing about being able to just design as you need to without waiting on anyone else's schedule or when you have the funds. When you are the designer of your brand, you can easily make tweaks and updates as you need and create graphics on demand and in the moment. This allows for easy testing a well, if you want to see how your audience responds to something you don't need to invest in outside help or wait for the turn around, you can quickly put something together and gather feedback quickly to make decisions fast in your business.

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My Unique 4-Step Process to DIY Your Brand

DIY branding is all about following a process and learning the psychology behind design so you can communicate your brand message visually.

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Step 1- Lay Your Brand Foundations.

This is a stage a lot of people miss, but is the most critical if you want a brand identity that feels like the perfect fit and is effective in helping you grow your business. At this stage you want to take your time to get really clear about what your brand should be communicating. Consider things like your values, story, mission, positioning, audience and offers. You need to know exactly what makes your brand unique and the message you want to portray.

Why it works- A clear brand message lays down strong foundations to build your brand from. You aren't just randomly picking a style but everything has purpose and meaning, making your visuals effective in attracting the right people.

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"I was taking different courses, buying different materials to try and help me to get clarity on my brand and the story I want to tell with it, but somehow I always got stuck at certain points. I was slowly circling in on my voice and direction already, but this course helped me push past those points where I always got stuck.
‍I’m much clearer now on my brand voice and the story I want to tell with my brand. "

‍– Sara Gisabella

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Step 2- Develop Your Visual Identity

Now you know the message you want to communicate you can look at what elements portray that message to build a cohesive style. Instead of chasing trends or basing your branding on something you came across on Pinterest, everything is designed with intention. You will create a mood board to encapsulate the overall feel and tone and then learn how to communicate visually to build your brand elements. A lot of this is about understanding the psychology of design and visual communication. A colour can evoke feelings and meaning, a font can position a brand and even a line can send a message about energy and feeling.

Why it works- A cohesive brand style that communicates clearly makes your brand recognisable and attracts the right people.

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"This course aligned my vision with my mission and I feel confident and excited to get to work on a business I'm proud of. Now I love my brand style! It's bright and alive and sophisticated. A style I wasn't sure how to capture before."

- Andrea Victory-LaCasse

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Step 3- Create a Brand Style Guide

This is your brand blueprint and what will keep your brand consistent. It also makes it easier for you to design as you have clear direction on what elements to use and how to use them, so there is no uncertainty or confusion. A brand style guide is a document that outlines your brand visuals and messaging rules, so it is clear what to use and how to use it. It should include things like your brand colours, fonts, logo and variation, tone of voice etc.

Using your guide will help you stay consistent across all touch points in your business, and allow you to share your branding easily if you ever hire help.

Why it works- Consistency builds trust and recognition, with clear rules and guidelines it is easy for you to maintain that brand consistency.

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Step 4- Creating Graphics with Confidence

Now that you have a clear brand style you can start creating the graphics you need. Start with key graphics that you will use long term like banners, invoices and business cards and then work on some templates for common graphics you create such as social media graphics. Now design doesn't have to feel overwhelming. By learning the rules and principles of design and using beginner friendly software like Canva, you'll find design isn't as difficult as it may seem.

When you design for you r own brand you don't need all the skills a professional designer needs as you are only focusing on your one brand, and with your branding established the process is fairly easy.

I like to walk my students through some rules and principles that help them confidently design better and also allows them identity what could be going wrong in a design that feels "off".

Why it works- When you are only designing for your brand, there is a lot less you need to master and you can keep things simple and still create beautiful professional designs that make your business look legit and trustworthy.

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"I feel more capable and like I have more options. All of my graphics looked almost identical before and now I'm more confident in my ability to create different graphics that still match my brand. Tabitha makes me feel more confident in something I have always felt mediocre about. She makes me feel like I can design good graphics for my business. "

-Brigette Henry

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Why My Process is Different

There are a lot design and branding courses out there, but not all of them are ideal for what you need as a business owner wanting to DIY your brand. My process focuses on just what you need to know to work on your own brand and brand graphics as a solo business owner. You don't need to know all the ins and outs of fancy software or how to do more advanced graphics or even how to work on a variety of projects. My process hones in on the skills that you need to DIY your brand and your business graphics.

As a solo business owner you have limited resources and don't need a whole design degree. I don't want to overload you, but empower you to make the right choices for your business and be able to design with ease and confidence, so that it saves you time in the long run.

My process also focusses heavily on the strategy of branding. I don't want you chasing trends, or styles you just happen to like in the moment. I want to get you off the endless re-brand cycle to create a brand that feels like the perfect fit and effectively attracts the right people to your business.

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Practical Tips to Start Your DIY Branding Journey

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1. Get Clear on Your Brand Message: Spend time reflecting on what your brand stands for before diving into design. This will guide every decision you make and help you to create a brand that doesn't just look good but is also effective.
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2. Choose Tools that Make it Easier: Tools like Canva make DIY branding and design easy no matter your software skills. If you do want to use more advanced tools, go for it, but don't make things harder on yourself just because it makes you feel more professional. Go set up a Canva account if you don't already have one and tart to get to familiar with it.

3. Don’t Rush the Process: Good branding that lasts takes time. Give yourself the time to get really clear on your brand message and the kind of business you want to build. Laying strong ground work will last you a long time, so give yourself space to really think things through and not throw it together in a rush. Andwhenitcomes to design, the more you practise the better you get, so don't be hard on yourself if your first few designs don't feel right. I can help you learn how to review your designs to look for ways to improve them, and with time it'll come more naturally to you.

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You Can Do This! Become Your own Designer

Remember you don't need to be a professional designer or have a huge budget to have a stand out memorable brand that you are proud to share. You can confidently DIY your brand and build something that reflects your business and feels like that perfect fit.

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Ready to build a brand strategy that fuels growth? Discover my DIY branding process with my 4 step process to go from Vision to Visuals.

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