by Melissa Love | Aug 7, 2017 | Blog |
I thought that I would share with you all my letter to my ideal client, this is a great way to gain clarity around who your client is, what their characteristics may be, what they may be looking for from your service. I found this exercise extremely helpful in refining and honing my avatar.
Dear client
You are amazing just the way you are with the gift you want to share with the world. We all have a gift, a purpose or something we want in life and we all deserve to be visibily seen.
You deserve a brand that encompasses the essence of you and what you stand for as well as like attracts like and this is how you connect with your tribe. You deserve a brand that authentically represents your message and aligns with your true nature and captures the essence of you.
You are enough, you are compassionate, caring and truly want to make a difference in the life of others through sharing your visual message and sharing your gift with the world. You want to help people work through the blocks that are holding them back and provide a supportive and nurturing environment where they feel safe, secure and supported, a space where they feel comfortable to be vulnerable and open up.
You are passionate about your work and are just unsure how to make it look and feel like you so that it resonates with your target audience. You want someone who values you, respects you and most importantly understands you, with open communication and an open heart to help you navigate what your visual branding should look like so it is truly you.
Until next time
Mel
by Melissa Love | Jul 20, 2017 | Blog |
I went to a wonderful and inspiring workshop on Sunday called The Art of Presenting run by the lovely Andrew Eggelton from The Playroom by Andrew. It is a workshop for presenting to camera for entrepreneurs.
I had been thinking about this workshop for quite some time, building up the courage to do it, since video is so far out of my comfort zone . So much resistance came up for me around this workshop even though I felt the need to be more confident and authentic on video sharing my message and what I have to offer, because lets face it, it is the like, know, trust factor and everyone wants to SEE YOU!!!!!!
I eventually threw caution to the wind and attended, nerves, doubt and all, as this truly is where magic happens, outside of your comfort zone.
There was a group of around 12 of us, we all entered into the unknown territory, for one reason or another, whether it be to sharpen our presenting skills or completely starting out like myself and wanting to know how to convey or get my message across and gain clarity around what I am sharing. We all walked in a bit like nervous teenagers or school kids, not knowing what to expect and the nerves of knowing we needed to get up and speak in front of people we did not know and TELL OUR STORY. Andrew was fantastic at helping us feel at ease and comfortable and took the time with each and everyone of us to help us explore and extract what OUR STORY WAS!!!!!
The Art of Presenting is basically bringing back play and using OUR STORY, because we all have one right!, that shapes who we are today and what we are doing, whether that be business or personal, to share our authentic and vulnerable message to the world. We all have something to share and contribute and sometimes, we just need to get out of our own way, get some clarity around how to present that story and what that story actually is.
Andrew, has a unique and gifted talent to take those in his workshop under his wing, gently guiding and suggesting ways to use your story, or even find what YOUR STORY is and incorporate that into the message you are trying to share with others. He has a kind and generous soul, who thrives in seeing his workshop participants find their voice and what they stand for authentically.
If you want to take your message to the next level, or just want to find out how to start, I highly recommend attending one of his workshops. You will not regret it. You can check out his website at www.andreweggelton.com
Some tips I took away from this workshop are
- Be You , you are who people are wanting to buy from
- Take perfect, imperfect action
- Slow yourself down when you speak so that you get to choose the right next word (as andrew says it’s a slow dance between your mouth and your brain)
- Show up authentically – you don’t have to be preened, have make up on, or whatever to do a live, people don’t care, they just want to see you
- Share your story – you are so worth it
Have an awesome day everyone
Love Mel
by Melissa Love | Jun 26, 2017 | Blog |
Hey Gorgeous ones,
I thought i would pop in here today and talk about the importance of style or brand guides. Do you have one? Do you know what they are for?
I personally think that Brand guides are a crucial and important part of your business. It helps you to keep consistent and clear in your marketing and visual collateral across all forms of media, be it social media, instagram, leaflets, brochures, your offers, the list really is endless I think.
A brand guide helps you connect with your overall brand, once you have had it created. It contains valuable information about the type of colours you should use as well as the colours of your branding so that you always have the HEX or CMYK codes when you are creating your own collateral so that it stays on brand.
It lists the typography, which is the fonts of your logo and your general overall everyday use fonts. This way you know what your fonts are and are always using them consistently.
It also has example imagery or even imagery that you can use in your branding. This really helps you to remember the type of pictures or photos align with your brand so that you don’t end up with shiny object syndrome by all the beautiful images out there, but helps you stay focused when you are looking for images to use within your social media or other elements.
This is where a brand guide is fantastic, you can print it out and have it sitting on your desk or somewhere where it is visible so that you always have reference to it when you are working. Saves having to constantly go back to check what the fonts are, what the colour codes are or the type of images you are going to use.
If you would like any more information about this, feel free to contact me and I am more than happy to have a chat with you.
Until next time
Namaste
Melissa
by Melissa Love | Jun 15, 2017 | Blog |
Last weekend I attended MBS festival in Melbourne (Mind, Body, Spirit Festival) I must say that I was completely in my element, surrounded by like minded peeps, who are so my tribe. I wanted to take a look around and see what gorgeous treasures everyone had to offer, plus I had a few places and workshops I wanted to do while I was there.
As some of you may know, I am an avid animal lover and connect strongly with the animal realm. They are my friends. I attended Scott Alexander Kings talk on Connecting with the symbolism of animals. I was so mesmerised by his passion for nature and animals and his knowledge on the animal kingdom. He is a very interesting man, who spoke about his experiences growing up as a child and adult and coming to learn the ways of the animals. He was quite entertaining in the way he engaged his audience and labeled people’s personalities as either Cat or Dog people.
I am definitely a CAT personality by nature, along with connecting very strongly with this animal. I have had a few animals that I have been fascinated over the last little bit, apart from cats, is the owl and in particular the Tawny Frog Mouth, I have also had a connection to the sloth.
I got to have a fantastic chat with Scott about all things animals and also publishing as I am looking at doing my own oracle deck using my animal drawings. I was so stoked that he took my business card and mentioned how it can be hard to find a graphic designer who thinks outside of the square and is intuitive in nature, who can also produce artwork, he would love to chat some more about some possible work creating layouts for oracle cards and design for people who come to his animal dreaming publishing to publish their books or cards. So Keep tuned for that.
I also managed to get a new logo design client, just randomly, chatting to someone on the steps outside, just goes to show you, that people are drawn to you, if they feel they resonate with you. So great. I am really looking forward to putting together a design for her.
I think it is important to remember to always have business cards on you and use any opportunity to talk to people about what you do. Admittedly, MBS was full of a lot of my ideal clients, plus there were people there that I wanted to connect with to find out more information, due to my interest in the animal and shamanic realms.
I think that you just have to be YOU no matter what YOU DO, because at the end of the day, people will either resonate with your energy or not, and inevitably be drawn to work with you, whatever your field of expertise is.
by Melissa Love | May 31, 2017 | Blog
I often get asked about branding and design tips and how to keep your branding and social media collateral looking brilliant across many platforms.
People get so caught up with what things should look like, or that it should be filled with heaps of colour, fonts, images and that they should change things up so that people don’t get bored with what they are looking at. I think these are the areas that people get confused with when they are putting out their offers and other bits and pieces in the online world for people to see.
My 5 quick design tips to help you get consistent in your brands message in the online space are:
LIMIT YOUR FONTS
When you are looking at fonts to use within your branding, keep it to 2-3 fonts that you use consistently throughout your branding and messages. Use it for your offers and tips and everything in between from your website if you can to your invoicing and other collateral that may go out to your regular clients or those that may be stalking you without you knowing it, so that people get to recognise you
BE CLEVER WITH COLOUR
When you are choosing colours, think about what that colour may represent or make a person feel. What colour will resonate with your niche market or the type of person you are wanting to attract to your tribe. It may not necessarily be your favourite colour. I learned this in my branding. Stick to a couple core colours and then use complimentary or accent colours throughout your social media collateral.
KEEP IT SIMPLE
When creating your social media posts and collateral, always remember to keep it simple. Less is always more when designing, don’t cram too much into visually into a post, as it will create overwhelm in your target market, make it difficult to read and your viewer will not be sure where to look first or be drawn to the most important part of the post.
USE WHITE SPACE
Don’t be afraid to use white space, what I mean by this is having a large area that is not filled with text or overwhelming visuals, it helps the viewer to really engage with the message that you are portraying and also helps keep it clean and crisp and in turn Keeping it simple
CONSISTENCY
Consistency in your visual representation of posts on line is key. You want people to see your offers and posts and instantly recognise who it is. This is you key to online presence. So keeping all the above in check, being consistent with the fonts you use, the colours you use, the voice/tone of the writing, the images people will begin to recognise you in your area of expertise.
If you would like any more information or would like to have a chat about your branding, contact me below.
by Melissa Love | May 19, 2017 | Blog |
Hi Everyone,
Today I thought that I would write about the design process, as so many people don’t really realise what goes in to creating a logo for example and the reason why it can cost anywhere between $300 – $1000+ for a logo design.
Step 1 – The Brief
Firstly the client briefs us of what they want and need. Project management timelines are being set as well during a 45 minute consult.
Duration 45min – 1 hour
Step 2 – The Research
After the design consult we begin researching possible ideas that align with their business message and their personal message which will authentically connect with their tribe. We research colours, competitors, current trends, images and more.
Duration 2-3 hours
Step 3 – The Ideation
After we have researched and looked into what their business is all about, we do a brainstorm to explore a number of concept ideas that may suit the message of their brand and branding.
Duration 1-4 Hours
Step 4 – The production
Designing and refining original artwork, consulting with the client ensuring that we are on with their vision for their brand. Multiple revisions. Final Design layouts, Putting together style guide with fonts, colours imagery.
Duration 3-10 Hours
Step 5 – The delivery
Providing and handing over the completed files and artwork. Providing files in a range of formats including source files.
Duration 1-2 Hours
So the total time it takes from the beginning of the project to the handing over of the final files for a logo can be anywhere between 8-20 hours or even more. This is the reason that logos can cost a bit, as they take a lot of time to create, they are not just a stock image which some may use, but a uniquely crafted piece.
If you are looking to refresh your logo or have any questions around logo design, please contact me.
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