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Inform Your Brand

Informing your brand I put up here just to use as an example. My logo at the moment in my life has changed a lot of times over the years. But I wanted to talk about the little the different elements of it, of when you talk about brent, because a lot of people think their brand is your logo and your brand is really what you stand for, like, you know, all the everything ties into. I don't even want to call it a mission, but just what you believe in as a designer and then it informs everything else. So when you know that you want to think about your brand image so here we're talking about the visual, so color is very important. And, uh, these happen to be colors that I respond to really strongly, especially the orange. I think the orange is vibrant and creative, and, again, this is all about what I think because it's mine, but someone else might interpret these colors different differently. Um and then the blue I felt was a grounding because it's not a bright blue is kind of this darker b...

lue on dh e thought it brought it down the little plus is not in my logo that's a little reminder that we have bonus materials even though it's kind of cool I might I might do something with that later on eso color is really key in terms of eyes it's serious? Is it playful? Is it colorful? You want to be careful not to use too many colors and then you also want to think about how does your logo any graphic? So you do look in black and white as well because there may be situations where you need to put it in black and white so after color you want to think form and what is the overall shape? Because sometimes your name might not be on it so think you can this shape represent you and I just I used my my logo actually is to be a lot heavier. I had different variations all different looks I've been trying things involving over the years and I'm just feeling like I want simpler and cleaner on this sort of if in clean line on dh and I also like the idea of connecting connecting things so it feels like it's connected it's different paths and things like that so it becomes a little abstract but and then that speaks to the type that kind of type you want to use that's very very important like you know sometimes if we're not in that world of graphic design we might kind of just defer to the default but you want to make conscious choices when you're looking at things what do you consider beautiful what do you consider a reflection of what you want to do andi just getting back to why it's cauldron three this is incorporated into the brand to which is there's a story behind that and not everyone has to get that story immediately but once they learn that story all of a sudden the brand becomes this stronger thing it becomes something that has ah purpose it has you know an origin story so right here I'm actually my full name is jacob cauldron ah jacob cauldron the third and uh and so the three is my way of doing that I used to have when I was in high school I would do the third and it just sounded so noxious so s o I said no three you know just as a symbol of honoring my father my grandfather it was just this way of me doing that and uh and again it could be very personal it doesn't have to make sense to anyone else except you but you want to be able to tell that story and that is a part of your brand that means something um and then the face of your grant it could be you or it could not be you so you want to ask yourself are you the face of your brand or for instance is it all about the models you choose in advertising it's often about the models you choose and that's the imagery that goes out but for some designers they are the brand so it's about how they live in their world tory burch is a great example she is her brand so when you see her dressed in her clothes she's living the life diane von furstenberg it's she is the face of her brand it isn't about the models like I never think of a model first when I think of dan on furstenberg I think about her life, her history, her impact when she walks in the room all those kinds of things jay before before he was on I'm curious just to kind of hear where people might be with regard to their brand and just thinking about it because I feel like there's a certain point where you're like should I have a brand do I need to have a brand? I'm not there yet so am I like good enough to have a brand? Can you talk to that for that person what you already have a brand you all have a brand because you wait you you've been making choices your whole life about everything about everything and how how you do it what you do so what you're doing in this process is just editing and bringing it down to something that you think people are going to respond to and also that you want to share because you don't share everything right so you want to figure out what is it about me my life choices what I find interesting all those kinds of things and that starts to define your brand way again brand is kind of this this huge buzz word where you think of corporations it's not about that it's about the small boutique or the designer who does costumes you know it's like I could imagine having so much fun developing the imagery in the brand for what you want to do because you know there's so much to play with their so and so you want to think about you know what? What will come across as you on your behalf and that's all it is because it can feel very, very intimidating where you feel like oh, this is this speak you know, fancy thing and like I said throughout my career I've had so many versions of ah logo I'll put on my website or on my stationery or whatever it is or on my business card and on I've evolved so that has evolved you know at a certain point if you have a big business that could end up being something that grows and kind of just hold on for a while but don't be afraid to kind of play with it and say this year I'm really loving this next year I'm going to take that off or add something and again make it meaningful make it meaningful to you because within the context of everyday life you know for us who are in the you know, front lines working you know, making clothes and not just the big corporations were were all interacting with people and we want to give them the tools to connect to us and that's all this is I really appreciate that just that the thought that it's just the tools for people to connect with us and to connect office consistently and the freedom that it's ok for it to evolve and change because I know for myself with you know, with my brand it was like well I have to figure it all out before I can put it out there you know and that's you know you don't put anything out there exactly I mean it's one thing at a time and then if it doesn't work you you modify your change, you go in a different direction so it don't be afraid to do that especially when you're starting out and figuring it out because I think that process I'm going to give you all officially including you people at home permission to play with it like have fun with it actually enjoy doing it because it can feel like a chore because we're so busy creating the clothes and we're saying the product but this today is really all about that next step after the product and it should be an extension of your product and of you as a creative person so don't let it turn into a chore so informing your brand this speaks to what we were just saying about like where do you pull from so the brand message is important in terms of coming down to that not necessarily the tweet that were mentioned but figuring out how would you describe it? So you all mentioned different things about how you want to work and what's important to you so margo for thee the theatrical experience you know the historical experience the local experience because you you know you may not want to be traveling all over the world even even if you get the opportunities so so you want to ask yourself what is the message you know is it like that homegrown you know like home base? You know home feeling like you know you have a solid you're part of that community and then also you know, where does it get expressive in terms of you know, the what you want to specialize in so that's your that's where your message comes from that authentic place of what you're interested in uh fast slow these are just a couple of different approaches to fashion we all know about fast fashion, right? The h and m's of the world where clothes are produced, you know, they come off the runway and you know ah week later there's a version and interpretation of it on the sales floor so that is a strategy, you know, there's a lot of debate about whether the scooter bad we won't talk about that, but we'll talk about it but you should talk about it in terms of person personally making that choice. So you want to ask yourself, what do I believe in again speaking to your brand? Do I believe that fast fashion is good? Do I want to push back and do slow fashion? I always tell my students always initially think I want to be a big business like calvin klein or ralph lauren and I say, okay, but you might want to think of alabama chain in you know who who does slow fashion and community fashion and or someone like a bespoke tailor who you have to wait three months for that suit and that and it's more expensive you sell less of them, but the process is part of what you're buying um, ethical issues, right, fair trade things like that environmental impact where does that play? Because fashion is, um major culprit in that in, you know, impacting the environment again where do you stand there's a big movement about sustainability and organics but not everyone is doing everything so you have to kind of put your, uh you know, stake your territory around what you can actually do because you know if you do all organic fabrics that's gonna limit you in certain ways so you have to ask yourself how in my you know, minimizing my footprint and saying, I'm going to do this this is the part that I'm going to commit to, um the art the theatre and the wit so when and are you the artist at any given point and all of you seem like you're definitely in fashion design I think we all have a little bit of the artist in us the theater what does that feel like to you like when you're on stage, so to speak when you're in the public eye, what does that mean? And like when you're doing fashion shows and any kind of display and then wit do you have a sense of humor? Right? And we talked about karl lagerfeld I don't know if if he's trying to be funny, but sometimes we can't help but think it's funny that someone is so bold hey and you know no holds barred so you want to ask yourself, where do you feel comfortable relaxing into that slightly funny part you know that slightly witty part mosquito is a great designer for that because it's all about that it's about doing funny things fun things that are playful and that you can have fun with and you know it might be totally absurd but it's the most peculiar little thing and it's a conversation piece and last but not least where are you on the cutting edge? Okay because not everyone needs to be on the cutting edge so ask yourself no, I'm not at that place where it's all about the latest thing right are the coolest thing because he I think you're on the cutting edge so you're going to be in that place where you're pushing that envelope so you're going to say I'm gonna have to keep up on things and it's it's that's going to be a part of your process to keep on that edge so that your it's fresh and it's young and it's it's exciting and it's unexpected and and new so ask yourself yeah so you want to ask yourself where are you on that because you don't have to be right there you could be on a whole different and a whole different place when it comes to that and remember that there's a customer for every place so you don't have to please everybody you're saying no no my customer isn't trendy were the quote from yesterday right trendy just before a tacky so so we have to be careful right? So we want to make sure that we were we own where we are on that process I would love to just hear you sort of your response to that and if people at home are relating teo sort of where you are and but I mean what do how does that sound what's your reaction that because you were kind of like I excites me I don't know I like I like hearing that and I think I definitely get that um just whenever whenever I get any sort of like commentary on either harm dress myself I thought that was an interesting point you brought up just like how you present yourself says a lot about what you dio on dh it I think it's a good thing to hear especially when you get it from people who aren't quite in the same like interest like fashion wise is you I don't know it's just it's interesting to like keep saying push limits but I just like messing with that stuff work out but a lot of times it does so I know it's exciting excellent um and uh just oh it just a little shout out to maison martin bargy ella this is actually a really cool vest it's all made out of recycled vest so this speaks to how you know, ethical environmental impact can be really cool okay?