Drawing on the iconic 60s to revive a social media manager's brand in a feel-good way.
Our Design Intensive service with a focus on branding:
Creative Direction
Visual Identity (logo variations, colour palette, typography suite)
Brand Elements + Patterns
Stock Image Sourcing
Instagram Templates
Few brands live by stronger values than Social Media Manager and Virtual Assistant Kiarra Soleil. On a micro level, Kiarra is dedicated to empowering marginalised entrepreneurs by taking on the tasks they don't want to do and helping them forge their own path. On a macro level, her value-driven approach to business makes a big difference in promoting wealth distribution.
Social media has turned into a parrot playground, with people endlessly repeating each other's thoughts and ideas, resulting in a mostly unstimulating landscape. Kiarra didn’t want to further add to the noise. But her sense of connection to her business had dwindled over time and she wasn’t sure how to position herself in the social media space in a way that felt good to her. She came to us to a) get clarity on how she wants her brand to be perceived and b) to receive visuals to match.
The simple idea was to bring what's already there on the inside (discovered via 1:1 talks and in-depth questionnaires) to the surface. We drew inspiration from Kiarra's fascination with vintage magazines, movies, pop culture, fashion, and history to land on a direction that channels the iconic energy of the 60s feminist movement. It's both sexy and classy, meaningful but lighthearted. Ultimately, it's relevant to herself and her target audience of socially-conscious, value-driven women.
Kiarra's new logo is reminiscent of the closing credits of an old Hollywood movie. But instead of signalling the end, it's the start of a journey towards more ethical business practices. And thanks to its classic feel, it not only evokes nostalgia but also ensures durability.
To enhance the bigger narrative and add more visual interest to Kiarra's (future) website, we developed a handful of custom illustrations.
Inspired by her name (Soleil = French word for sun), we designed a sun that could hold little messages. The clam with a pearl is a nod to Hollywood glamour and the allure of hidden treasures, representing the idea that there's more beneath the surface. Kiarra Soleil is a brand with substance, and performative practices are strictly prohibited for both herself and her selected clients. The phone is a digitally inked illustration and can be placed in the context of encouraging people to book discovery calls as a first step in partnering with Kiarra. As one of the highest ranking suit in card games, the spade is not only a symbol of luck, it also evokes associations of poker games, martinis (hey, another brand element), and sophisticated bars. And that's a big part of the mood we wanted to create for this brand.
The emotions that informed Kiarra's colour palette are those of female rage, passion, and sexuality. Naturally, reds have taken on the star roles. The supporting colours are neutrals or more specifically off-black, champagne, and warm grey that serve to soften the look and increase flexibility and contrast when designing. Finally, olive green is part of the show to complement the reds and break up the monotony.
The type suite is inspired by old magazines and sophisticated liquor bottle labels. Rocka & Billy, Kiarra's new signature font, captures the unapologetic, cool, and upfront essence of the brand. With its charisma, it's the perfect display font to add some edge to the brand's identity. The other players in her type suite are much more toned down in comparison. Mountella, my choice for headings, feels editorial but friendly while Roboto offers great legibility for subheadings and body copy.
The patterns and textures leave room for interpretation, but taken as a whole, they conjure up the spirit of old Hollywood: movie tickets, theatre curtains, film rolls, cinema screens, stamps, and pearl necklaces. What do you see?
We're proud to have made Kiarra's values, musings, and her personality so visible to the world. The breadth of elements now allows her to fully express herself in a variety of ways when creating content, which has resulted in much more consistent posting online, and therefore more leads.
"This is my second time working with Bitemark and both times I was blown away with the results. Specifically this second time their brand intensive totally exceeded my expectations with how valuable it turned out to be.
Before the intensive I came to Martha feeling uninspired, disconnected from my brand, and wanting to stand out from all the sameness I kept seeing in this space. The end results left me feeling SO inspired and more aligned with my brand than ever before.
If you are wanting to stand out in your industry and not sure how, I highly suggest getting your brand design done by Bitemark."
Branding
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