Today marks the day when, three years ago, I jumped into the world of entrepreneurship with both feet. That decision felt both brazen and exactly right. I remember feeling extremely excited, but also scared out of my mind, as I was now in charge of my own future and that of my clients. There was no longer a boss that I had to answer to or get direction from… I was now the decision-maker.
Embellish Marketing was born of an unfortunate employment circumstance in which I had a job working for another marketing company, and then that company abruptly closed up shop. I had very little time to figure out the next steps for my career and financial well-being, but at the time, the obvious decision was to start my own company. I had learned a lot by working for this other company, and I knew that I wanted to provide better service and better products to the clients I’d be lucky enough to work with. Those desires inspired the framework upon which Embellish Marketing would be built.
Fast-forward three years to today when we can officially celebrate the fact that Embellish Marketing has not yet become a start-up business statistic. We made it through years one, two, and three, and God-willing, we’re on track to beating the statistic that half of all businesses don’t make it past the five-year mark.
To celebrate this milestone, a brand refresh for Embellish Marketing was in order. In fact, this was a long-overdue project that was put on the back burner because I felt that our available time and attention needed to be placed on client projects instead. As someone recently said to me, “The shoemaker’s children often go without shoes.” In this case, the brand-maker’s brand went without some TLC for awhile. Earlier this summer I realized that our three-year anniversary was approaching quickly (because time is moving so fast these days!), and I got intentional about finally sprucing up the Embellish Marketing brand. This is what we started with:
While it wasn’t a bad logo, I felt that it just needed something “more” to illustrate where Embellish Marketing is today, compared to three years ago. I hired a graphic designer, Lindsay Kronmiller of Dwell in Hope to help with this project because I knew I didn’t have the time to do it myself and I wanted an outside perspective. BEST. DECISION. EVER. In fact, Lindsay had just come on board to assist with client design projects, so this was the perfect first project for us to work on together.
Because I had to communicate information about the Embellish Marketing brand with someone who wasn’t previously familiar with it, I was forced to dig in and get very clear about what Embellish Marketing is and what it isn’t. I had to make decisions about our brand audiences and values because that information was vital to inspiring the visual imagery of the brand. I had to identify my areas of comfort and be intentional about going beyond that comfort zone in order to build a better brand and business. I sought feedback from others I trusted about their impressions of what we were creating. Opening oneself up to feedback from others requires vulnerability, something that often doesn’t come easy to us as humans and business owners. However, my goal was to work the creative process to elevate the Embellish Marketing brand and being vulnerable was a requirement to achieve a good end result. Thanks to Lindsay’s incredible teamwork, and to the input from a variety of people I trust, I’m pleased to present to you the new look of Embellish Marketing:
The new logo emphasizes the blending of our expertise and our clients' brands to create a solution that's perfect for our clients. We specialize in many different services that fall under the marketing umbrella, therefore we have the skill to improve, enhance, and beautify the details of our clients’ brands. Our clients benefit from our ability to combine the right pieces and make them work together cohesively, embellishing (beautifying) them in just the right places to make them more interesting and appealing to their target audience(s). In short, we are "enhancing brands one detail at a time."
We are enhancing brands one detail at a time.
You will see our updated brand implemented in our own marketing efforts in the coming weeks and months as we work through our brand roll-out schedule. We’ll be launching a new website experience with resources to help you enhance your own brand in the coming months. Additionally, I believe that good leadership is integral to the development, and protection, of a great brand so you will also find information to help you lead your own organizations on our social media accounts, email newsletters, and blog.
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