Building Your Brand: Nail Your Aesthetic

Welcome back to part two of my Building Your Brand series!! By now you should have your niche picked out that you want to be at the core of your blog. In today’s post we’re going to cover your aesthetic. Basically, what the visual components of your brand are going to be!

Why does this matter? When people visit your blog, YouTube channel, Instagram page, you want to provide a cohesive message. Again, it’s all about consistency. Having a clear aesthetic to go along with a strong core niche is a powerful one-two punch that will elevate the quality of your brand.

This is the fun part where you get to do some arts and crafts!  I watched this video on Video Influencers featuring Lauryn Evarts and her husband Michael Bosstick from The Skinny Confidential (the entire video is worth watching if you’re building a brand, but what I’m covering here starts at 09:53. This video was insanely helpful for me. Here are the simple steps to help you find your aesthetic:

• First stop: the paint store or a hardware store like Home Depot or Lowes.  Go to the paint section and stock up on paint cards (my suggestion is to grab as many cards that speak to you as possible. My bag may have been a little overflowing by the time I left).  You want to aim for three or four colors that work well together.

• Next stop: the drug store, craft store or any big box store like Target. Get yourself a poster board (make it a big one – you’ll need room to write later), and stock up on glue, tape, and markers if you don’t already have some.
• Once you’re home, pull out your paint samples and pick three or four colors that go well together. Glue or tape them onto your poster board.  Again, try to make this as organic as possible – don’t force out any colors based on other blogs you may have seen, pick the colors that speak to YOU.  As I talked about in my last post, authenticity is key.
• Now we’re going to add some text to your poster board. I want you to look at these two statements and fill in the blanks. Pick two three different emotions, feelings, or adjectives (like Madlibs!! My fave):
  1. “When people come on my blog/YouTube channel/etc, I want them to feel __________”
  2. “I want my brand/messaging to feel ______________”

These are the foundations that you will build your brand upon. This is not the be-all end-all, and of course this can change, grow, adapt, etc. However, a lot of people make the mistake of launching a blog, YouTube channel, etc. without the though of establishing a brand first. Sure, some may find success without doing this work, but your life will be so much easier from the get-go if you have something to grasp like a cohesive design. Plus, think about how professional and legit you’ll look if right away you have a cohesive Instagram layout, consistent design in all of your content, and a powerful message that connects everything together!!

Stay tuned for Part Three! Thanks for stopping by today.

xo Carly