creative services for small businesses
So keep it real, share what’s happening with you or your business, now, today. This applies for everything from your website, to your latest tweet, to your email signature. It’s easy to overlook but important to be intentional.
What’s the challenge to being present in your web presence? What’s holding you back?
These are the essential V’s of visual style — three simple steps to keep your personal or business brand in line. This isn’t a check-list. There isn’t anything that can be crossed off, completed, finito. Each of these requires an ongoing process to keep it balanced, sustainable. Oh no, this here is a checkin-list. Check in with your V’s on a monthly basis. Your biz and brand will thank you for it.
Visual style magnifies your business and simplifies your updates + edits. Even for my own projects, I like creating a simple visual style guide — a color palette and a handful of graphic elements, like buttons and icons — in a Word document or Photoshop file. This helps get new projects started, and it especially helps when jumping back into a project (like updating your own website!) to maintain a consistent visual brand. Let’s not recreate the wheel each time.
We’re drawn to the beauty of an authentic voice – even in business. It’s everything: the message, the language, and the display itself. Copy isn’t just for explaining your services. Keywords + phrases aren’t just for SEO. Yes, how you shape your message matters. So what keywords + ideas are part of your biz voice? (For me: creativity, sustainability, light, balance, beauty, growth.)
This is the core of your work, why you do what you do, what lights your fire. Beyond the what of your offer, this is the why. For some folks, this is easy to nail down — for others, it’s more challenging to pinpoint. The important step here is to constantly circle back to these values of yours. Review, refine, reflect. Keep that at the heart of what your work offers.
. . . . .
What tricks or tips do you use for your visuals, your voice, or your values? I’d love to hear them… Email me, tweet hello, or leave a comment below!
PHOTO BY D SHARON PRUITT
Some book are like beacons for me. They keep calling me back, over and over. Guiding me through the dark. I need to own a copy, just to have it nearby. The list is short (yes, I’m particular) — but Twyla Tharp’s The Creative Habit is near the top. It has great energy and sure-fire lessons for honing your creativity in daily life. (Plus, the book’s design is a killer in simplicity + typography.)
One of my favorite lessons learned is scratching in Chapter 6.
This act of scratching put a name on all the tangents that I feel compelled to – trips to the museums, walks around my city neighborhoods, hours spent in bookstores. Exploring of the world for ideas, connections, sparks of inspiration.
Click through my folder of “inspiration” web links. Go for a walk. Flip through some old sketchbooks. Pick up a novel for a half hour. Take a field trip to someplace new. And something always comes from that — wheels turning, mind whirring, the engine starts.
. . . . .
What are you scratching at this week? Where are your favorite places to go when you’re scratching for inspiration? If you do creative work of any kind, I highly recommend getting your hands on The Creative Habit — worth it!
I’ve been mulling over manifestos recently. There’s such power in stringing together a page of words to embody the values and the spirit of your business – whatever that may be…
Where to even begin?
Well, this manifesto by Holstee, a hip-in-the-best-way product design studio, hits it perfectly. Their manifesto (now available on posters + notecards + mugs) is a testament to the people behind the business – and an inspiration to their customers.
. . . . .
Have you written a manifesto for yourself or your business? What was your process for writing and exploring it?
PHOTO BY HOLSTEE
The challenge of creative work is in the doing. It’s not finding the ideas, or selecting the best-possible photo/paragraph/project to display, or knowing the best way to share it. It’s not even knowing the technical tools to make it happen. You can master Photoshop or your new Canon 5D or that fancy Scrivener writing program or [...]
Take that next step – to the edge. This past month of shifting + reflecting on my own web presence is pushing my edges. I’m opening up the space for myself, reconsidering what I offer, revising how I share my story, and discovering the opportunity to share more. Take the chance – of saying no, [...]
What is the nature of genius? And how do we, as business folks and creatives and world-movers, tap into that kind of genius on a moments whim? This classic TED talk has Elizabeth Gilbert diving into the nature of genius and its history. This is a must-must watch! P.S. Seen it before? It’s worth watching again! [...]
Welcome to the newly shifting and growing home of the Bright Studio online.
It’s been two years since I left my 9-to-5 work life and started settling into my own work – designing and writing and collaborating on the web. It’s been eye-opening and challenging and deep-down satisfying.
The Bright Studio is a one-woman creative studio offering web design + creative services for small businesses.
