What Is a Brand?

Take a moment to think about a company you enjoy interacting with. That could be visiting their store, looking through their social media content, or stopping to watch their commercial while flipping through channels on TV. You probably don’t just like their product alone, or the way their logo looks. What draws you in is the overall feeling you get during the interaction.

Scrolling through the Instagram of a luxury brand can make you feel sophisticated and indulgent. Looking at organic food products on a shelf at the grocery store can make you feel healthy.

Simply put, brand is the way an organization is perceived. It’s more than just a name, logo, and set of identifying colors. It’s the way the organization talks about itself and the way those elements come together to evoke an emotional response from the consumer. Your brand should help you stick out in the industry and be memorable, but most importantly, it should be authentic.

LifeWorking has grown and evolved over the last several years, and we knew it was time to refresh our branding to represent our organization more accurately. Read on to learn about the elements that came together to create our new look and feel.

Our Rebranding Journey

The first step in our rebranding process was reevaluating our unique value proposition, mission, and vision statements. This helped us define the essence of our organization: to empower local commerce and growth rooted within our community. We’re more than just a place to come and work. It was time to embrace our role as a hub for local resources, ideas, and support, and to have that feature prominently in our branding.

Brand Character Words

We carefully selected five words that sum up the spirit of LifeWorking. These are the brand character words we keep in mind to ensure a consistent tone throughout everything we create and share.

• EMPOWERING: The unique services LifeWorking offers make an impact in the community by fueling an environment of innovation.

• INVESTED: As part of the community itself, our success is interconnected with the success of other local businesses and organizations.

• ENCOURAGING: LifeWorking’s helpful, positive tone will inspire members to live their best, most productive lives.

• COLLABORATIVE: We foster an environment where business professionals can grow their personal network and build each other up.

• PREMIUM: LifeWorking is a sophisticated, modern, professional space that offers high-quality services.

Logo

LifeWorking’s new logo is called a wordmark, which is a type of logo that uses only stylized text.

We chose a timeless serif typeface to communicate the professionalism and sophistication of the LifeWorking brand. The wordmark also features a subtle connector in the letters “o” and “r” to highlight the spirit of connectedness and the feeling of belonging.

There are additional stylizations to symbolize interconnectivity that are visible in the overlap between the words “Life” and “Working” and the letters “r” and “k.”

Visual Elements

Our logo is an extremely valuable way for consumers to visually identify our brand, but it isn’t the only graphic element we’ve introduced. Instead of using our wordmark in all instances, you will sometimes see our brand badge, which resembles a link of a chain.

The chain’s modern meaning in design is symbolic of strength, teamwork, and unity. From the complete badge with the LifeWorking initials to just the curved border shape, you will see the brand badge in various forms across our social media and collateral.

The third visual element we created is called the network link. It references the chain from the brand badge and merges it with the visual of a web of ideas, resources, and support. The resulting icon creates a unique visual texture that is both eye-catching and meaningful.

Color Palette

Even though we refreshed our look, we’re still the same organization, and we wanted our new branding to show a clear connection to our original branding. You’ll notice that while the exact shades of blue we’re now using are slightly different than they were, they are still recognizable as signature LifeWorking colors.

Our new color palette tells a visual identity story that communicates a sense of balance. Blue, which has always been a part of our brand identity, was kept because of its association with productivity, trust, wisdom, confidence, and stability. Shades of gray evoke feelings of business and formality, and black adds an element of timeless sophistication. We use lighter shades of these colors as a secondary palette to achieve balance and harmony.

Typography

Our new branding utilizes three typefaces. The first, which is seen in our logo, is a modern ligature typeface. Ligature typefaces typically combine two or more characters with a seamless connector to form a glyph. The connected feature complements the essence of LifeWorking’s mission.

The second font is a sans serif typeface that strikes a balance between minimal and decorative, evoking a sense of approachable elegance and sophistication.

The third is a brush script typeface. Its fresh and modern look of hand lettering, reminiscent of a cursive signature, imparts a personal and refined touch to the LifeWorking brand.

Creating Your Own Brand

Ready to join us on a rebranding journey of your own (or start building one from scratch)? Here are some things to keep in mind:

Your Audience Is Your Greatest Resource

Does the way you want your business to be perceived and the way your customers actually perceive your brand match up? In other words, are you walking the walk that matches your talk? Take some time to speak with your consumers about how they currently perceive your brand. It could reveal some brand characteristics worth emphasizing that your customers already love.

The Internet Is Here to Help

Don’t have any formal design training or the budget to hire a graphic designer? No problem. You can still create a logo and cohesive digital collateral with easy-to-use online tools like Canva. To carry over your branding onto physical pieces like business cards and signage, check out online printers like VistaPrint and GotPrint.

Don’t Be Afraid to Switch Things Up

While we don’t recommend releasing a new logo each month, it’s okay to adapt and change your branding as your business grows and evolves (that’s what we did!). If your current branding is feeling stale or isn’t producing the results you’d like, it might be time for a refresh.

We’re Here to Chat

Oftentimes, the best branding ideas come out of a conversation with someone who has an outside perspective on your business. If you’d like to meet other entrepreneurs to bounce around ideas with, pick up a day pass and come give LifeWorking a try.