For Bloggers: Branding & Identity

At the beginning of the year, I re-designed & re-branded Live, Love, Simple. It’s something that I had been wanting to do for ages. I’ve been designing my own websites & graphics for sixteen years, but I had never done a full Branding & Identity workup for my blog. I knew that it was time.

Branding & Identity are critical components of a successful blog. Aside from being aesthetically pleasing, a good brand is an excellent marketing tool. Regular readers of your blog should recognize your work at a glance. One of the ways to achieve this is to consistently use fonts, design layouts, colour palettes, and so on. Having a beautiful and clean Branding & Identity makes your blog appear professional and attracts both new readers and potential partners.

Here is a glance at the Branding & Identity workup that I created for Live, Love, Simple‘s new look & feel. (You can click on the workup to view all of the elements in full size.)

The elements that are included in a Branding & Identity workup will vary from blog to blog and business to business. In my workup I included: a banner, colour palette, design elements, social media icons, textures & patterns, and typography. I had the vision for my new look & feel in my head for awhile and the workup served as a map to guide me through the process of the re-design.

While I absolutely love to be creative and enjoy graphic design, I am not an expert coder. Therefore, I typically use WordPress themes from third parties. This re-design uses a theme from Blogmilk. And while my coding knowledge is limited, I do have a fair knowledge of HTML and CSS which allows me to make many customizations to the original theme that I purchased. I am never completely happy with any theme and always feel compelled to give it my own spin.

The new design is a work-in-progress, but that is the way it is with all of my designs. I am forever making little changes as I feel inspired. However, it is important to stay true to my look & feel with every addition and change. Having a Branding & Identity that I love allows me to do so successfully.

If you are reading this in a feed reader, you can click through to my homepage to check out the full redesign.

Finally, if you are in the market for a new Branding & Identity of your own, I am now offering custom blog packages starting at $350–. Email me for details at denabotbyl [@] gmail [.] com. I would love to work with you!

I’d love to hear what you think of the new look, too. xx

If you enjoyed this post, check out the other posts in my For Bloggers series.