Congruency, when it comes to branding, is a simple notion. Every piece must fit.

Fine-tuning A Brand: The challenge of messaging

When it comes to branding, especially smaller and more intimate brands, I’m a passionate believer in the concept of congruency. To make a brand truly reflective of its core values, every piece must fit.

This is no easy task.

Brand congruency is probably one of the toughest challenges that any business faces from a marketing and graphic design standpoint. When factoring all of the possible media outlets and the ever-expanding technological touchpoints, the potential to muddy the waters is staggering.

Turning The Mirror To Myself: A bit of show and tell

For as much as I evangelize congruency to my clients, my own brand is notoriously incongruent. 100% of my efforts in the studio are spent working either on client work or on my personal art practice, with little to no effort spent on my own messaging.

What results is a moment of crisis: how can I expect my clients to trust my expertise and mastery, when my own brand looks like an afterthought? So, I decided to turn the mirror on myself and apply my advice to my own brand.

The Approach: My own advice in action

I needed my own brand to reflect my breadth of expertise. Not only am I a luxury brand designer, which comes with the expected patina of high-fashion and refinement, but I am also a studio artist and master craftsperson, a professional realm with a radically different aesthetic. However, each of these facets of my brand need to be displayed in harmony in order to properly present my value. My challenge: I would have to move from behind the camera to in front of it.

What resulted was a carefully planned and calculated photo shoot, both in my art studio and in my photographer’s photo studio. It is important to note here that I am terrified of the camera, and this had to be factored into the planning process. The final photos present the breadth of my expertise—marrying my artist’s handiwork with my fancier proclivities—without a hint of my actual internal terror. (I saved those photos where my fear was visible for another day.)

The below photos were the result of a 5-person dedicated team, including myself. I encourage you to visit each of their respective sites, I would not, and could not have made this happen without them all.

Photography: Joseph Cultice
Co-Art Direction: Kate Martini Freeman
Hair: Cassi Young-Paxton
Makeup: Susan Zeytuntsyan