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Cohesive Branding is the Goal: A Case Study
Updated: Oct 18, 2024

These days, great leadership is hard to find. Many companies struggle with high employee turnover because of poor leaders and high stress environments.

Amber Waugaman, Executive Leadership Coach, is learning from her experience in environments like these. She’s made it her mission to collaborate with company leaders and entrepreneurs in a group setting or one-on-one to create healthy work environments, resulting in better organizational and financial outcomes for her clients. Whether it’s through coaching, strategic advising, leadership training workshops, or public speaking, Amber has a ton of ways she helps companies make the most out of their leadership teams.

Amber found me via a Facebook post and after exploring my website. When we met, she knew she needed help with branding, but wasn’t sure exactly what she was looking for. After a discovery call and a successful first project, one turned into many growth opportunities and collaborative efforts, and the end result is now one of my favorites. Amber’s personality, drive, achievements, professional experience, and now branding, shine through in nearly all of her documents and platforms, including social media, stationery and marketing.

Together, we worked on:
- Social Media Templates
- A Strategic Business Audit & Branded Asset Update
- A Biography Flyer
- Branded Company Stationery
- A Website Overhaul
Social Media Templates

Amber’s most important initiative was making the process faster and easier for her to continue to post on social media, and achieving a level of polish, poise, and professionalism that matched what she was offering to her clients; something she didn’t feel capable of doing on her own. She shared that she was very active and involved on her platforms, but that she struggled with the “making it look good.” She wanted consistency and simplicity, something that was branded, and something that she didn’t have to think too much about how to make it look awesome.

We worked together to create Canva templates that were very much an “easy button” for her – replace this photo and change this text, and you’re off to the races! We’ve now created nearly 20 different templates that she can pull from for both Instagram and LinkedIn (a difference in size), and each one is cohesive with the rest of her brand identity.

Strategic Business Audit for Cohesive Branding

After finishing our social media template project, I took the liberty of doing an audit on Amber’s digital presence. While she didn’t ask for this, I felt like it would be a disservice to her not to share my perspective and to give her some action items that would immediately improve the look and feel of what she was projecting on the web.

Ultimately, I found that she had great content and direction, but each place she showed up online seemed disconnected visually. There were key missing pieces of her brand in odd places, and it was clear that it was all “good enough,” but not great.

Amber took this feedback amazingly well, and we came up with a plan to fine tune many of her branded assets. This included a tweak of her logo, creating social media headers that were consistent, looking at the visual aspect of buttons on her LinkedIn, and as minute as how she was phrasing certain CTAs. We even drilled down to her future plans of a photoshoot, and how she could make that even more representative of her brand, too. (I’m excited to say she’s bought a stunning orange blazer that’s going to look killer in her new photos!)

This kind of audit – while powerful – doesn’t have much that can be shown off in one fell swoop. It’s a lot of little things that add up to a more cohesive and streamlined presence online, so that if a prospect is vetting Amber, they’re confident that she’s got it all together.

Biography Flyer

One of the things Amber shared and was excited about was an opportunity she was pursuing (and eventually secured!) to be an executive leadership coach with her alumni, Penn State. They requested a document from her that they could pass on to her new potential coaching clients, highlighting her expertise and everything she could offer.

Amber secured the content, and I created a custom biography flyer for her, which is similar to a compact resume. This document allows her to highlight her work experience and expertise, and show readers and potential clients why it’s a great idea to work with her. By incorporating her brand colors and updated logo, it visually tied in to the rest of the work we were doing. Now, not only is she able to use this for her Penn State position, she’s also able to use it at any event she speaks at, or whenever someone needs an “at a glance” reference that goes over why she’s a good fit for them or their company.

Cohesive Branded Stationery

On our initial discovery call, Amber had shown me a document she created in Canva – it was something she was using as a contract, and every time it needed updating, she had to move a bunch of text boxes around. I asked her if it needed to stay in Canva, or if we could create a Word template for her. She told me that the only reason it was in Canva was because she didn’t know how to apply the styles that she wanted in Word, and she wanted it to look good.

Now, Amber has a Word document template (dotx) that she can leverage that does three key things for her:
1. Makes it really difficult to save over accidentally
2. Saves her time if she needs to edit an older document to make it current
3. Creates a cohesive look within her client experience
As a way to show her how to use it, I created a screen-recorded video applying some of the basics from the template she had in Canva – ultimately getting her started recreating it into this new Word document. It’s all one-click style applications, and she’s reported it works great for her! She now uses it for debriefs, pricing pages, presentation resources, and more, saying “it definitely helped elevate my presence and keep things consistent.”

Website Overhaul

The biggest project Amber and I worked on together (and my favorite in this case!) was her website. We started by reviewing it; going over the elements she liked, what needed to be updated, and what she wanted to add. Although it had a great deal of information, like many of the other assets we worked on together, it was inconsistently branded.

Some of the things that made the biggest difference in the redesign included:
- Making the layers light and intentional, which made her pages clean and easy to skim through
- Adding some of her awesome branded photos and videos, and leveraging lots of opportunities to highlight the testimonials she had that raved about her process and results
- Adding an FAQ page, updating her professional speaking page, including a section to display all her certifications and the organizations she’s involved in, and adding candid photos to show more of her personality
- Including her updated logo and fine-tuning the colors and design elements for a consistent look
Ultimately, we ended up with an exquisite testament to her coaching abilities and expertise, and a powerful sales tool that Amber is excited to use and share.

I’ve had the pleasure of working with Jenn, my go-to marketing designer and strategist, for several months, and she has truly elevated my professional presence across all platforms. From stunning social media graphics to a polished website and bio flyers, Jenn has ensured everything looks exactly as I envisioned—highly professional and polished, which is crucial for my organizational clients. I am continuously impressed by her creativity, attention to detail, and her ability to bring my ideas to life. Not only is she incredibly talented, but she’s also a joy to work with, always offering fresh ideas and insightful advice. I can’t recommend Jenn enough and look forward to continuing to work with her as I further build my brand and online presence.
AMBER WAUGAMAN

This project was a fun labor of love! Amber had a strong foundation for her marketing and visuals but lacked a cohesive look and feel, so it was fun to partner with her in bringing her ideas to life and giving her a brand she can be proud of and excited about. We’ve continued to tackle other small initiatives, often bouncing ideas off one another as Amber’s company grows and changes; she told me that she’s building a list of projects aligned with her goals that she wants me to weigh in on and help her achieve!

If you’re interested in exploring how we might collaborate on creating a cohesive brand identity for your business, book a free Idea to Execution consultation!
September 24, 2024
Bringing a Brand to Life: A Case Study
Amongst the rolling foothills of Boise, Idaho, a new brand has been launched: Foothills Capital Advisory. Nabil, its founder, has a background in both law and finance, and he stepped out on his own with a passion for helping business owners succeed. Foothills Capital’s primary mission is to connect businesses facing cash flow constraints with the capital they need, even after the banks have turned them down, regardless of whether that’s to grow their business, to refinance existing debt, or just to provide a bridge and keep the lights on until they can qualify for traditional financing.

Together, Nabil and I worked on a few key initiatives:
- Logo & Brand Identity
- LinkedIn Optimization
- Business Stationery
- Website Design
- Promotional Materials
This project was exciting because Nabil had already walked away from a steady job to pursue an entrepreneurial path, creating a true start-up from scratch. He didn’t have any existing clients or income, but he didn’t lack the confidence that they would come his way. We jumped on each initiative as quickly as possible, and there were a lot of conversations had in a small amount of time to make it happen!

Logo & Brand Identity

When Nabil was referred to me, he already knew that he wanted to name his business Foothills Capital Advisory. After recently transplanting to Boise from Seattle with his family, he found that he enjoyed the slower lifestyle and the view of downtown Boise and the foothills from his back deck, finding peace in the tranquil surroundings. So, we leaned into that.

Together, we explored a modern approach to his logo, leveraging hand-drawn line art ranging from abstract, to artsy, bringing in soft curves, and eventually landing on a geometric approach to the view he’s so fond of.

The final version is a beautiful balance of colors found in nature.

Coupled with a brand overview guide and some accompanying assets – like a social media profile graphic, a brand pattern, and branded assets like a Zoom background and email newsletter template, Nabil was off to the races with his new brand.

LinkedIn Optimization

Since so many of Nabil’s clients come to him from referrals, we needed to make sure his LinkedIn profile was an accurate representation of what he does, while we worked on his website behind the scenes.

While we were developing his brand initially, Nabil had put a little “coming soon” message in his experience section, and we were able to quell the anticipation by refreshing that and premiering his new brand identity.

Business Stationery

Though a little out of order from how a typical brand identity project goes, time was of the essence! Nabil was looking into attending a conference where he’d have the opportunity to meet a lot of great business contacts, so instead of doing his website next, we jumped on creating something he could hand out and leverage – his business cards. In a relationship-heavy industry like Nabil’s, business cards are definitely still an expected touchpoint.

Since the designs generally tie together very nicely, Nabil’s business cards were delivered alongside letterhead (both something he could print, and a Word document template he could type right into), a notecard that he could use to write thank you notes, and a couple of envelopes to send it all in should the need arise.

For his stationery, we wanted to continue to lean into the geometric look we established with his logo, and incorporated diamonds with icons to share his contact information. The addition of a watermarked background helped everything to feel modern and put together.

Website Design

From there, Nabil and I started working on his website. He already had a foundation laid, as his daughter had helped him build a Squarespace site. Instead of starting over, we leaned into that framework and updated it to be something that was more in line with his new brand identity.

The content was mostly done, but Nabil had supplied a few additional pieces, and we collaborated on updating his bio to be something a little friendlier and easier to read. We used stock photography of sun-kissed foothills and Boise cityscapes to accent each page.

The final site is clean and slick, with the basics front and center, and the ability to get started obvious on every page. A large majority of Nabil’s clients are referred via industry relationships, so we were sure to include a page that spoke directly to those referral partners.

Promotional Materials

With the website wrapped up, the rush to get this brand out the door slowed down a little – Nabil had what he needed to be successful, found online, and to communicate with new and existing referral partners.

The next thing he needed was something that his referral partners could use to share with their clients. Nabil asked if we could put together a one-pager that could be shared digitally or printed. It needed to cover the key things that he can offer, his process, the fees, and how someone can get started working with him. It was a lot of information, and we wanted the piece to look and feel very intentionally designed.

This one-pager helped to get people in the door, but what then? Nabil was preparing concise summaries of his clients’ stories, financials, and projections so that he could quickly solicit commercial lenders on his clients’ behalf, and he needed those to be beautiful, easy to use, and quick to customize. The next thing we collaborated on was a presentation template that was designed in Powerpoint.

For this project, I started by looking at a presentation that Nabil had already put together to get an idea for the types of content he was using, and then I got to work building out templates that made sense for that type of content. By inserting photos that we had used on the website and leveraging his color palette, we were able to make something both beautiful and functional. The best part is that he can use this same template for anything, and it’s near impossible to overwrite it – every time he opens it, it forces him to save it with a new name.

I truly enjoyed working on this brand launch with Nabil, and he and I have continued to stay in touch for future opportunities while he’s nurturing several new client engagements. His business launched with a bang, and he’s been enjoying having pieces he’s proud to show off and leverage as he continues to build.

If you enjoyed this case study, and are interested in exploring how we might collaborate on your next big idea, schedule your absolutely free, no-commitment Idea-to-Execution consult today!
August 23, 2024
Why Color is the Least Important Part of a Logo Design
Working with a new client, I have a template that I use to show them their logo designs. On the third slide, it says in bolded, italicized text: “These concepts are done in black and white to start so that you can focus on the structure of the logo without color getting in the way.” But without further explanation – I wondered if the purpose was clear enough.

Why is color the last thing I incorporate for a new logo design?

The folks I work with are business owners, and nine times out of ten, they’re not creative people – hence why they are hiring someone to fill that gap for them. While a creative person could look at something and generally see the nuances of a color, chances are that a business person has a limited color vocabulary and would have a hard time voicing that the blue they’re envisioning needs to have more green in it.

When I present the initial concepts to the client – sometimes even through the first few rounds – we’re not even talking about colors yet. Maybe we discussed it briefly on our initial Idea to Execution Consult, but we haven’t fully gone down that rabbit hole yet.

Black and white concepts allow the client to see the pieces of the logo, without “the wrong blue” getting in the way. They can see the hidden iconography in the logo mark, they can see how the font is wide, skinny, tall, or sans-serif, and how the brand name is sized in relation to the logo mark. They can see the overlapping elements clearly. All of these things are just as – if not more – important to the logo design as color.

There’s also another reason…

Designing a logo in black and white allows me as the designer to ensure logo versatility.

What is versatility mean in a logo project?

At the end of a logo project, my client gets a suite of files. This is usually a zip folder with organized sub folders for different layouts and color options. It generally looks like this:

And if they drill down into the “wide” folder, they would typically see something like this:

Not every logo project has every format or color option, but by doing everything I can to ensure that they have:
1. A wide version
2. A stacked version
3. A logo mark by itself
4. An all white version
5. An all black version
Will allow the client to be prepared for whatever branding challenge gets thrown at them.

By designing logos in black and white from the get-go and adding color later, I’m solving for versatility first!

What about when the client wants something that doesn’t fit the versatility mold?

Yes – it happens! I have one particular client in mind who knew exactly what he wanted when he approached me about working together. And what he wanted broke the versatility mode wiiiiiide open! But, I guided him through the future challenges he would face, and made sure that he had a secondary option when all was said and done so that his brand could be as versatile as possible. And he LOVED the end result!

The logo on the right is his primary logo – it’s in color, and it very much only fits in a square – which can be tricky for a website application. It’s also the last version of the logo he saw!

When we started the project, he saw a reversed version of what’s on the left – all black outlines. We continued that way until he was happy with the structure and the story that the logo told even without the color added.

Originally, he asked for a blue and gray logo – but when we started playing with colors, there were obviously more colors added in! The version on the bottom of these two is his secondary version – and it solves the need for a wide format that fits into the brand identity… and he also has an all black and an all white version if it, too. While he may not use the secondary logo often, it’s a good asset for him to have available.

That’s why I’ll continue designing logos in black and white to start, and always advocate for a versatile logo as part of my clients’ brands.

If you’re interested in working together on a branding project for your business, let’s schedule your free, no-obligation Idea to Execution Consult now!
January 3, 2024
Do you need a site rebuild, or just a refresh?

Recently, I was referred to a new client who was looking to improve his marketing strategy. He wanted to ‘level up’ his passion project into more of a full-time income producer, but wasn’t sure where to start. The first thing I did was look at his website.

A business’s website is the primary place where someone can find all the details about the business, and in this case, it was where everything was. This client didn’t do much on social media, and his idea was great – but his website didn’t do a great job of selling it for him. The thing is, he built the site himself, so he was very proud of his work and didn’t want to blow it up and start over, nor did he need to. So, we worked together to refresh what he already had into a more appealing and modern look that told the story of the brand and business model better and more intuitively.

A Case Study in Refreshing a Website

Here’s the before and after:

My client did all the work (because he wanted to and it allowed him to better manage his budget), I just gave him the details of what went where, wrote content, and QA’d what he created.

This might seem like a rebuild, but the reality is that all of the same functionality stayed put. We gave it some new clothes, but really, we only accented what already existed.

If you would like to talk about how a refresh might benefit you and your business, schedule your free, no-obligation Idea to Execution consult today!

December 8, 2023