The power of rebranding is crucial when you want to scale your business. The problem is when you cannot let go of something that you hold dear to your heart. When you have built something by yourself from the feet up, put your blood, sweat, tears, and security on the line for that thing, you tend to protect it with all of your heart. While that is a great thing, the problem can also be that you can get clouded in your ego and judgment on it. It’s like your own children: ultimately only you will know what is best for them but sometimes some great advice is needed to help you better parent them. Same thing for your own brand. None of us know everything and every now and then we need a fresh eye to assist us to greatness.
I created my logos for both J.FitzPatrick and The Shoe Snob Blog but knew deep down that both were not worthy of being used for a globally dominant brand and if I ever aspired to become one, I had to one day refresh them i.e. make them better. That day came sooner than I expected in a most surprising way.
I get a lot of spam mail. Most of it I just delete. Someone is always trying to sell me their services as the greatest thing since sliced bread. The majority of it is pure garbage. But recently I got an email that piqued my interest. It felt genuine and real. Not the usual spam garbage. It came from someone that knew me i.e. followed my work and not only studied it but also me and my journey. Naturally, I was curious.
The offer was to elevate my brand by elevating my logos and all associated branding. Naturally, as I created my own and feel somewhat tied to them, I was also curious to see what could be done by a true artist. As there were no strings attached I responded and shared my interest. The person that wrote me was Rudy Hurtado of Rudy Hurtado Global Branding. He told me to give him a week or so and then for us to have a call to look through it all. I was so eager to see my brand elevated but of course all dubious in the back of my mind.
I remember our call and Rudy taking me through his process and thinking “What the heck did I do?” because I was assuming his rough drafts were the end product. Little did I know that this in-depth process had layers and layers to it in order to really deep dive into my style and preferences and even my own background and how it played into it all. It was surprisingly so thorough. Once he finally showed the end result I was blown away. All of my doubts crumbled into oblivion and what I was left with was nothing but gratitude. It is like he knew me better than I knew myself!
What Rudy taught me was that there are such subtle details that the average person would never think about or even notice but that greatly enhance the look of the image/logo etc. And I could really appreciate that as it is the same in shoe design. Frankly, it is the same in any design. And you feel these things. You may not realize them but you feel them. You notice them even if you canto describe them. It is what separates everything, from the greatest hotels, to the greatest restaurants to the greatest clothing brands etc. It is the subtle detail that makes or breaks the idea and end result. And Rudy knew how to give that to me in my rebrand.
He assisted in elevating all my companies and projects that I am tied to, from my blog to my shoe company to my new Marketplace site and lastly, The London Super Trunk Show. Each one making infinitely better than what it used to be. He is a true artist and I am really grateful that he reached out to me and thankful that I was not too stubborn to just write him off, as I have been known to do. I won’t lie. But something told me to check it out, and I did just that and love what he created for me. I finally feel confident enough to be able to use my logo to scale my business and now feel proud of seeing it in large formats.
A huge thanks to Rudy for all that he did. And a word of advice from one business owner to the next: Don’t be afraid to elevate your brand by upgrading your logo/look/feel etc. A good professional artist who is trained in branding can make you look like a million bucks, even if you are only small-time! Rudy did it for me and I will be forever grateful for his help. Don’t let the power of rebranding pass you by!
Learn more about Rudy Global Branding: https://dribbble.com/RudyHurtado
His IG acct: https://www.instagram.com/rudyhurtadoglobalbranding/?hl=en
Looks nice. Your brand was dressed well before the rebranding. Now has new shoes and a new suit.
🙂 Thanks Arthur!