Several months ago, I decided it was time to renovate my logo, my color palette, and my overall brand image. I had had the same colors (black and silver) and logo (a key under Protocol LLC) for 12 of my 13 years in business, and the overall feel was very restrained and proper. An over-haul was long overdue. The whole look and feel of Protocol needed to be fresher, more modern, more approachable, and it needed to feel more like me and less like what I thought it “should be” 13 years ago.
I started working with Hannah Groseclose and Hinge Creative Co. Color was a central question in the process, and I knew exactly what direction I wanted to take. The painting below, by Sarah Guthrie, was my 50th birthday present to myself. As well as being a friend from Davidson College, Sarah is “the artist who brings you joy.” Her goal is “to make the world a better place by infusing more color, joy, and good vibes in the world.” That year turned out to be particularly difficult for me, but this painting was one of the bright lights that reminded me that joy still existed. I wanted my brand image to remind me of that. I wanted my clients to see something bright, vibrant, and bold, full of confidence and energy…and joy. So therein lies the inspiration for the colors Hannah and her team captured for my re-brand.
Visit https://www.artistgu3.com to see more of the joy Sarah creates.
Visit https://www.hingecreativeco.com to see Hannah’s brand magic.
I’m offering The Thank-you Note Sessions to high school seniors this month, to get those graduation thank-you notes written correctly, graciously and in a timely fashion with minimum stress. You can learn more about it on my Instagram page, but in the mean time, here are links to several articles I published on LinkedIn on The Anatomy of a Thank-you Note
Reading/Listening/Watching/Learning
What I’m reading is also what I listened to this month. I heard about Lydia Fenet when she was mentioned on an episode of SheSaid/SheSaid podcast. I wanted to know more, so I found her on Instagram, which led me to her book, The Most Powerful Woman In The Room Is You. I listened to it on Audible and have since ordered the book itself so I can re-read and take notes. You can read more about it here:https://lydiafenet.com/the-book/
The other book, by another Davidson friend, is Options Are Power by Donna Peters. This is yet another Audible listen that has turned into a book purchase. And just wow! Donna is the founder of The Me-Suite, the top business podcast. She talks a lot about core values—“the non-negotiable rudder steering the key decisions you make”—throughout the book, which is leading me to look closely at what my non-negotiables are, both personally and professionally--one of which is finding joy in what I do!
Both of these are great reads, and The Me-Suite podcast https://www.the-me-suite.com/me-suite-podcast and SheSaid/SheSaid https://shesaidshesaidpodcast.com are available wherever you listen to podcasts.
Watching: Season 2 of Sanditon on PBS. All the fun and fashion of Jane Austen with a decidedly modern twist.
Learning: How to use Canva more effectively. Some days it’s easy; some days, I want to throw my computer out the window!