How to Build a Brand You Are Actually Proud to Share With People
A guest blog post by Bailey of CandleTit LLC
CandleTit is a candle company that is dedicated to celebrating breast diversity across the gender spectrum.
Working with a brand designer is an investment, so selecting the right person to build your brand and support your vision can be a challenge. I first met Chelsie earlier this year when she hosted a Sunnyside Chat on the topic of passion projects. At the time, that's all CandleTit was for me — a small passion project that I had been experimenting with for a few months and wasn't quite sure where it was going. I knew that if I wanted to turn my passion project into a sustainable business, I needed to talk with experts who had walked in my shoes and could provide guidance along the way — but how would I find someone who was doing anything remotely relatable to the unique work I was doing?
Logo Design Sketches
During her chat, Chelsie blew me away with her acute knowledge of exactly what I was going through — she walked through all of my pain points and difficult decisions I was already considering at the time with my part-time passion project. What really got me was that Chelsie wasn't building a business of candles molded from real breasts — how did she get it?? — but she didn't need to in order to relate to me and my passion project.
Like me, she had turned her passion project of design and lettering into a full-blown highly successful business, and she had to make a lot of the same decisions I was facing at the time to make it work.
I had already been considering whether or not I should invest in a designer to build a brand I was actually proud to share with people. Immediately after the chat, Chelsie reached out to thank me for attending her chat and at that point, I was already sold. I didn't need to look into other brand designers or business aficionados because Chelsie was it. Note that I am a very analytical thinker and typically make decisions backed by thorough research and consideration of potential outcomes along with a strong gut-check. With Chelsie, I didn't need any of that.
Final Logo Design
I knew that whatever design we ended up creating would be beautiful, but what was more important to me was the full package she had to offer. Chelsie could create a brand that encompassed everything I needed to turn my passion project into a successful business, and she would be able to guide me through my journey by creating a stellar design as well as a highly focused business plan. Since that passion project chat, I haven't looked back.
To best utilize both of our time, I took each of her assignments and reviews very seriously, making sure I provided her with thorough questions and ideas — and she always responded promptly with equally thorough feedback and built upon my ideas. We both challenged and pushed each other to rebuild a brand that started as a janky logo I made on KeyNote to something exponentially more sophisticated.
Original CandleTit Logo - Designed by Bailey
Thinking back, I was right — Chelsie was the perfect person to help build my brand and business, and I never could have imagined a better outcome, not to mention getting to work with an overall incredible person and phenomenal designer — like seriously, look at these designs! I am beyond grateful for Chelsie and the work she has done. If you are considering working with Chelsie, and would like to chat with a referral, I cannot speak highly enough of Chelsie as a brand designer and highly efficient business woman.
About the Design
When researching designs and styles, I kept coming back to these modern 70s designs with bright oranges, browns, blues and yellows. I wanted to create something that was abstract, minimalist and made subtle references to diverse breasts and bodies. My brand is challenging because I want it to be both very fun and welcoming, but at the same time professional and respectable. I also didn't want it to skew too close to breast cancer, because my brand focuses on supporting a wider variety of breast diversity across the gender spectrum and people who undergo breast surgery for a wide variety of reasons.
The 70s colors fit well with this vision because they both encompass different skin colors as well as a few fun statement colors that both compliment and contrast the overall design. There is also a current come-back for 70s interior design, and most CandleTits are used as artworks in homes, so I was also considering the larger picture of my brand.
To get started, I curated a massive pinterest board to get a better visual of what my brand could look like. Luckily, there are a lot of funky circles and undulating lines in 70s design, so it led to a clear vision that tied all my wants together rather quickly. Chelsie then took my moodboard (plus my long list of thoughts and ideas), and came up with this clever logo and brand design that incorporates concentric circles in the colors I had originally proposed.
Custom Brand Pattern
I absolutely loved the original design, but it felt like it was missing something both organic and inclusive. So we pushed it a little farther adding the curved line to represent breast removal. When I decided to add a few additional pieces of brand collateral — postcards, breast self exam artworks and a what to expect guide for custom CandleTits — we were able to incorporate more organic, diverse breast designs that were missing from the concentric circle design.
Custom Illustrated Postcard Design
With each piece of brand collateral, Chelsie sent me a questionnaire to determine what direction I wanted to go with the piece, and by the first rounds of review, I hardly had any feedback because Chelsie took my ideas from the questionnaire and created a design far beyond anything I had imagined.
Custom CandleTit - What to Expect Guide
There is so much more about building my brand and working with Chelsie I could talk about, but instead, I'd encourage you to check out my website (full site launching soon), Instagram along with Chelsie's work on her website and Instagram to see for yourself the incredible work she is able to create for a wide variety of clients.
If you think Lettering Works would be a good fit to take your business or brand to the next level like we did for CandleTit, we’d love to chat! Send us a message via our contact form to get started.
ABOUT THE Designer
Chelsie Tamms is an award-winning lettering artist and designer based out of Chicago. She is the owner of Lettering Works, a branding studio that connects businesses to their audience through creativity and strategy. With over 10 years of practice of lettering and design, Chelsie is passionate about craft and intention. When she’s not designing, she can be found eating ice cream, traveling internationally, or starting a new passion project.
