As most of you know, I’m a graphic designer as well as a total girly girl! So last summer, when I saw a post in Jenna Kutcher’s Instagram Lab Facebook group for someone looking for a designer for a branding project, I had a gut feeling that the project would be an amazing opportunity! I didn’t hesitate to leave a comment and reach out to the new business owner. Meghan was in the first steps of start a mobile fashion truck business and needed someone to help bring her vision to life! Meghan and I got in touch, and after chatting about how we could work together to achieve her goals, we both knew that we were the perfect fit for each other!
To me, the relationships I build with my clients are so important! I love sitting down for that initial meeting and just clicking with my client. Having that feeling and knowing that we could become great friends! And it’s such a fun way to build a friendship, getting to work together on an amazing project like designing a business’ brand! Meghan and I definitely clicked, and were lucky that we both live in Vancouver so we were able to meet in person as well!
At our first coffee date, we went through the branding questionnaire that I have all my clients fill out. Through this, we got a better idea of what Meghan was envisioning for her business. We also chatted about the timeline, working backwards from Meghan’s launch date of early March. After the meeting, I took all her feedback and created three distinct design directions, complete with logos, mood boards, fonts, and colours! These gave Meghan an idea of the options that we could take for her branding, and the beginning stages of what her finished brand could look like.
Design Directions
One of my favourite parts of working with Meghan was how truly excited she was for all these different phases of starting her business! At our second meeting, I remember sitting down and showing her the three design directions, and her loving them ALL! Haha she didn’t want to have to chose! I told her to think about it as it’s a big decision, and to take some time. She had to think which one she felt would speak the best to her ideal clients, and represent her business.
I never want my clients to feel pressured when making decisions, because this is so important – I get it! This is the face of your business, and you want to get it right! So if there are elements from a certain direction that they love – we work together and combine those into one that really speaks to the business! And that’s exactly what Meghan and I did with the Vancouver Fashion Truck branding! She liked certain logos, colours, and fonts, so we brought them all together into one cohesive brand! We also went through a handful of logo iterations, exploring the watercolour look that Meghan wanted to achieve, while having fun with the fonts and different options.
Marketing Collateral
Once we established the branding itself for Vancouver Fashion Truck, we started on the marketing collateral – all the little pieces that communicate the business’ voice! I always love working on these pieces, and seeing how I can bring together the colours we’ve chosen, graphic elements, and fonts to communicate with the business’ ideal audience! There is so much fun that can be had with all these branding pieces, and did we ever have fun with Meghan’s collateral!
I love when my clients come up with their own creative ideas, it means they’re excited about the project, which is fantastic because I’m always just as excited! Meghan wanted to make her business cards stand out, so we decided to make them in the shape of a truck! How cute is that?! While they were a little bit more of an investment as Meghan had to purchase the initial die cut for the cards, they make such an impact! They stand out against a regular, generic card and everyone loves them! They’re always a great conversation starter and piece of marketing for Vancouver Fashion Truck!
The hang tags and postcards were two other pieces of marketing collateral that we created for Vancouver Fashion Truck. For these we played with the watercolour graphic, shades of pink, and the logo to create the individual pieces. I’m so happy with how they turned out, and I love how all these pieces come together to really speak to the brand! That’s what marketing collateral is all about – recognizable communication materials that engage the audience and make the business stand out!
The Truck
One of the big elements of this specific project was definitely Meghan’s truck! The truck is the business – so we had to hit it out of the park with the truck design! Full disclosure – I had never designed a truck wrap before, but I was so eager to learn and work with Meghan as well as the production company to make the truck a reality! I knew we could bring the brand that we had already created to life through the truck’s exterior!
We set out to create a truck that would stand out driving through Vancouver. It had to be recognizable, iconic, and get people excited! This was the most important part of Meghan’s business, so it had to be amazing! To give you an idea of the before an after (I always love seeing the process!), here is the initial truck design that we sent to the production company. Keep scrolling for the final truck!
Be Ready For The Bumps
As with most projects, you have to be ready for some bumps in the road. Things may not always go as planned! For the most part, this project was smooth sailing! I would say the most stressful moment was when we saw a “sneak peak” of the final truck wrap on Instagram and it wasn’t quite finished. So it didn’t look anything like what the final truck ended up looking like. The photo was dark and grey so Meghan was super worried that the colours were way off. I assured her that it would all be fine – but in the spirit of honesty, I was pretty anxious myself!
Thankfully – as it always does – everything worked out just fine! But that’s why I think it’s so important to surround yourself with a great team. When things don’t go as planned, you want people that you can count on. Whether it’s for a little reassurance, or to take the reins in the project and sort everything out! When we work as a team, we’re all working towards the same goal and 100% invested in the project!
That’s A Wrap!
I had such a blast working with Meghan on her branding project and bringing her vision for Vancouver Fashion Truck to life! She has been such an inspiration to watch! From coming up with this idea last summer, to putting her business plan into place, and working so hard to launch her business. Meghan continues to be an inspiration, and I love that I can cheer her on in this new phase of her business while she’s out there absolutely rocking it! And here’s a little word from the business rockstar herself:
I am so happy that I hired Danielle to help me with creating a beautifully designed brand for my start-up business, Vancouver Fashion Truck. She was thoughtful, caring, detail-oriented and creative every step of the way. She helped me feel calm, relaxed and confident throughout the entire branding process due to providing me with a specific timeline (that we actually stuck to!) and her quick and clear email and telephone responses. I always looked forward to our meetings together! I couldn’t have imagined a more perfect look for my brand than what we were able to create together – I would hire Danielle again in a second! – Meghan Currie
Thank you Meghan for being such a wonderful client to work with! I’m so happy to call you one of my good friends now! 🙂 I love that we can support each other in our business endeavours! Because that’s what it’s all about, forming this tribe of amazing, inspiring women that build each other up!
If you’re looking to join in on the fun and work together to design your ideal brand, I want to hear from you! Shoot me an email and let’s chat!
XO
Danielle
Want to get started on creating your own brand?!
Get your free, nine-page Branding Blueprint workbook below!
