I’m Kayla, your branding expert

I get it. Because I didn’t always see myself clearly, I understand where you are right now. I bumped into all kinds of things while I stumbled around in the dark. It was incredibly frustrating. I have a blog post about my personal journey if you really want to hear it, but I’m assuming you’re really here because you want to know why you should listen to me.

Insight is key when building a brand

It’s hard to innovate when you can’t see what could be better. When I build a brand, I look at the essence of a business and create a plan to make that essence both appealing and apparent. This is what makes me a great designer. When you’re building a brand, it is integral to boil your business down to its essence and look at it from all angles so you can communicate in a way that is authentic to you and draws your market organically. You can’t find clarity without that insight. And for clarity, you need to turn on the light.

You have the most experience in your business

It’s true that you are the expert in your business, and it follows logically that in my business I am the expert. I built my business on 17 years of design and branding experience. I started designing for my high school newspaper when I was 15 years old. I designed my first logo and business card package when I was in college. It wasn’t my best work, but I’ve had 12 more years of building or stewarding brand identities and designing graphics since then.

When I say “great design changes everything” I mean it

Lots of people own or run businesses, but it’s the ones who are living their dream who truly thrive. You may have met this type of business owner. She always has a smile on her face, and she kind of makes you fall in love with her product whether or not you need it. That kind of enthusiasm is simply infectious. That’s me; I’m that business owner. I can’t help myself. I’m that geeky shopper who gets a thrill out of seeing companies rebrand. I’m a sucker for great packaging. And I also know where the designer went wrong when I see bad packaging. Part of my passion also extends to ethics; I’ll never lie to you. And that means I won’t lie to you and tell me you need my services when you don’t.

I’ve worked to cultivate my natural design ability

I’ve always been a designer. I’ve tinkered with aesthetics as long as I can remember. Some of that tinkering was a disaster, but I’ve learned from both my failures and my successes. I’ve made costly mistakes that resulted in scrapping projects and personally eating the cost. Talent isn’t everything; becoming a professional in your industry takes time and practice. I have a portfolio of real brands I’ve built, helped build, or stewarded. Click the portfolio button below to check it out. Another example is my website. In the spirit of full disclosure, I used a squarespace template. Even using a template effectively still involves design skills. It’s entirely possible to mess up a template on the web, to choose the wrong template for your business, or worse, it’s possible to pick a site builder or host that doesn’t offer what you need for your business. I understand design production, which can save you from headaches and wasted resources.