Brand & Website Design for In Joy Consulting
Sonja is a financial budget coach who, like most of us, absolutely loves what she does! Don’t let her quiet, reserved demeanor fool you. She brings boundless energy, excitement, and fiery positivity to the scary world of numbers and budgeting. She also brings deep empathy and understanding to her clients who usually come with much confusion and shame around their finances. Years ago, she was in the same overwhelmed state as they are, so she understands first-hand how they’re feeling and knows so much more is possible for them. At In Joy Consulting, she helps them master their finances and leave behind the stress and worry.
Sonja came to me through Ericka Watson who was already deep in the process of re-writing her website to better speak her clients’ language. By using the StoryBrand process, she was able to quiet the chatter of the old website. Ericka brought me onboard to complete her makeover with an updated brand. We also enlisted Nora at Nora Fraker Photography to update Sonja’s photos. Having fresh, on-brand photos made all the difference in updating her brand presence.
This rebrand is a great example of my Signature Brand Package which includes all the elements you need to take your brand to the next level, just like Sonja did.
1 | Brand Strategy
Working with Sonja through her Brand Strategy was a great opportunity to show her how our brands are more about our clients than they are about us. Sonja wasn’t my first client to struggle with this, and she won’t be the last. She gets so fired up and intense when she’s immersed in client budgets that she understandably assumed this needed to come through in her brand. "Don't they need to understand how passionate I am?” she asked me.
When we dug into how she wants her clients to feel, that’s when she was able to see the shift. Her clients come to her already stressed out and anxious. They’re not looking for “fiery and intense;” they're likely experiencing enough of that already in the never-ending money arguments with their spouse. Instead, they’re desperate for calm in their financial storm and hope that things could possibly get better.
Sonja’s personality is calm and unfussy, preferring motorcycle rides with her husband over any dress-up event. Her favorite jewelry is custom-made from beach glass. So instead of focusing on her fiery side, we’re able to pull out these calming, reassuring qualities of Sonja, the ones that really resonate with and attract her clients. She also lives in Florida, so—yes—that beachy vibe is intentional.
Our keywords for In Joy Consulting are calm, freedom, and light-hearted. Sonja’s approach focuses on your budget as a means to more freedom and joy, not as a burden or restriction. Her colors of pool blue, seaglass, and lemon yellow are serene and soothing with a good injection of fun and cheerfulness.
2 | Logo Development
There are a couple of unique challenges with this logo.
The first is the spatial challenge of the very short main words (In Joy) and a very long but less important word (Consulting). All the words need to be included, but balancing words of such different lengths is difficult. If the long words are proportionally too small, they disappear when the logo is used in small formats. (Hint: if you’re naming your new business baby, keep this in mind.)
The second challenge is creating a logo for a business that’s about numbers without being cliché about numbers. Tricky, right?
I’m using a few things in combination to address both challenges. Symbolically, the asterisk is the keyboard symbol for multiplication, something we all would like in our finances. Sonja also tells her clients when they finish working together that she “wraps up their time with a big bow.” Using the hand-drawn asterisk/bow for the dot over the “i” pulls in both of these features. Having “Joy” also hand-drawn unifies the logo.
You may notice too that the “i” for “in” isn’t an “i” at all. It’s the number 1. This does two things. It reinforces our number theme in an oh-so-subtle way; most people don’t even notice and that’s just fine. It also gives more width to the entire word “in” which allows more space to tuck “consulting” underneath.
It’s like putting together a puzzle without the photo on the box, and it’s so much fun when it all works out!
3 | Brand Board
The logo and additional pieces come together in the Brand Board with additional marks, fonts, pattern, and of course Nora’s beautiful photography.
4 | Collateral, Marketing, Social Media, & Website Design
You can see more images and read the full details of the complete design process for In Joy on the blog here. Sonja has such a steady stream of clients that she rarely ever engages on social media. She doesn’t need to! The transformation her clients are eager to talk about is the only business-building strategy she needs. However she has her profile on LinkedIn and Facebook, so I updated her banners accordingly.
She also gives her clients a final document to help keep them on track. This workbook is redesigned to reflect her new brand and is a beautiful gift to her clients. Sonja was so happy with the PDF that she offered it free to her past clients as she celebrated the launch of her beautiful, new brand.
As she always does, Ericka unites the copywriting and visual branding into a website that’s much more effective at speaking to potential clients than Sonja’s previous website was. Not only does it look amazing, but it’s easy to navigate, with simple calls to action for her visitors.
“At first, I was so afraid Michelle wouldn't understand my company and would create a brand that felt impersonal and inauthentic. I mean, how could anyone know my business as well as I do?
Throughout her process, she patiently guided me from fear and resistance to trust and confidence. Instead of giving me what I thought I wanted, she listened to my heart and created what she knew would work best.
Now my brand is polished and captures the pulse of me AND my beautiful clients. It has taken my company to the next level—way beyond what I could see when we started. Thank you, Michelle, for holding true to your best vision for me. It was exactly what I needed!”
— Sonja Palomino, Founder, In Joy Consulting
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