Tooting our own horn
The right reason to rebrand
I started my own business, creating brands and helping founders and marketers with their design and marketing assets, way back in 2023.
Back then, I just needed to hit the ground running.
A simple brand (which I’d already created whilst working outside of my 9-5) that I could launch my company with. It was fine. Played on M.Y initials and looked professional. But something felt off.
With each new brand identity and refresh I undertook with my clients, I felt a pang of jealousy.
Happy with their journey, their brand foundations, and how they were able to present themselves in the world. How is it that a designer never fixes their own toilet… or something to that effect.
After a conversation with Laura Boast of Conscious Made. I started to put my business on a new path, one that I knew was right, but for some reason, I had put off for at least six months.
Brand naming –
From M.Y Creative to Trumpet
For those who don’t know. I work from home. With my partner Clare, who started out as a client (see all round coaching). All in a business which was centred around my personal identity.
Lots of blurred boundaries.
So with a rebrand, I really needed a name change. Many were explored. Many cast aside, but one remained.
Born from the sentiment of ‘blowing your own trumpet’ it was only going to be one name. And yes, I considered the fart and presidential connotations.
Much like naming a child, or a dog, in our case, the name had to feel right. I often felt that when telling people about ‘M.Y Creative,’ it was a mediocre operation, much like when a 5-year-old is telling their aunt about their latest art project at school.
But with Trumpet, it sounded right. It also opens up a treasure chest of ideas, messaging, and simply strikes the right chord (see what I did there).
Brand Identity –
Feeling out of tune
I had a name, but left it alone for a bit. Call it perfectionism, call it being busy. So when I came back to rebranding my business, I committed a cardinal sin. Thinking I knew everything I needed about what I do and how I do it – I jumped straight into design.
I’d sketched an icon that, at the time, I loved. I worked and re-worked the symbol, and got it to the point (see above) where I thought, ‘yeah, that’s decent’.
But it wasn’t. It was clunky. And although considered, not right.
It took a lengthy phone call with Dan Forster (I owe you big time Dan!) to iron out the fact that there was no real why there. I think the biggest pain point was, ‘your name is Trumpet, so why do you have to lead with the Trumpet symbol’.
Starting with the thinking and brand narrative was imperative to getting my rebrand right… Back to the drawing board.
Brand Foundations –
Strategy to Strapline
It was actually another short break that led me to getting the brand strategy into place. I took part in Pete Brennan's Content to Client’ 5-day workshop. And this was the rocket up my arse I needed to actually do the work.
The intention was to create more content, and, as he should have, he started the course, getting us to build our brand foundations. Actually writing them down was so much more progressive than having them loosely in my head… go figure?!
And once I had a clearer picture of who I target, why I do what I do, as well as the vision and mission for Trumpet, I felt in a much better place to tackle the visuals again.
“My audience are home & lifestyle, health & fitness founders who’ve been building a business for a couple of years and are ready to scale. They’re good at what they do and their business has legs, but their brand doesn’t fully reflect that yet. They feel lost in a crowded market, and the way they show up isn’t doing them justice. What they’re looking for isn’t just a prettier logo or another marketing quick-fix, they want a brand they can finally own with confidence, one that’s strategic, distinctive, and built to grow.”
It was also at this point that I spoke to industry friend and amazing copywriter Joe Coleman. At this point, I felt I needed some clarity. Which Joe gives in abundance. I’d given him my brand foundations as well as a steer on the kind of strapline and message I wanted to lead with. And he delivered.
Delivering a number of options, Joe spelled it out clearly for me.
‘Design that resonates’ perfectly sums up why I do what I do.
It communicates that our work isn‘t the loudest, but thoughtful, connecting on a deeper level with our brand's audiences. It’s also synonymous with our name, and it just works.
Brand Identity –
Off on the right note
To me, the main aim of a logo is to signify a subtle hint of what that company either represents (an attitude and ethos) or to nod to what the company does. But the most important thing you should be able to do when you see a logo is remember a piece of it.
The most successful way of doing this is through creating a ‘smile in the mind’ – think FedEx, MediVet and Amazon. A subtle and simple way of creating differentiation but also delivering that A-HA moment, when the viewer spots the clever idea and feels like they own it.
It’s that approach I try to capture in every identity I create.
So the pressure was on to do it for Trumpet.
The main sentiment behind the studio is to tell the world about what our customers do, bringing them back to their audience in a way that truly strikes a chord.
I wanted this feeling to come across, and it was staring right at me in the crossbar of the T. After a lengthy selection of letterforms, I settled on one that felt it had the right amount of playfulness but professionalism at the same time.
Then it came to the decision of whether the trumpet ‘tooted’ or not. And if it did, what would that look like? I have to pinch myself at this job sometimes, with the ridiculous things we have to do.
Brand Rollout–
Bringing it all together
With the brand components in place, I set about working on creating each of the assets.
Firstly, I knew I wanted to leverage the friendly faces of Trumpet, and knew that Ben Spriggs would be the right person to bring out our true characters through imagery. We captured a wide range of shots that can be used for documents, proposals, press and most importantly content.
One of the most exciting elements of rebranding Trumpet was giving myself the permission to actually operate as a studio, so documentation such as T&C’s, Onboarding, Feedback guidance and Creds docs were all created before we launched and slowly rolled out to our existing clients.
Another big element was aligning our processes. Bringing Clare onboard to help streamline my workflow meant we needed to decide on a project management platform, and ClickUp was it.
Through here, we pull everything our client needs into their own portal. Allowing them to make project requests (which nicely adds to our pipeline) as well as houses their kanban project view, and is a place for documents like invoices.
Final Notes
Rebranding my business has been one of the biggest investments and one of the most rewarding. I really needed to put myself into my clients shoes and practise what I preach.
Taking myself through the branding process has seen a huge uptake on interest with people wanting to work with us. The start of January saw us bring in two new clients in the first week of launching (and one just off the coming soon post).
It allows us to start to take what we do more seriously, because I’ll be the first to admit, I love what I do. And it’s hard not to want to just work on brands for the fun of it.
That being said, I truly value what we offer. And the work we do needed the respect it deserved, and that comes with a shiny new brand and a better way to approach clients we want to work with.
I firmly believe Trumpet are perfectly placed for our audience, we rebranded 2-3 years into our business journey, knowing we needed just something to hit the ground running and make some money. Now we’re ready for the second phase, with our learnings and growth alongside us.
Credits:
Logo Animation – Lewis Nolan
Photography – Ben Spriggs
Copywriting – Joe Coleman
Advise and expertise – Laura Boast, Dan Forster and Luigi Carnavole
