What to Do if you Can’t Afford a Creative Director
A creative director is a creative lead at any type of brand or business, for the marketing department of the company. They work with a creative team or on their own to create, plan and deliver a strategic vision and branding that will set your company apart from the rest. They determine the creative vision of a brand or project and they will come up with a solid and creative plan to help you get there.
In a nutshell, a creative director will help you figure out who you are as a brand, enable you to polish that image, enhance it, and present it to the world.
But not everyone can invest in branding or professional creative direction from the start and that’s ok!
This article will provide some tips and guidelines so that you can simplify the process on your own and look professional until you are able to hire help.
Pin down who you are.
Who you are in your professional field is going to evolve and change over time but it’s important to identify who you are now, in this moment, as a starting reference point.
Ponder over the following questions:
What is your why?
Who are your dream clients?
What type of visuals will they connect with?
What do you have in common with your dream clients?
How are you different and unique from others in your field?
What would success look like in 1 year? In 3 years?
2. Simplify.
This is the most important take away. When you are wearing many hats it’s easy to end up looking unprofessional. Keep things clean and simple until you have the means to invest and take it a step further. When it comes to your website, logo, aesthetics and overall branding keep everything minimal and sleek.
3. Choose a color palette and font family.
Create a mood board or a Pinterest board and create a consistent aesthetic, while keeping your dream client in mind. Typewolf or fontjoy are great tools to help you with that. Coolors.co might also come in handy when it comes to color combos and palettes for your brand. Remember to keep it simple!
4. Consistency is key.
Create trust and recognizability by staying consistent with the overall branding that you’ve put together so far.
5. Utilize templates.
Custom-made design is the epitome of professionalism but until you have the means to invest in that use templates that will take out the guesswork from the process. Pick a minimalistic, easy-to-use, and sleek template to create your website, socials and online presence. You can get amazing website templates on squaremuse, flothemes and squarestylist among others, while creativemarket.com and Canva are great for logo creation.
Don’t let branding keep you from starting. You have to start somewhere.
The most important thing is to get your foot out the door, build your confidence and connect with your ideal client. As you move on in your professional career you will get the means to invest in professional branding and work with an expert that will take what you already have to the next level and generate more revenue as you expand.
Until the next one,
Chelf
