The heart above everything else

The heart above everything else

The heart above everything else. My mantra.
I've always followed this principle in my life, even if i was not conscious of that, even if everyone push me toward a different choice.
The birth of my son Giulio has been a crucial moment in my life and after a few months i found myself at a crossroad:

• keep my full-time job OR move to a part-time freelance job (that means less money)
• stay in my comfort zone at work OR really empower my design capabilities and knowledge
• see my son few hours a day OR grow with him

I was kind of confused and i the meanwhile people told me not to do a crap.
But i’m Marianna, and i chose for freedom, personal growth and my affections.
So here starts my branding as a freelance, part-time, designer.

The heart above everything else. My mantra.
I've always followed this principle in my life, even if i was not conscious of that, even if everyone push me toward a different choice.
The birth of my son Giulio has been a crucial moment in my life and after a few months i found myself at a crossroad:

• keep my full-time job OR move to a part-time freelance job (that means less money)
• stay in my comfort zone at work OR really empower my design capabilities and knowledge
• see my son few hours a day OR grow with him

I was kind of confused and i the meanwhile people told me not to do a crap.
But i’m Marianna, and i chose for freedom, personal growth and my affections.
So here starts my branding as a freelance, part-time, designer.

A good visual identity? It’s based on solid guidelines

A good visual identity? It’s based on solid guidelines

How have you chosen your outfit this morning? Unless you’ve taken random things from the wardrobe because you were in late, you usually choose piece by piece your outfit to convey a clear message about you.
This is similar to the visual identity, it’s about the look but...in which way the look can tell something about ourselves?
It's because we have a personality and this shapes our choices and guide the way we interact with the others.
So first we need a personality, then the look. I brought the same concept in my branding defining:

• the mission and the vision
• its personality and the positioning
• proto-personas
• the verbal identity (voice and tone)

How have you chosen your outfit this morning? Unless you’ve taken random things from the wardrobe because you were in late, you usually choose piece by piece your outfit to convey a clear message about you.
This is similar to the visual identity, it’s about the look but...in which way the look can tell something about ourselves?
It's because we have a personality and this shapes our choices and guide the way we interact with the others.
So first we need a personality, then the look. I brought the same concept in my branding defining:

• the mission and the vision
• its personality and the positioning
• proto-personas
• the verbal identity (voice and tone)

So now, let’s go with the visual and the brand expression.
As usual, I made some sketches and developed the best solutions in Illustrator.
After asking for a feedback to my dear friends, i go straight for the 3 twisted circle wrapping the “M”.
It's not a complex logo but it has different reading levels:

• The M letter represent my name and inspire a sense of stability and trust
• The twisted circles represent the collision of my world with the outside, the strong relationshio between me, companies and users
• The coloured dots represent the 3 key solution of my design

Then i complete the work on the guidelines adding:

• logo variants and impagination
• palette and typography
• images and icons
• key messages

So now, let’s go with the visual and the brand expression.
As usual, I made some sketches and developed the best solutions in Illustrator.
After asking for a feedback to my dear friends, i go straight for the 3 twisted circle wrapping the “M”.
It's not a complex logo but it has different reading levels:

• The M letter represent my name, my skills and inspire a sense of stability and trust
• The twisted circles recall my 3 value propositions
• The coloured dots represent the 3 key solution of my design

Then i complete the work on the guidelines adding:

• logo variants and impagination
• palette and typography
• images and icons
• key messages

Focus on the strategy for a successful service

Focus on the strategy for a successful service

During my collaboration with Softhrod i contribute to the product strategy bringing the Jobs to be done (aka JTBD) perspective and the Value Proposition Canvas.
So i used this knowledge for my brand strategy.
I mapped all the jobs, pains and gains of my customer segment and then worked on the value propositions choosing to deliver only 3 of them, but in excellent way.

During my collaboration with Softhrod i contribute to the product strategy bringing new solutions I discovered on internet.
I'm talking about the Jobs to be done (aka JTBD) and the Value Proposition Canvas.
So i used this knowledge for my brand strategy.
I mapped all the jobs, pains and gains of my customer segment and then worked on the value propositions choosing to deliver only 3 of them, but in excellent way.

Strategy means also to study the competitors, so I:

• analyzed and found common paths in their portfolio
• read related articles on Medium
• asked tips to other designers

Finally I produced my doc with the content strategy, at raw level.

Strategy means also to study the competitors, so I:

• analyzed and found common paths in their portfolio
• read related articles on Medium
• asked tips to other designers

In addition to that, i read a quick guide to the inbound marketing and i got that my contents must be organized around pillar pages so Google will perceive my website as reliable. And also social media are important for the web presence and they must be chosen carefully in order to engage the right audience

Finally I produced my doc with the content strategy, at raw level.

Then it comes the website

Then it comes the website

I would like that all the people ask me for a cheap website could read this case study.
Did you see how much work to get to this point? And this is only a synthesis!

At this point, starting from my brand guidelines and my raw content strategy I moved to the website design.
I started with the wireframing and copyrighting, all together, in order to test the visual hierarchy, the quality of contents and the goodness of conversion paths.

Just after the test i move to the visual stage and -finally!!!- i saw my branding very close to the end.
As last but not least, i brought all the contents and the design on Wordpress.
I was tempted to code my own theme starting from Bootstrap 4 framework (yes I also can do that!), but i decided to shorten the delivery time and use a site builder.

My focus now is not to code anymore, but use my energies in making myself a better designer. I decided to use my knowledge in HTML/CSS to facilitate the communication with developers.

I would like that all the people ask me for a cheap website could read this case study.
Did you see how much work to get to this point? And this is only a synthesis!

At this point, starting from my brand guidelines and my raw content strategy I moved to the website design.
I started with the wireframing and copyrighting, all together, in order to test the visual hierarchy, the quality of contents and the goodness of conversion paths.

Just after the test i move to the visual stage and -finally!!!- i saw my branding very close to the end.
As last but not least, i brought all the contents and the design on Wordpress.
I was tempted to code my own theme starting from Bootstrap 4 framework (yes I also can do that!), but i decided to shorten the delivery time and use a site builder.

My focus now is not to code anymore, but use my energies in making myself a better designer. I decided to use my knowledge in HTML/CSS to facilitate the communication with developers.

Conclusions

Conclusions

Branding has been a beautiful and hard journey, but i’m very proud of the result.
Next steps? Go on with testing, refinement, add analytics tool and publish new contents for people hungry of design.

Branding has been a beautiful and hard journey, but i’m very proud of the result.
Next steps? Go on with testing, refinement, add analytics tool and publish new contents for people hungry of design.

Read my Blog
or visit my LinkedIn and Instagram profiles

Read my Blog
or visit my LinkedIn and Instagram profiles