01 Jun It’s Angela Denly Writing and Communications version 3.0

A look behind the scenes at my new branding

It’s 10 years now since I took on my first freelance copywriting project. 10 YEARS. That’s not bad going for something that was just supposed to provide a bit of money while I had a new baby.

That baby is now a precocious-but-delightful 10.5 year old. With an almost 15 year old sibling.

A lot has changed. Not least of all, how I think about and approach my business.

Because it is a real business

Yes, this isn’t just a little bit of writing to keep my fingers in the game, and it hasn’t been for a long time now. It’s a real and thriving business. (My lovely accountant knows my love language is praise and tells me that I have a strong business. Thanks Holly, you’re the best.) And it’s a business that I want to keep growing well into the future.

Over 10 years, I’ve gone from doing a few little bits and pieces for old colleagues to then having my first website (AD version 1.0 – so embarrassing). After a year or two, I went and got myself my first logo (AD version 2.0) and a website with some actual design.

Now, it’s time for the next chapter and a new look for AD version 3.0.

What’s the story behind the new branding

Recognising that I’m now unemployable (ha) after a decade of self-employment, I invested time into establishing my brand foundations.

This process involved defining my brand values and what I stand for:

• Diligence: I’ll work hard for you, trying my best and caring about quality.
• Generosity: I believe in sharing knowledge, helping others and supporting people.
• Knowledge: I respect information, data and expertise, with a commitment to life-long learning.
• Versatility: I can adapt to what you need and offer a variety of services to help your business shine.

This led to vision, mission and purpose statements:

• Vision: A world that values knowledge and expertise
• Mission: Helping business owners share their expertise through clear writing that draws from a range of authoritative and reputable sources.
• Purpose: Fact-based writing for businesses

Ultimately, I want to be a trusted advisor to my clients, helping you to share your knowledge and expertise with writing grounded in research. I will help you communicate with empathy and clarity so your customers feel informed and empowered, not pushed into choices they don’t fully understand.

Bringing this to life visually

Earlier this year, I worked with By Jena Marie to bring these ideas to life visually. I’m not at all a visual thinker (I have aphantasia, which is the absence of internal imagery), so I really needed someone who could provide me with some concepts to review.

Based on my brand values, together with my love of birds and clean Scandinavian design, Jena came up with the concept of a carrier pigeon as the core visual for a theme of “delivering the message”. The vibe is minimal, yet bold and a bit playful, with cool colours and geometric fonts. We played around with the bird designs a bit, before ultimately landing on the final choice!

Extending the theme of minimal but bold geometric shapes, Jena also worked with me to create a set of assets that can be used to convey key themes of my work like:

• Connecting the dots
• Separating facts from fluff
• Streamlining a message
• Amplifying your reach
• Standing out
• Targeting the right information.

Together, I think it provides a new, strong look for my business as I step into my second decade and evolve my services to remain a trusted, strategic partner for my clients.

What I learned from the branding process

Getting deep into your business is hard – even when you work with other businesses to help them with this process. I found getting outside help to define my brand values and what I was all about really useful. And for the visual elements, that outsourcing was essential for me!

Jena helped me to come up with visual metaphors in a way that my own brain couldn’t. The outside perspective helped to bring all the pieces together – and that’s something that I regularly hear from copywriting clients. Bringing in an expert who can see your business differently and create the connections is so valuable. It’s also a great way to validate whether your own thoughts and views will resonate with your audiences, ultimately converting people to paying customers.

Growing up my business from baby to toddler to now a hopefully-not-too-awkward teenager means recognising what I don’t know and being willing to ask for help. I hope I can do a better job of that as a teenage-business than I did as an actual-real-life teenager!

Want to get my brain working on your words?

I’d love to get to know more about your project. Shoot me an email and we can arrange a time to chat.