Why Your Brand Should Tell A Story
I love brands that feel like there's more to discover.
Liiiike...you stumble across the business and suddenly you're 15 minutes deep into their Instagram page or reading the names of every product as you scroll their website.
That's what discovering your next obsession looks like, and of course, you want your brand to become your audience's next obsession too.
So, how do we do that? Well, it all begins with a story.
No...You don't need to write an entire novel. You don't need a grimoire or a book of fictional lore that spans centuries.
Brand storytelling can be much simpler than that. Which is why I always start every branding project with a concept.
Take Black Manor Grooming for example...
The concept I created is called Static Shadows. It's all about nostalgia turning uncanny and gothic silhouettes colliding with analog glow.
Turning a concept into a world
For Black Manor Grooming, the concept creeps like shadows into a world that looks like a gothic horror film...with haunting cathedrals, unsettling arcades, and living rooms with flickering TVs.
So, when the project expanded to include label designs, not only did the label need to match the brand, but it needed to continue the story.
I asked myself: If this brand were a world, what else would exist here?
Because the concept is only the beginning.
The crow flies in, grabbing the VHS tape in its knife-sharp talons. You chase it through the forest where the shadows seem to shift the further you go. You cannot stop. Afterall, the tape said "Rewind or Die". You already feel your heart starting to slow...
The bat smashes through the glass of the window and lands atop the candelabra. It's soft body is impaled through the center. Blood trickles down the candle like wax.
The game hasn’t seen a player in over a decade, yet the screen flashes “GAME OVER” like a warning. Suddenly, it begins oozing black sludge that hits the floor, reaching towards your shoes.
You move through the arcade like you can still feel the ghost of humming neon lights. The gumball machine has a new inhabitant - decidedly less sweet than before.
Each graphic belongs to the same world. In this case, the same haunting, unsettling world.
This is one of my favorite things about approaching branding through worldbuilding.
Asking yourself what belongs in that world rather than what would look cool, gives you a completely different design problem to solve.
And weirdly, having those boundaries often makes it easier to come up with ideas!!
My goal isn't just to make brands look a certain way...I want them to FEEL a certain way too.
I want them to feel like something you can step into and explore.
Somewhere to lose yourself so you can find yourself.
Looking for a Brand Designer who uses storytelling & world building?
I create dark, gothic, whimsical, fantasy, and alternative branding for businesses that want to feel like stepping into another world.
Rather than stopping at a logo and color palette, I look for the story, atmosphere, weird details, and visual language that can make your brand feel entirely its own.
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