Today we have Kami, founder of Kami Alicja, here to talk all things branding and design! Kami offers a huge amount of services around branding, design and websites, and you can find out some more about this below.
Hey, how are you today?
Hi, hello! I am great today, I actually just sent the first draft for a packaging client and I'm feeling very positive about it!
That's fab, tell us a bit about yourself!
So, I am Kami, I am the designer and founder of Kami Alicja. And within my business, I offer brand strategy, brand design, packaging and webflow website design ( UX / UI) services. Outside of design, I love plants, nature and going on nice walks with my dog!
What do you do exactly and when did you get started with it all?
I started designing in the 2nd year of my marketing degree, before that I never heard of graphic design and definitely never heard of brand design and so on. The moment I heard about it I fell deeply in love with graphic design, I research everything, read books about it, listened to podcasts and practise design. It began with just being arty, then creating my first business which was a t-shirt business on Etsy, to then selling logos to finally offering branding then strategy and more!
Branding is so important now for businesses, especially online, do you have any quick tips for building an effective brand? What are some 'donts'? What shouldn’t we be doing?
Branding is more important than ever! People buy products because of the brand personality and because they relate with it and this is created by branding! So my quick tip for building an effective brand is to focus on the target audience and your brand personality and AVOID looking at yourself and your preferences unless you are the perfect target audience. One thing that is a bit controversial is that I don’t believe every brand needs branding when starting out, the most important thing when you start your business is to just start. Then when you grow more and learn more about your target audience, competition the market that’s when you are ready to hire a brand strategist to design your brand.
How do you start building a strategy for a business?
The way I start building the brand strategy begins with a 1 / 2 hours call with the brand owner where I ask them all these questions and learn more about their business, their target audience their competition and so on.
So like I said before you need to know your target audience and be aware of your competition and the market you are in to hire a brand strategist, this is the info that I use to build a brand strategy. But don’t feel like you need to know everything usually the basic stereotype of your ideal client is enough to start building more and imagining the client in different scenarios e.g what they do on their weekends. Then these simple questions get turned into your target persona which is one of the aspects of a brand strategy.
When the brand strategy is finished you come out with a 15- 20 page pdf with:
Brand story
Brand goals & values
Brand personality
Brand positioning
Target audience
Competitor analysis
2 x concept mood boards
That sounds brilliant. Are you freelancing right now? What's that’s like with work/life balance?
As a freelancer it is very cool to work from anywhere, be your own boss, manage your time and pick & choose which clients you want to work with. The downside of freelancing is defiantly work/life balance as you are your own boss and you manage your time. It can be often hard to stop working because you are working for yourself the things you do will benefit you and this freelance business is your baby. But the thing I learned over my time working is that you should set yourself hours where you work when you get lunch and when you finish for the day and allow yourself to enjoy being your own boss and take a day off!
And what do you enjoy in your spare time?
I live and breathe design, so outside of freelance I also run a Youtube channel showing my design process and educating about design, ux/ ui, freelance and more! Outside of this you'll find me in the nature with my dog or reading a design book or listening to a podcast or enjoying my time with family & friends
If you are looking for a brand strategist / designer or wondering if you are ready for one. You can fill out my form on my website or if you have a question contact me on Instagram.
Website: https://www.kamialicja.com/
Instagram: @kami.alicja
Youtube: kamialicja
