My Rebranding Notes
Brushing colors onto faces and creating beautiful looks is only one part of what brings me joy in this work. The other part is the digital and tech side of things.
I’ve loved every bit of setting up my branding, designing my new logo, and my absolute favorite—resetup of my website!
I had to start over again because my Adobe Portfolio site just didn’t offer the features I needed. So, I went back to Squarespace. And let’s just say, I won’t be trusting WordPress again anytime soon.
As I’ve mentioned before, the tech part is easy for me. What really took the most time, and a lot of thought, was the brand and asset creation—deciding on colors, themes, and experimenting with different visual layouts in Adobe. In my line of work, there's a whole team dedicated for such things. In some cases, there's even companies running a branding business! There’s a lot of layers to it.
Website Update
I knew I had to repurpose my website from a plethora of stuff molded to a “creative universe” into just one that is Makeup Artistry. Apart from my socials, this will be the face of it all. This is what I’ll use to lead clients in, submit pro applications, and many more. So it has to look like a real Makeup Artist website.
Branding Colors / Theme
For me, this is actually where the branding thought process begins - deciding on the theme of the website. And it is truly overwhelming when you are presented with a lot of options from pinterest, adobe, and the general internet populace.
So I had to go back to the “why’s”. Why am I doing this and why did I go back to makeup as my creative pursuit? I know this was sparked by a wedding, and honed by a friend's confidence. Digging thru the visual elements of a typical wedding, I chanced upon the beautifully designed outdoor weddings adorned with pretty pink roses. Eventually, it led me to nature lol.
And so I know I wanted green, or a shade of green as a main color. I veered away from whites, since I may have overused it quite a bit before. As a makeup artist, or an artist in general, I shouldn't be afraid of color! Fortunately, Squarespace made it easier for me to pick a general color palette, it fits the vision perfectly.
The font family is just another thing you have to think of in a visual layout. Squarespace gave a lot of options as well so things are easier, I just need to pick one! I picked something more professional but still fun.
Layout
I remember having a mental block when it was time to start the layout process. My platform was ready, but I found myself asking: "What do I put in?" The way I got past that was by returning to the basics—laying out a pseudocode, creating an outline or draft for how I wanted everything to look, and deciding what information I wanted to include in each section. This is where crossover happens between my tech job and this whole thing. Wireframes is something I’ve always done at work, it was always enjoyable, so this was a blast.
Logo
The smiley face is not enough for this. I have to create something that screams “makeup artist”, but still represents me as a brand/person. I drew out logos! Tried to change stuff, drafted more, changed again… the process when over and over, only to be replaced by a perfectly made logo by Chatgpt!! This was amazing, represents my vision well, and it is an eye candy.
Marketing
I am not a salesperson. I guess I do not have that personality, I have been an introvert for quite some time. It’s probably the reason why I like just being behind the computer. I think that would stay as is. But I know I need faces and models to apply my makeup to! And the only thing to get those faces is thru marketing… So I got some marketing lessons from Emily in Paris and setup my own “campaigns”, a term I started using recently. These faces are from ChatGPT!
In summary, there are still things I gotta figure out here and there. I am just following Nike’s motto… Just do it!
