Simeon Goa

A shameless plug. If you know a business owner who could use some help escaping their brainstorm feel free to share.

Escape Your BRAINSTORM
A fun and effective way to get clarity and calm from your brainstorm. If you are caught in a brainstorm, drawing your ideas can really help. We talk, I listen. I draw. My promise You’ll see your ideas with actionable clarity.

See details here:
https://www.simeongoa.ca/escapeyourbrainstorm

Comparing yourself to someone else is like comparing apples to oranges.

Comparing yourself today to where you were yesterday, or last year, or two years ago is comparing apples to apples. Whether you’re an apple, an orange, you feel like a lemon, or a rutabaga, the only way to grow is if you compare yourself to yourself.

Too much stuff out there, and sometimes in our own heads, is telling us what we “should” be, and it’s garbage. I want to help. I am thinking of providing a low ticket offer to I help you visualize how far you have come. Seeing how far you have come in a drawing, and displaying where you can see it, can be a powerful antidote to the negativity nuttiness. My goal: provide you with a Vision Map that you can look at on the hard days, to help you not forget where you are coming from, and where you want to go. Participants will join me on Zoom, I will draw, in real time, their milestones. It’s aimed to give you perspective, be fun, celebratory, and give you a little boost. If this would be helpful for you post in the comments what kind of fruit, or veggie, you are to show that you are into this idea, and I will share the offer details with you.

Don’t believe the (negative) hype!

Happy Friday!

Hey Facebook peoples.

I am reaching out to therapists (in Victoria, B.C., but not exclusively), who may be considering going online for the first time, who don’t have a personal website. I am doing this because I live in Victoria, and aim to support local therapists, coaches and educators doing important work.

I also know first hand how hard it can be to make a website. It doesn’t make it easier that there’s a lot of stuff out there that is confusing, and manipulative. My intention is to clarify, and educate.

I created a resource page that is designed to provide therapists thoughtful information, and perspective. On the page I look at therapists’ websites and profiles on Psychology Today (the helpful and the not so helpful), and provide 8 things that I believe need to be on a therapist’s website, 13 things to avoid, four videos from other folks who I think are good around this topic as well.

Feel free to share with someone you think this could help, and let me know if you have any questions.

https://www.simeongoa.ca/psychologytoday

Greetings Facebook.
I am looking for coaches, teachers and therapists who are looking to go online for the first time, i.e. get a website.
I have an website design offer that I am working on that I would love some feedback. If you, or anyone you know, fits that description I would love to connect.
I would share a link with you, or the person. In exchange for feedback (Shared via quick Zoom call, DM or email) I am happy to share any thoughts or concerns related to strategy, social media, branding, marketing, websites, etc.

DM me here or email to [email protected]

PSA:

Hey all, just reaching out today to let you know I am focusing my content over on instagram for the next 6 months.

I am doing this because I need to keep things simple and easy on my end as I continue to share my work and perspective.

I post things here on occasion, but if you really want ALL my stuff head here:

https://www.instagram.com/simeongoadesign/

or you can get all my content to your email box by signing up to my newsletter (bottom of the page): https://www.simeongoa.ca/ I send it out once a month.

Thanks for the continued interest and support of my work.

Happy Friday!

Simeon Goa Logo, Graphic and Brand Design Simeon Goa | Strategic Graphic Design | Brand, Visual Identity and Logo Design | Victoria BC | Canada | Grow Name, Brand & Business Recognition: I help people uncover their unique visual strategy. Contact for a free intro project summary and proposal.

I have refined my CoDesign service and wanted to share it with you today just in case some of you would like to work as a CoDesigner on a project with me. Let me know if you have any questions, and here's the link to my sales page if you are interested:

https://www.simeongoa.ca/codesign

https://youtu.be/vCypgmv3Ms0

(I pushed myself to make my fastest video yet, I tend to be a bit of a turtle, hope that it is still somewhat helpful).

Why design is strategic? First off let me say that there is lots of talk about strategy out there, some is good some isn't.

A design methodology applied to your business helps to cut through the idea that you can't be strategic without other kinds of strategies (that are often dubious if not cut from the same cloth as many cookies... nothing against the cookies).

Design is strategic because it works from a four part approach to do the following:

1) Define an Achievable Goal
2) Create a Decision Framework
3) Establish Coordinated Actions
4) Assesses Outcomes and Refine

Why is design strategic? (I pushed myself to make my fastest video yet, I tend to be a bit of a turtle, hope that it is still somewhat helpful).Why design is strategic? First off let...

I believe that you have to understand the many meanings of brand/ing so that you can use it better (or decide not to use it at all), because brandishing the word brand in your content, or conversation, is more like agreeing to wrestle through a pit of snakes than holding a well weighted sword, better to do it with one's eyes uncovered.

To that end I love a good etymological breakdown and believe it is worth reviewing the etymological history of the word especially since the word has taken on so many different meanings in the last two decades. Interesting that it's old connotations are connected with fire as much as heat and warmth.

You can find the source here:

https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=brand

I was asked by the newly formed Westshore Football Association to help them tackle the refresh for their youth teams’ visual identity, The Westshore Warriors. Their old logo had some technical and design issues and they wanted to refine their visual identity into something that was more functional and unique.

I explored the wide world of Ws as well as variations on some stylistic themes including blocky (or slab) and sharp serifs. One of the interesting things that came up was whether to go with symmetry, or not, in the shapes of the W.

Given that visual identities work better when they are unique, there are already lots of W marks out there, and football is a dynamic game, an asymmetrical mark made more sense. The W also needed to be easily recreated in applications and materials like helmet decals (that means no small holes). The end result is a foundational set of visual identity assets to put forward a unique and reliable visual presence on and off the field.

Generosity or how to lead with Recognition.

I get a kick out of learning something new, discovering how to make something for the first time, and the surprise that can come from the creative process... The challenge, however, is when we are designing, or implementing designs to grow recognition for a business, a name, or a brand, it’s really important to remember that we lead people with how we show up.

We do this well to the degree that we make it easy for people to follow us. Splashing about in fonts, colours, patterns, illustrations, photos, etc. does not help people follow us and has the costly side effect of making a business unrecognizable. Now with AI, and the tools to create stuff one may never have thought possible before, at an exhilarating pace no less, it is easy to get greedy.

Now, this isn’t to say that if you are in the early exploratory phase of your business that you can’t experiment. But as soon as you have decided to make design part of your business strategy it’s really important, if you want design to work for you rather than against you, to bring a new level of focus to facilitate recognition.

Generosity, giving what you have it’s due, rather than seeking to create more and more and more, is so important in a world where technology is increasingly giving us the ability, or at least the impression, to be “endlessly creative”.
It’s important to be generous with what is central to how you show up, otherwise confusion becomes your message.

Thank you for reading this post, let me know if you have any questions.

I get asked on occasion to design something "iconic", or that someone is interested in creating an "iconic brand". My response to this is that no one can do this because TIME is the number one ingredient for any kind of "iconic status". Think about any brand that you believe is iconic, now think about how long they have been around. What we forget is that the time is just as important to the status of a brand as anything else.

The design of a strategic brand identity can help a business be successful, but it won't protect it from failure.

Think of your favorite artists, athletes, think of people who have "made a name" for themselves, or for others. It all takes work and that work all takes time.

So if you are thinking you want an iconic brand consider first TIME. Think about how long the brands you are thinking are iconic have been around.

And me know what you think, or if you have a question, in the comments. Thank you for checking out my post today.

Number 1 ingredient for an iconic brand I get asked on occasion to design something "iconic", or that someone is interested in creating an "iconic brand". My response to this is that no one can do ...

My first introduction to the acronym FUBAR, was the title for the film set in Alberta, Canada, about some headbangers who are intoxicated for most of the film. The film’s virtue, if you don’t appreciate it’s humour, is that it gives us a peek into what a lack of sobriety can do to one’s decision making (if you needed a reminder ;). If you don’t know FUBAR is an abbreviation for: f@ #%ed up beyond all recognition.

It refers to significant intoxication, and when it comes to the design and management of your (visual) branding it is best illustrated by two forms of intoxication Trend Benders and Tweaking Sprees.

Trend Benders: are inspired by the siren of staying relevant. These tempting acts (loosely rooted in the scuttle butter, read nonsense, that you have to keep up with what is popular) are purely quixotic, or just plain impractical.

Tweaking Sprees: the result of mis-channeling one’s inner artist, or designer, on one’s branding.

Both of these under appreciate existing brand, name, design recognition. You may feel like you have accomplished something at the end of the night, but the confusion the day after often tells a different story. This is especially the case when what were potential customers and clients are witness to the brand(bauchery) they can’t recognize anymore. The good news? If tempted by sirens, scuttle butter or treating your brand like a canvas, the remedy can be to take an art, design, or fashion class, or buy yourself something nice to draw with or wear. These also can provide time, giving you a sober way forward if you want to... yep... Design For Recognition.

TMI & Better (Brand) Decisions

In the early stages of business development it can be easy to get stuck having too many ideas or too much information.

You know you have Too Many Ideas when they are all weighted the same. You know when you have Too Much Information when you are stuck between two opposing opinions on your situation.

Whether you have Too Much Information or Too Many Ideas, the best way to tackle paralysis by analysis is to compare and contrast your experience against them, and ask what experience do you have that would really justify specific ideas and specific information.

The ideas and information that are closest to your experience are likely to be better than other ideas and other info. This doesn't mean that you don't pay attention to them ever again, it just means that you don't give them the weight you would ideas and info that help you make your next step, steps rooted in your experience and your perspective.

Finally, if you are experiencing TMI it's not the time to add branding on top, but when you feel good about the way forward then designing for your business in a way that means you can be agile or flexible with your business will mean that you aren't locked into branding and design that doesn't give you the opportunity to revisit those ideas and information later.

I hope this helps, let me know what you think in the comments.

TMI TMI & Better (Brand) DecisionsIn the early stages of business development it can be easy to get stuck having too many ideas or too much information.You know ...

In her book Building Distinctive Brand Assets, Jennie Romaniuk writes that a brand exists for three main reasons (paraphrasing here) to anchor ownership, associations and activities to your business.

Ownership: whatever is branded “belongs” to a business (also the oldest reason for branding in the first place).

Associations: how branding looks, feels, sounds (in the case of audio branding) contributes to how and what people think about it.

Activities: to help make a business recognizable where and how ever it shows up.

Notice that in none of these are about any short term performance. While a quarter or a year, may feel like an eternity if things are not going well, humbly engaging with all the possible candidates for why things aren’t going well often yields issues that can be solved without dramatic changes to how a business shows up. That being said a visual design or branding of a business or organization is often the easiest thing to change, but it is by no means the most strategic option if it is the only one being considered. When branding is the only consideration, often pride is lurking in the shadows.

We want to “send a message” to others that we are “doing something” to make things better, so we change how our business looks. We start to project negative associations on to our brand and in doing so “rescue” ourselves from own judgements by rebranding, forgetting that it’s real purpose is to help people find, follow, refer and recognize us.
By making dramatic changes to a brand with only pride by one’s side the result is often confusion from followers and buyers alike which is why you can find a host of tales online if you search “Rebranding fails”.

Humility in the face of such challenges is a much better companion and more likely to reveal the real challenges to a given situation.

Thank you for reading, let me know if you have any questions.

https://youtu.be/yio4T_wzQv0

Don’t make merch about you.

If you are going to make merch/merchandise don’t make it about you, make it something that others will value. Slapping your logo on a beachball will likely make it the least valuable thing in the house. Make something that people value and they are likely to keep it for much longer.

Don’t make merch about you. If you are going to make merch/merchandise don’t make it about you, make it something that others will value. Slapping your logo on a beach ball will likely ...

The 7 Virtues for Recognition... or why visual branding is hard.

Humility
When you are faced with a less than stellar quarter, or year, remember that how you show up is the easiest target for change. Being open to ALL possible reasons, not just how you show up, makes for a much better chance of recovery.

Sobriety
When you are tempted to go on a tweaking spree, aren’t certain if you hear the song of sirens or a muse, and are thirsty for improvements without broader consideration for how your business is already known, it’s time for sober second thoughts. Maybe take a nap?

Generosity
When you are looking to create a hoard, or army, of different assets and elements having an attitude of generosity towards your visual brand identity will help you stay clear of trying to create an unmanageable situation for you, and confusing one for everyone else.

Diligence
If you find you aren’t regularly employing your visual brand identity in a reliable way, in all your communications and marketing, it’s time to start doing so again to continue to grow recognition over time, and keep you top of mind.

Chastity
If you are oogling for new shiny things on Pinterest and Instagram know that this sets you up to under appreciate what you have and what you could do to strengthen what is already yours, never mind save you sooo much time and energy.

Patience
When you think that what your visual brand identity needs to do more of is communicate more of everything more about our business more, rather than help people think of you in the first place, it’s time for patience. Recognition, like Rome, wasn’t built in a day.

Kindness
When we think we need to start doing what others are doing, imitating others, etc., this is when we need to remember that our uniqueness is what will help us be memorable not the repetition of something already out there, or someone else’s doing.

Let me know if one of these helped you today, DM or post in the comments. Thank you for reading!

What happens when we get complacent and let our elected sell off public assets:

We let Bear Mountain happen without protecting parkland, now we likely will pay $45 to use it.
https://www.capitaldaily.ca/news/trail-use-fees-coming-for-bear-mountain

Check out what happened to parking in Chicago, where the city sold off ALL the city's parking to a private company (for less than it was worth) only to make their own people captive to extreme parking hikes (if you drive). In addition, public infrastructure can't be touched/changed without expensive repercussions for the next 7 decades (if you walk/drive/cycle/bus):
https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/paved-paradise/

Paved Paradise - 99% Invisible Parking, quite literally, has a death grip on America: each year a handful of Americans are tragically killed by their fellow citizens over parking spots. But even when we don’t resort to violence, we routinely do ridiculous things for parking, contorting our professional, social, and financial li...

I think that your visual branding and design needs to operate in a similar way to a sign system, helping people find their way, through recognition, to your business, marketing and content.
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​For a time I worked with the communications systems in hospitals, hotels and universities, and in those situations its really important to make sure that how all of the signs relate to each other makes sense so that people get to their destination.
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​Like these signage systems your visual branding needs to build on recognition regardless of where one first discovers your content or marketing and carry through to all of your touchpoints.
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​Thinking about it like a sign system you can get a better sense for how things are to relate, and move out of overthinking and reinvention.
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​Let me know what you think and if you have any questions I would love to hear them.
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What's your sign (system)? I think that your visual branding and design needs to operate in a similar way to a sign system, helping people find their way, through recognition, to your ...

One of the most challenging things that makers ( I know I don’t like the term either but it’s better than some alternatives) face is that at some point they come to a place where they need to make a decision, or a series of progressively more significant decisions, to start treating their craft more like a little business.

This is challenging because developing a craft requires doing things differently, doing things “my way”. Yet when we start to treat our craft as an enterprise, that we also hope to make an income from and/or share more broadly, we often think the approach we use to create our work will also work to communicate about it. And that may be in some special cases, but more often we have to help people find, follow, refer and remember us in a way that is more intentional and reliable.

I asked some illustrators recently, in a group that I am part of, what they thought of visual branding/design for their illustration businesses and one of the responses was “your work speaks for itself. It (branding/design) is just window dressing really.” The problem with this idea is that if I took this as a solid strategy my work may be remembered but I would not. Is that sustainable? And I would go one step further and ask why would we ever sign our work? No book signings, no album signings, no art signatures, etc.

Window dressing it is not.

When people see your work, or anything that is about your work, make it clear it’s your work (I didn’t say heavy handed!). And when you do this know that you are part of a tradition of makers going back (at least) to the Renaissance. Famously Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) went to court over his signature to stop others from using it. On a more personal note, some artists today sign their work to tell themselves that it is complete, and not to rework it.

How a maker communicates and designs for their craft is their signature. You know what I am going to say next right...? Yup! Design for Recognition.

Let me know what you think or if you have any questions, in the comments.

https://youtu.be/nw7TcbPp5h0

I have had a number of my clients talk to me about colour recently so I am diving into my general thoughts about it here.

The short of it is colour in your design or branding for your business is to represent your business in a unique way. While colour may mean something to you, and it may have cultural significance, those elements need to be weighed against how you can show up uniquely, unlike anyone else, in your market.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this, feel free to leave a comment and I will respond.

Let me explain.

We think that we need to make our business “look good”, but what’s behind this thought? Sure, we don’t want to make our business look like *insert slangy slang here*, but good doesn’t tell us what good means. It doesn’t provide any direction for better design decisions: what will work, what won’t, and most importantly why. It’s aspirational at best, and provides zero guidance.

Also, goals like “looking good” leave us vulnerable to how others look, making it more likely that we will start to emulate what others are doing, after all we think they “look good” even if we aren’t clear about what that means.

When we step on this banana peel we slip away from making our business look like our business. We fall into a situation full of other banana peels, uh oh!, because we have never made a visual decision for our business. Instead of asking “how can my business look good?”, ask “how can I make my business look more like my business?” because being recognizable is more effective than just looking good.

The good news is things like your message can provide some valuable info. Making sure your visuals are unique is key. Here’s an exercise:

Clearly write out everything you admire about another business. Describe it like you were telling someone who will never see it. What about this description feels like your business? How can you translate it visually in yourown recognizable way?

If you have any questions, comments or concerns about this let me know in the comments. And remember to avoid that banana peel!

Design: what makes one think about a business.

We overestimate what people think about a business. We underestimate what makes people think about a business. A distinctive name makes one think about your business. Content that is clearly coming from you, not from someone else, makes someone think about your business. Having a distinctive logo, illustration, photograph, colour, typeface, makes it easy for someone to think about your business. The more unique and visually reliable your business is the more you give someone what they need to think about your business. While it is important for you to understand what people think about your business, it is impossible for someone to think about your business at all if you don’t design for them the things that make it easy for them to think about your business in the first place.

The next time you catch yourself worrying about what one thinks about your business, ask instead what makes one think about it in the first place. How can you design your business to be more visually reliable and unique?

https://www.simeongoa.ca/uncloudy

Just a heads up about a new and improved service from me.
Uncloudy Day - Mini Visual Brand Design Review
Greater clarity for greater recognition.

For DIY brand designers & Late Blooming Solopreneurs

There is a direct relationship between the clarity of your design decisions, the clarity of your design, and how memorable your business is in the minds of your potential clients and followers.

You can go at it alone.

But if you would like a little help to move beyond cloudy design thinking I want to share the following with you.

There are four possible outcomes after joining me for my Visual Brand Design Review. They are...

1. Stay the Course
Your next step is stay the course to grow audience recognition. If you like, I will provide some ways for you to formalize what you are already doing as well.

2.Refresh
You are doing well, you have effective design elements in your existing visual branding, I provide you with the next steps for improving your design using voice, scale, colour & composition.

3.Leverage
You have effective elements in your existing visual branding, but others are getting in the way. I provide you with the next steps for how to leverage what’s working.

4.Redesign
Your business would best be served with a redesign. I provide you with my rationale for why a redesign makes sense, and how to go about it, and what to avoid.

There are also four possible outcomes for what you get out of this service. I am currently offering a sliding scale payment structure (directly tied to what you get out of this service). From $0-$240+ you decide at the end of the review what you want to pay based on the value you got out of the service.

Testimonial
“Extremely complete and professional. Kind, grounded, research-based, highly knowledgeable advice that is straightforward to implement.”
www.meganswanwellness.com

If you are ready to tackle cloudy judgements, and get the next steps to effectively design for your business, brand and content find out more and register at
www.simeongoa.ca/uncloudy

I think the dog and bone story is really important to remember when we are thinking or feeling that we need to change our visual branding for the sake of pivoting, rebranding, or taking things to the “next level”.

The story goes that a dog has a bone, walks over a bridge, sees a dog in the water that has a bone, wants the other dogs bone, drops their bone to get it, only to realize that it was a reflection, and now they have nothing. More often than not we decide to change things dramatically in our visual design or branding without appreciating the recognition that it has helped grow over time.

We sacrifice it for something that we don’t think we have.

It is true that what brought us to one stage of our business may not help us in the next stage, but rarely do we need to change how we show up dramatically in order to move our business forward.

I would love to hear your thoughts. Let me know in the comments section if you have any questions, comments or concerns about this idea.

The Dog and Bone Story I think the dog and bone story is really important to remember when we are thinking or feeling that we need to change our visual branding for the sake of piv...

I’m doing some service design research and was wondering: how would you answer these two questions?

*There are no wrong answers. Here we go:

1. What do you need your visual branding or design to do for your business?

2. What do you need your visual branding or design to do for you?

I would love to hearwhat you thinkin the commentsand will reply there if you share.

Thank you for participating if you do.

https://youtu.be/mOFDPjF2DEg

A visual strategy isn’t for you.

We often think in that "strategy" is about manipulating people, getting them to do things that they wouldn’t otherwise do for themselves and/or for our own benefit.

I would like to provide an alternative perspective: that when we create a visual strategy (logo, typography, patterns, illustrations, art, graphics, videos, word marks, etc) what we are doing is creating a strategy for people to find, follow, remember and refer our offerings, our message, our services, our name, our brand, etc.

A visual strategy needs to be unique and distinct, obvious even, because it is one of the strongest tools you can give people to help them remember you.

It isn’t about being manipulative, it's about giving people something that they can recognize over and over so that they it’s really easy for them to choose you.

Thank you for reading or watching. Let me know what you think in the comments, I hope this has been helpful to you.

A visual strategy isn't for you A visual strategy isn’t for you.We often think in that "strategy" is about manipulating people, getting them to do things that they wouldn’t otherwise do for...