112: Sandra Chau – How To Build A Strong Visual Brand & A Cohesive Identity
“Grow and evolve your business!”
SANDRA CHAU
Hey everyone! It’s Sally here, from Studio Ninja. Today’s episode is all about Sandra Chau.
Sandra is a creative director and a stylist. Known for her minimalist design aesthetic, Sandra takes a thoughtful and intentional approach to design and connect brands to their customers by elevating their imagery in new and exciting ways. Combining her discerning stylist’s eye and creative director’s intuition with a meticulous attention to detail from her past life as a lawyer, Sandra’s ability to get to the heart of a brand is exceptional. Sandra is passionate about cultivating an experience for your brand with sophisticated and show-stopping visuals. She is all about aesthetic and emotion – about portraying a thoughtful brand – but being bold and taking strategic risks at the same time.
Check out some of the biggest points from Sandra’s interview below:
How do you create a strong visual brand?
Yeah, and I think in the simplest way, I think when you think about sort of visual branding for your brand, it’s really that visual representation of your brand.
So it’s like all the visual elements that represent your brand, from your logo to your fonts to your colors to the design, to your images, to your videos, to your graphics, to the collateral, like all of that. And it’s really looking at it from a very holistic point of view, which I think sometimes it’s very easy to sort of go after those shiny things and the fun things and then not really look at it cohesively. So. I guess the way to make sure that, you know, your brand is very cohesive in that sense is just making sure you have that kind of element that runs through consistently. So whether it’s, you know, the vibe of your brand, the look and feel of your brand down to, you know, as a photographer, if you’re talking about, like, your images, your style and aesthetic, you know, what you’re putting out there all the way down to like your socials, how you present yourself, what you’re putting out there, the kind of portfolio that you’re creating for your work all the way to your website, to then your client experience, to then the deliverables and your collateral, all of those things.
So it’s really looking at that from a very holistic point of view.
How does your brand help customers to purchase from you?
So mean if we look at a brand and like I said before, when you’re looking at a brand, it’s not just the logo.
t’s like the fonts, the colors, all of that coming together to piece out that picture. You know, the type of font you choose, whether it’s something very cutesy or whether it’s something a little bit more high end and elevated, kind of plays a part in the types of people that you will attract, you know? So if you take and I know you’re a wedding photographer by trade, so if you looked at like a wedding photographer, even even if, you know, if you look at all the wedding photographers, all of you have different style and aesthetics, you have a different way of shooting. So then that should really translate across your brand, because that’s going to help you reach the right kind of clients that you want to be booking, the right kind of brides who actually, you know, resonate with your style. So that’s why kind of again, when we’re going back to like thinking about how you want people to perceive your brand, thinking about those kind of anchor points, those adjectives and things like that, that can really help you solidify that and also refer back to it so that you make sure you know, if you’re putting putting your portfolio together for your website or Instagram thinking like, okay, is this really going to attract that kind of, let’s say, fine art, high end brand that want to attract? Or do you think this is going to attract more of the bride? You know, there’s all those kind of little things that you don’t really think about, but you know, what you put out there is what you’re getting back, what you’re going to get back, whether it’s through your branding and all of that whole piece of the puzzle or whether it’s through your portfolio and all those things.
How can photographers make sure they are consistent on visual platforms?
Yeah. Mean think a couple of ways that is think is really great for brands to do is like you can use real covers so you can have like those kind of graphic templates for you that, you know, whether you make them yourself on Canva or whether you’ve got a graphic designer who create some templates for you that are kind of using like, say, your brand fonts, your colors, all those things, that’s kind of a nice way to keep things consistent, but think one of the beauty beautiful things about being a photographer, like we said, because you’ve got such a huge bank, you know, huge collection of imagery that is already reflective of your style and aesthetic.
Even if you used one of those visuals or piece them together or used one of those as like the cover. It’s almost like so easy for it to be cohesive already, purely because it’s your style. So think one of the biggest things though, I would say like, especially when you’re a photographer who has a huge portfolio or perhaps you’re pivoting and your styles kind of changing over time is thinking about, okay, this photo that I’m going to put out there or, you know, this wedding or this event that I’m going to put out there, is that the kind of stuff that you still want to be booking? Is that the style of work that you still want to be booking, and if so, then share it. But if not, no, it takes a lot of discipline to actually not share something that’s not quite right for the path that you’re trying to go on, or the kind of clients that you’re trying to attract. And but it all comes back again to your brand, to thinking about who you want to be working with, the price point you want to be, you know, targeting the kinds of clients that you want to be working with.
Thank you!
Thanks again to you all for joining us and a huge thanks to Sandra for joining us on the show!
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That’s it for me this week, I hope you all enjoyed this episode.
See you soon,
Sally
About Sandra Chau
Sandra is a creative director and a stylist. Known for her minimalist design aesthetic, Sandra takes a thoughtful and intentional approach to design and connect brands to their customers by elevating their imagery in new and exciting ways. Combining her discerning stylist’s eye and creative director’s intuition with a meticulous attention to detail from her past life as a lawyer, Sandra’s ability to get to the heart of a brand is exceptional.
