Ideas to Incorporate in your Custom Livestock Brand

There’s two different ways to ensure that you get lots of variety of style & symbols within your sketches for your Custom Livestock Brand.

Although I prefer that you put extensive thought into your Brand Elements, I completely understand not knowing what you want until you see it. As a visual person, I’m the exact same way. I get it.

But, it’s worth noting - the more array you have in your sketches, the more “off the mark” we could potentially be. Being pitched 20 sketches isn’t as many as it sounds when you’re incorporating 20 different ideas. Not knowing exactly what you want before we enter into the process, and not providing ample backstory to help me narrow down ideas, forces me to create around what I am attracted to, not you. If the direction we want isn’t found within the first 20 sketches, we’ll either have to settle for a brand that’s “just okay” and doesn’t connect to you, or you’ll have to purchase additional sketches, driving up both the time, and the price, of your Custom Brand.

If you don’t know what you want in a brand before starting (which is TOTALLY okay) I absolutely BEG you to take the time to throughly read, reflect upon, and provide and equally lengthy reply to my initial discovery email.

Your personal stories provide me with nuggets of inspiration, unique ideas, and meaningful visuals that I can help incorporate into your brand.

But how do you know what to share? What kind of information am I really looking for? What can be a source of inspiration? I’ll list a few ideas here to get us on the right track:

1. Meaningful features on your property, or within your community. Whether it’s a particular ridge-line, favorite hay field, old barn, unique tree, specific ley lines, your wedding venue, the shape of your driveway, or something else, each of these physical objects can be represented within your brand. If these things are important to you, we can brainstorm a way to showcase them.
2. An inside joke, or a meaningful action performed by a loved one. One of my favorite designs to date has been a “thumbs up” Brand. My client’s grandpa had given her a thumbs up before every barrel run, and that was one of her favorite memories of him. She chose that symbol to represent him, and the things he knew that she was capable of. Another client chose to work a rose into her brand, to demonstrate her grandmother bringing bouquets to every one of her dance recitals. Other ideas can include a visual representation of a metaphor, belief, nickname, funny quote, campfire story, urban legend, long running joke, or something else.
3. Family history, family businesses, hobbies, or other interests. I’ve designed brands for mechanics, equine specialists, youth ranches, authors, retailers, decedents of bootleggers, native families, laser engravers, and so much more. In each of those circumstances, I was able to build a brand that represented who they were, what they did, and what they had to offer to the world. I’ve created “Whiskey Glass” Brands, “Horse-head” Brands, “Laser-themed” Brands, “Hex Bolt” Brands, and almost everything in between. If you’ve got a story, I’ve got an idea in my head to bring it to life.
4. How you want your brand to read, or what you want it to mean. I’ve worked with lots of clients who are starting over, and Hope Floats Farm was one of them. She wanted her brand to be a symbol of rising up from the ashes - and the perfect example for that was a “winged” or “flying” or “rising” Brand. I’ve had other clients who have opted to represent luck - those clients have chosen an upside down cowboy hat, horseshoe, or 4 leaf clover. Or there’s love - easily and most commonly represented by hearts, entangling, connected letters, or plus signs (like carved in a tree). There’s a lot of ideas, feelings, emotions, and connotations that we can reflect visually within your Livestock Brand.

You don’t have to be the creative one when it comes to creating your brand. That’s why I’m here. I bring years of experience in creating brands with specific meanings to reflect and represent specific ideas. All I need from you is the willingness to share, reflect on what means the most to you, and an ability to look outside the box.

Your Livestock Brand is a representation of YOU. Make sure that carries deeper meaning.