Episode 5 – The Dreamer and The Designer

Dana: Hello. Welcome to the Dreamer and the Designer. I’m Dana, the dreamer.

Chris: and I’m Chris, the designer.

Dana: And today we are so excited to talk about something that we’ve been working on for a big chunk of the summer and that is that we decided to re-brand our business.

Chris: Yes, very exciting. Um we are kind of sweeping everything off the table and starting fresh.

Dana: yeah, it’s been really cool. It’s also come with a bunch of challenges. So where do you start with a re-brand? So um I think we kind of went around in circles for a little bit but we kindof landed on this idea of ‘what is our collective spirit?’ I really liked the phrasing that Chris used with that because I feel like that includes the Dana and Chris-ness. If that’s a verb… anyway or uh… what is that thing that describes?

Chris: An adjective?

Dana: An adjective! I just made us an adjective. But also really just encompasses all of what our values are. So it’s been an very interesting process to just have that kind of conversation.

Chris: I think the start of all of this was when we decided that the name C. Breimhurst media co didn’t fully encapsulate both of us. It was a hold over from when I was completely independent but now that Dana’s here and putting in all this time and effort it just made total sense to think let’s just start over from scratch. So, one morning we were just talking and we were like ‘We can’t find something that is both of us so let’s see if we can find something that it still captures our collective spirit but still highlights our differences in a good way’.

Dana: So Chris what are the things that we did? Can you think of what we tried to ask ourselves?

Chris: We came up with a list of values and we tried to be intentional about not only defining the values but allowing that value set to inform and influence where we go with our name and our brand.

Dana: And that included brainstorming a bunch of words, a bunch of things, and then in the process of defining those for what it meant in the context of our company it helped us narrow them down so we didn’t end up using the full list that we brainstormed. Also what we used is metaphors… I love metaphors and like using them in my life. We stumbled into a metaphor: if we were a bag, what type of bag would we be? And so we were jokingly describing to each other if we were a bag. So I described Chris as a really practical good sturdy leather bag with brass clasps that lasts for 50 years. I was a satchel that everytime you dropped it, glitter would come out. Talking in metaphors gives you the value of a thing itself in a different way and so I think that was something that helped.

Chris: Stay tuned on our final name. We haven’t chosen it. It may or may not include some illusion to bags… who knows?

Dana: Yeah who knows what’s gonna happen! So yeah the rebrand is more than just a name. Our hope is change the name and really have the things that we say and the way that we say it capture collectively who we are and what we bring to the world of web development. So I don’t know it’s been an interesting exercise and one that has really been worth it to us… on so many levels… team building relational company wise… really worth it to us. Really encourage talking within your company about that– especially if you’re a family business cuz it’s important stuff it’s going to come up and keep coming up, so… Thanks so much for tuning in, thanks so much for watching… hopefully we will see you next time. See ya!