Blacksheep Mind Get the book, $15

A Blacksheep Mind web book · Brand and design

You made the logo yourself one night. You’ve never been sure of it since.

Seven steps to build your business’s whole look and voice yourself, with free tools, and put it on one page you use for the sign, the posts, the menu and the website. For small business owners, and whoever makes your posts.

DIY Branding Like a Pro for Small Businesses. Build your own brand, step by step, and make everything match.

The cover of DIY Branding Like a Pro for Small Businesses.
A web book: read it online and download a copy. Nothing is posted to you.
Chapters
7
Tools
3
Reading
52 min
Price
$15
Get the book, $15

Read it tonight on your phone or laptop. One price, no upsells. No refunds: you get the whole book straight away.

The moment

Your work is good. Your sign doesn’t say so yet.

  • The sign out front, made from a template the week you opened.
  • Your Instagram, in a new font every time one looked fun.
  • The menu or price list, in a pink you picked by eye.
  • The logo you made on your phone one night, and keep changing.

It isn’t bad taste. Each piece was made on a different day, in a different mood, and people who don’t know you yet see your page or your sign before they see your work. What’s missing is a handful of decisions, made once, in order, and written on one page.

What’s inside

Seven steps, in the order you’ll do them

  1. 01

    Write Down What You Stand For

    Three short lines: who it’s for, what they’d miss if you closed, and three words for how it should feel. Every later choice gets tested against them.

  2. 02

    Check the Name Before You Print Anything

    A 20-minute first check that nobody near you or in your line has the same name, and that yours works out loud, small and as a handle.

  3. 03

    Pick Your Colors From Things That Are Real

    Four colors taken from your front door, your tiles or your product, with their codes written down so they match everywhere.

  4. 04

    Choose Two Fonts and Let the Rest Go

    One font with character for your name and headings, one plain font for reading, three sizes, and nothing else.

  5. 05

    Make a Logo You Can Make Yourself

    Your name, in your font, in your color. Three versions, a test for the logo you already have, and what to send the sign maker.

  6. 06

    Sound Like the Same Person Everywhere

    How you talk at the counter, written down: the words you use, and your own lines for hello, sorry, sold out and closed.

  7. 07

    Put Your Whole Brand on One Page

    Every decision on one page, three templates made from it, and a copy for anyone who makes anything with your name on it.

Plus a short introduction and a closing plan to roll it out without wasting what’s already printed. 7 chapters, about 52 minutes to read.

A page from the book

The logo on someone else’s van

Step 5 · from the book, word for word

Make a Logo You Can Make Yourself

A case

The template on someone else’s van

Kwame runs a landscaping business with one van. One morning at the garden supply yard, he parked next to a van with his logo on it: the same mountain-and-tree template, a different name underneath. He’d paid for vinyl lettering on his own van the spring before.

His first reflex was to pick another icon from the same app, which could just as easily turn up on the next van.

Instead, he typed his business name in the heading font he’d chosen in Step 4, in his dark green, and added a leaf he drew himself from two curved shapes. He made a wide version, a stacked version and an all-white version for the dark van doors, and checked each at profile-picture size. He used it on his quotes and profile picture for a month, then sent the sign maker the font name, two color codes and a PNG of the leaf, not a screenshot.

The sign maker rebuilt it in under half an hour, for less than last year’s quote to redraw a screenshot. For the first time, the van, the quotes and the profile picture matched.

What to say
Instead of

“Can you make it look like this screenshot?”

Try

“Our logo is our name in [font name], free from Google’s font library, in color [#hex code]. Could you set it up as a vector file for the van?”

Instead of

“Just use the colors from our Instagram.”

Try

“Our colors are [#main] and [#dark]. Could you send a test print before the full order?”

The logo test checklist in the web book, on a phone, with three items ticked.
The logo test, ticked off on your phone
The name check checklist in the web book, on a phone, with two items ticked.
The name check, before you print anything

The tools

Two checks, and the one page you’ll keep

  • ChecklistCheck your name before you print itIs it taken, and does it work out loud, small and as a handle? About 20 minutes, before you spend a dollar on stickers or a sign.
  • ChecklistThe logo testKeep it, tidy it or rebuild it. Readable on a phone in 3 seconds, no template icon, three versions, and the files saved where you can find them.
  • WorksheetYour one-page brand guideYour name, colors with codes, fonts, logo, voice and templates, on one page. Print it, pin it by the register, and hand it to whoever makes your posts.
The one-page brand guide worksheet in the web book, part filled in with an example.
The one-page brand guide, with a made-up example filled in

Who it’s for

For owners who make their own posts and signs

For you if

  • You run a cafe, bakery, food truck, salon, barbershop, shop, trade or small online store.
  • You made your logo yourself, or a friend did, and you’ve never been sure of it.
  • You’re about to print something: a sign, stickers, menus, a van, a market banner.
  • Someone else makes some of your posts, and they never quite match yours.

Not for you if

  • You have a designer or an agency, and the budget to keep them.
  • You want legal advice on your name or a trademark. This book gives you a first check and tells you when to ask a lawyer.
  • You want a design course, or an app that makes it for you. This is seven decisions, made by you, with free tools.
Get the book, $15

7 steps · 3 tools · read tonight

Your questions

Before you buy

I’m not creative. Can I do this?

Yes. It asks for seven decisions with clear limits, like four colors, two fonts and your name as the logo, and gives you a test for each. You don’t need to draw.

Do I need a paid app?

No. Every step works with free tools. Where some apps charge for something, the book shows you a free way to do it.

I already have a logo. Do I have to start again?

No. The logo test tells you whether to keep it, tidy it or rebuild it. Plenty of people keep theirs.

Will it tell me if I can use my name, or how to trademark it?

No. It gives you a 20-minute first check and tells you when to ask a lawyer. Rules differ by country and state.

How long does it take?

About 52 minutes to read. Each step takes an evening or less, so you can do one a night for a week, or all of it over a weekend.

Is it for online stores or places with a sign?

Both. The examples include a cafe, a home bakery, a nail studio, a food truck, a landscaper’s van, a barbershop and a gift shop.

DIY Branding Like a Pro for Small Businesses

Decide it once. Write it on one page. Use it everywhere.

$15one price, no upsells
Get the book, $15

A web book: read it online and download a copy. Nothing is posted to you. No refunds: you get the whole book straight away.