Candice (00:20.92)

Welcome back to the Power and Purpose podcast. It's me, your host Candice. And I have a special guest joining me today to talk all about branding and branding in the luxury market. I'm joined by Emily Foster from Emily Foster Creative. Emily is a brand designer and a website designer for wedding pros specifically. She's an award winning designer and I'm so excited to sit down with her today.

and to talk about why your brand may not be coming across as luxury and to even dispel some of the myths you might think around luxury branding. So Emily, welcome to the show.

Emily Foster (01:02.668)

Hi, thank you so much for having me.

Candice (01:04.984)

I'm really excited for our conversation today. I've just introduced you, but would you mind taking a minute to introduce yourself to our listeners?

Emily Foster (01:12.526)

Sure, yeah. I'm Emily Foster, technically Emily Foster Keller, but Emily Foster is my maiden name and business name. And I've been working with the wedding industry for about three years through my business of branding and website design. We do everything from brand strategy to custom branding design. And I really strive to strike that balance between creating a personalized brand that makes you stand out and

maybe is really colorful and creative and then also aligning you from a business standpoint with the wedding industry and the caliber of clients that you're trying to attract.

Candice (01:47.416)

Yeah. What I loved so much about how you described your business and the brands that you help wedding pros create is you talked about creating a timeless brand and a timeless brand doesn't have to be beige. And I think we're going to really dig into color theory today and talk about branding colors and how to switch up your branding a bit, but building a timeless brand. And in last week's episode of the podcast, I did a fun episode on how to know if your brand is looking.

blah, and if you need to sort of switch up your brand. And one of the indicators I mentioned was this, like, you could pinpoint your brand to a certain period of time where you're like, that was my quote unquote watercolor era, or that was my deer head era. And I talked about wanting to build a timeless brand in the wedding industry, something, a brand that could stand the test of time. And I love that that's part of what you do for your clients is you help them.

Emily Foster (02:29.621)

He

Candice (02:42.212)

create a business brand that they can rely on for years rather than it feeling really trendy.

Emily Foster (02:49.026)

Yeah, that's exactly what I try to get across with timeless. Like it doesn't necessarily mean the style itself, but the fact that it's going to be evergreen and yeah, exactly what you said.

Candice (04:09.666)

Right. Okay. All right, Emily. So let's talk more about luxury branding and luxury in the wedding industry. Before we dissect the biggest reason why somebody is not standing out in the luxury market, I'd love to have a little conversation around what luxury means to you and maybe even throw my two cents in as well, because this word gets tossed around a lot.

I've been in the industry a long time and I've been hearing this word since I started my business, like in the dark ages. So it's been around a really long time. And I think the word luxury feels like it evolves and changes. Everybody has a different meaning to it. So I'd love to know what luxury means to you when we think about wedding industry branding.

Emily Foster (04:54.446)

Yeah, so to me, honestly, like it means that you are the premium vendor choice in your area. I think I've heard people argue too, like technically every wedding vendor is a luxury when you're thinking about it from your couple's But usually it's like that 20 to 30 % top vendor in the area. But what I've noticed working with clients around the world, like luxury vendors look different everywhere. So East Coast, DC or New York luxury vendor.

They're going to be working multiple six figure weddings. They are going to be working with just a totally different caliber of client than maybe a West Coast, like Pacific Northwest vendor who in the luxury market is typically going to be working maybe 80 to 100 K weddings and not much higher than that. Whereas some of the even more affordable markets in the Midwest, luxury vendor is working like anywhere from 50 to 80 K weddings. So being at the top of your market in your area,

But I think where we get confused in the wedding industry is thinking that luxury vendors look the same everywhere. And really, I think the expectation for luxury is totally different based on who your client is and where your geographical location is.

Candice (06:08.122)

Yeah, that's such an interesting point. And to showcase the budget ranges of the types of weddings that a luxury vendor might work in based on where they're related in the world can just show you the difference between just luxury vendors in general and what's considered luxury versus what's not. Something in the 80 ,000 to 100 range in New York City would be like considered broke having a wedding.

Emily Foster (06:30.057)

Yeah, exactly.

Candice (06:31.948)

you wouldn't really be able to afford to do much where when you're in the Pacific Northwest or even in the South, that amount of money goes a lot farther. So yeah, that's an interesting distinction. When I think of luxury, think of experience. And so when I look at the luxury wedding market, I think about the experience your brand gives others and the experience they have in interacting with your brand and also the experience they give on their wedding.

And a luxury experience is so much different than somebody who's just throwing a wedding or having something that is less expensive or not really focused on the guest experience. so for me, when I think luxury, I think experience how something makes you feel, how you interact with it, what it says about you and your status. And when I think of luxury branding, I think all of that comes into play.

Emily Foster (07:26.168)

Yeah, I agree. think it is, you get a much more personal experience, right? With luxury vendors, it's more kind of handholding is what we say. Like sometimes it depends on your market, of course, and your niche, but more meetings and just a highly tailored experience. And that's definitely what I notice of luxury brands versus kind of mid -range brands is you also see that like tailored experience within the brand design.

Candice (07:47.395)

Yeah.

Candice (07:51.256)

Yeah, it's in everything you see in touch. So whether you're purchasing a luxury handbag or you're buying something from a luxury jeweler or staying at a luxury hotel, the whole experience is completely different than if you were to say, stay at a mass market hotel or you were to buy a purse from Target versus Louis Vuitton. There's just like a totally different experience that happens between the two. Yeah. Well, I want to know.

Emily Foster (08:14.38)

Yeah, definitely.

Candice (08:18.968)

Since the title of this episode is the biggest reason why you're not standing out in the luxury market, I would love to know from you what you think one of the biggest reasons why wedding pros are not standing out in this higher end, higher budget marketplace.

Emily Foster (08:36.94)

Yeah, I think there's a few reasons. So I think number one is that they're trying too hard to look like everyone else. And I feel like that's maybe the Achilles heel of what I see for people who are trying to get from that mid range to the luxury or even from like the luxury to the ultra luxury market is they are looking at all of the examples of people who charge more and saying, I have to be like that. And I think you do that across your whole business, right? Like

If you're a luxury wedding photographer, you're like, I have to get the same wedding planners on my preferred vendors list as that other luxury wedding photographer. And you start to look at websites and say, they all have black and white websites and I need to look the same. So falling into that pitfall, which I think is just normal because that's also what we experienced when we first start our business too, right? We see someone who's successful and a lot of us kind of can fall into

coaching programs and workshops and webinars because we think, that one person is doing it right and I have to do it exactly like them to be successful. So definitely looking the same like everyone else and then kind of not being consistent is another thing. When you are building a brand, it's really important that you have to be consistent and show up as the same brand over and over again. When you think of the most timeless luxury brands, like

Dolce & Gabbana, even Starbucks, I it's not fully luxury brand, but they haven't changed their brands a lot over time. Like they've really kept things pretty similar. And when they have done a rebrand, it's still in line with that original strategy. So kind of going through your eras phases, like you were saying earlier, and changing things up based on your mood and how you're feeling is something that's setting you apart in a bad way, but making you not

memorable in the industry. And then I think the last part is just lack of recognition of who your ideal client is. I know everyone's heard it, like you have to know your ideal client, do your client avatar and everything, but it really is true of if you aren't understanding who you're attracting with your branding, then you're going to fall into those two other pitfalls because you're going to try to look like everyone else and you're going to try to change things up all the time. And you're really going to be speaking to no one at that point.

Candice (10:56.996)

Hmm. Side question, since we're talking about switching up branding and sort of chasing your ideal client. When we think about our branding, should we be branding our business to what our ideal client identifies as luxury and what they're attracted to visually in the marketing messages that they're attracted to? Or should branding be something that's very personal to us and our personal style and like what we like?

Emily Foster (11:25.048)

think that it should be a solid mix. So I think that you need to understand your market and your client, especially as trends change and your clients change. Like know that we're all seeing this shift from millennial couples to Gen Z couples and expectations are vastly different. So understanding their expectations because that's just brand marketing and strategy at that point and knowing your audience.

But I think the way that you really set yourself apart is by having that personalization in the brand and bringing a little bit of your story into it. And I think it's important to distinct your story from your business's story. So we don't need to have like purple in the brand just because it's your favorite color. But we can have purple in the brand if it means something to your business and your brand's story and you can kind of tie it back to your ideal client.

Candice (12:16.804)

Hmm. That's a really good answer. Cause I think there is this intersection in branding, whether it's luxury or not, or there's an intersection in personal branding where you, you're visually your business needs to attract people to it. And our clients are so visual in the wedding industry, the eye is what buys. And so if your brand is all your favorite colors and like all your favorite things, and that is the polar opposite of what your ideal client.

finds to be luxury or finds to be attractive, they're not going to be magnetized to that. They're not going to be magnetized to you. And so you have to kind of think about what do they value? What are they like? And then what about your personal style? Like how can you infuse that into your business branding and messaging?

Emily Foster (13:03.564)

Yeah, definitely. And I think it goes back to your brand strategy too of knowing who your business is and who your clients are because like a quick example is if you are wanting to charge luxury pricing and have this luxury experience, let's say that you're an elopement photographer and you, it totally is possible as an elopement photographer to charge luxury prices, right? But you're all outdoorsy and you love the color green and that's who you are in your soul. But then if you're trying to book like these

Candice (13:09.475)

Mmm.

Candice (13:25.124)

Mm

Emily Foster (13:33.16)

many micro weddings with people who are looking for more of like an intimate ballroom experience, there might be a disconnect there. So it might be exploring like, is that actually your ideal client? Or do you kind of need to go back to the strategy and then pick your design selections from there?

Candice (13:49.122)

Yeah, that's a good point. All right. So one of the biggest mistakes we're making in our brand is following along with what other people are doing. And right now what other people are doing is a lot of black and white, a lot of neutral. Our Instagram feeds are flooded with it. All wedding planners are rebranding and they have very muted color palettes and they're using all the same fonts and kind of doing the same styles with their brands. And there's nothing on the face of it. It all looks very pretty, but

Ultimately, you sort of start blending in with this sea of sameness, everybody looking the same and you're not standing out. We're hearing from a lot of website designers that they're sick of neutrals and we're hearing a lot of wedding pros say that they're also sick of neutrals. How can we stick out in an industry where being neutral is sort of like the suggested...

suggested path you should take. can we actually bring color into our brands and make it luxury?

Emily Foster (14:52.056)

We can, yeah. And I'd actually love to talk with a person who said that you have to be neutral to be luxury in your brand. Like I wonder who started the train a long time ago. I almost think that it started with Chanel or something like that. And we were looking at luxury fashion brands and thinking that we have to look that way in the wedding industry.

Candice (14:57.689)

Hmm.

Candice (15:09.923)

Yeah.

Emily Foster (15:11.338)

So yeah, there's a lot of ways. You can choose accent colors as one example and bring in bright colors that way. You can also be really thoughtful with the rest of the design in your brand too. So I think that it's easy to think that color is all that matters when you're trying to create a luxury brand when really it's so much more than that. It's about hierarchy and scale.

It's about the typography that you select and the intricacy of the illustrations that you bring into your brand. So that is something that I actually see a lot when people do rebrand to a luxury brand. They go neutral, but they aren't considering those other factors in their brand. So they still kind of look cheap. And I think that's the most interesting case study when people kind of DIY a cheap brand. It's black and white, but otherwise it doesn't.

really appeal to any kind of luxury consumer. considering the holistic brand design and looking into again your brand strategy, understanding what kind of color psychology goes into those colors, and then not being afraid to bring in accent colors or different shades of color into your brand. So it could be anything from like one bold, vibrant accent color to a few more subtle

They are actually like pastels, but it could also be lighter shades that don't have like that Easter egg pastel feel that we've seen a lot in the wedding industry.

Candice (16:45.046)

So what you're saying is, is we can have color in our brands and we can be bold and we can be vibrant, right? With our branding, we don't have to follow this like a neutral beige, black and white vibe with our branding. can bring color and find that subduedness in the font choices we make or like find a balance between that bold, rich color that we might really enjoy. Our clients might love with something that balances that, that out.

Emily Foster (16:48.301)

Yeah.

Right.

Emily Foster (16:58.754)

Hmm.

Emily Foster (17:14.414)

Yeah, definitely. And I think that's what your clients expect now too, especially with this new generation. They expect you to be different. And if they're seeing the same neutral sameness as they saw with the last 10 tabs that are open on their screen, because let's be real, they have 11 tabs open on their screen when they're looking at you, they want something different. And so if they see that bold vibrancy in your brand, even if it is more than one accent color, like I said, that's not a hard, fast rule. So I don't want anyone to get stuck on that.

Candice (17:33.048)

Mm -hmm.

Emily Foster (17:44.398)

then they're going to understand that your process is different and what you deliver is different and can add a different fresh value to what they're looking for.

Candice (17:44.569)

Yeah.

Candice (17:52.982)

Yeah, you know, I get so many compliments on my brand and I appreciate all those compliments. My brand is very bold. It's very colorful. we have very bright, like neon colors. I don't think my brand looks cheap because it's colorful. And I think that it's very memorable. get

compliments all the time from people who are like, I knew that was you because I just recognize the colors and they reminded me of you. Or I might show up to something and somebody says, your outfits like super on brand and it leaves an impression and color can really, really does that. I think it leaves an impression on people and it makes people stand out. I would love to know, Emily, you mentioned cheap and I would love to know like, what are some of the telltale signs that

to you that somebody's brand looks cheap.

Emily Foster (18:44.824)

Yeah, I feel like I'm going to almost call people out on this. just know, I know this is the podcast to do that, right? The biggest thing I see is people thinking that monograms will fix the problem. almost like if you just got onto Canva and you put a CC on the design and then you put like,

Candice (18:48.772)

Do it! That's the point!

Candice (19:05.504)

you

Emily Foster (19:07.394)

Candice Coppola over it, but then you put like a white rectangle behind your name. So it just like cuts out this rectangle in the monogram. I see that all the time. And that's a sign that someone has DIY their brand because we could get into a sidetrack with that, but Canva doesn't let you basically cut out letters the same way that Adobe like professional design programs do. Yeah. So that's one thing is kind of like weird cutouts or cropping in logos, a monogram just for the sake of a monogram.

Candice (19:12.578)

Mm -hmm.

Candice (19:25.794)

No.

Emily Foster (19:37.518)

I would say big chunky bold letters can sometimes come across as more cheap, not always. So it can be done intentionally, but what I see like people doing when they're DIYing their brand especially, or maybe they hire like a really affordable designer is they pick a font that looks luxury and then they use the boldest weight of that. And that's a really easy way to make your brand look cheap. Kind of like if you think of like,

lower tier fashion brands that you might find at like Ross or TJ Maxx. Like they look almost high end, but they're just not quite there. But then again, you can also have bold fonts in your brand. So I don't want you to get too hung up on that if you're listening to this and think, I have to have skinny fonts only. Spacing is a huge thing. So what we call kerning is the spacing between individual letters. And that's also something that Canva can't do for you.

Candice (20:07.299)

Mm -hmm.

Candice (20:13.048)

Mm -hmm.

Candice (20:33.379)

Mm -hmm.

Emily Foster (20:33.71)

It can do tracking, which is the spacing between all the letters in a word, but that's something that people get wrong too, is they bring their letters way close together. I call it like the millennial trendy design because there's even some website designers out there who are like making all their words just like one chunk of letters. Or like there's five miles in between each letter because you heard on some podcasts once that you are supposed to space out your letters to make it feel luxury.

Candice (20:51.098)

Mm -hmm.

Candice (21:00.152)

Mm -hmm.

Emily Foster (21:02.73)

And basic brands too. I think that's another thing. It can include color, but it can feel really cheap to just be black and white in your brand sometimes if it's done really badly. And you wouldn't believe the amount of photographers I see. I know I keep using that as an example, but they put all their photos in black and white on their website and their brand is black and white and it still doesn't look high end because they haven't thought through other details. Like they have Dutch angles and like early 2000s weddings and their portfolio and stuff. So

Candice (21:21.39)

Mm

Candice (21:31.352)

Mm -hmm.

Emily Foster (21:32.212)

making it too basic in terms of colors and then also making it too basic in terms of design where it just looks like kind of text on a page when you look at your logo. You don't have to bring in an illustration to be luxury, but it could be a good idea to differentiate yourself and stop yourself from feeling cheap. So those are just some of the many mistakes that I see really often with wedding vendors.

Candice (21:51.012)

Yeah.

Candice (21:56.174)

That was a lot and those were all really good. I'm gonna throw in one too that I see very often and it drives me crazy and if I've ever critiqued for any of the women in my mastermind or for anybody that I've ever gotten a chance to like review something of yours and give you a video back, you've heard me talk about white space and like how important white space is in design. Let things breathe.

put some white space or some room around your text, around your paragraphs, around your pictures, and I feel there's no easier telltale sign that you have DIY'd your website or that something is done cheaply than when everything is shmushed together and there's not enough white space or margin or balance between objects.

Emily Foster (22:44.364)

Yeah, I totally agree. And overdoing it with the drop shadows and the gradients and embossed detail too. that's the big one that I see. Rental companies seem to be really on the hype of like hot pink and like gradient gold colors is what I've seen. Yeah, I've seen a lot of like gradients in people's logos where I think it's because you think that you add that metallic shine to your brand that it'll make it feel more high end, but.

Candice (22:46.2)

Yeah, drives me nuts.

Candice (22:50.574)

Yes!

Candice (23:03.076)

Really?

Candice (23:11.162)

Yeah. No, no, it is it's a little it can feel very Liberace and it can be very like mid 2000s like 2010 feeling that was very popular back in 2010, where we all had this like faux gold foil vibe going on in our logo and like gold foil belongs on paper belongs on something tangible, not necessarily a digital logo and it can look really cheap when not done.

Emily Foster (23:13.526)

It's a little flashy.

Candice (23:40.342)

or it can just make your brand look really dated, which then also makes it look kind of cheap and no longer luxury.

Emily Foster (23:48.76)

Yeah, that's a good point actually about the era that it came from because that kind of goes back to the timeless evergreen brand that we're talking about is I think following trends is ultimately the biggest way because all of these kind of fall into trends because you're trying hard to look like something else that you saw on Instagram last week. But falling into trends is a big way to make your brand look cheap and I see it a lot.

Candice (24:12.3)

Yeah, it's everywhere. And listen, I think if you're listening to this and you're thinking, holy shit, like I have a gold foil logo, like black and white beige website, don't panic. Don't just relax. This is for you to really think about your business differently and to also see that there can be some flexibility in your branding. And you don't have to stick to a formula that you're copying from someone else that you admire.

Emily Foster (24:23.63)

Don't panic.

Candice (24:40.58)

whose brand may be very prominent and noticeable, but they also have other things going for them that's making their brand luxury or positioning them in front of luxury clients that you may not have access to at this point in your business. this is just giving you more options to really consider and play around with your brand so that you can be more memorable. We're talking about color, and I'm so glad that you are encouraging us to explore color and to...

Candice (25:09.892)

find color to infuse it in our brand? you feel like some colors are more luxury and that other colors maybe should be avoided or is it like fair game?

Emily Foster (25:20.832)

I honestly think it's fair game with the caveat that it's all about the palette that you create and the shades that you use. So kind of like we're talking about like with design and white space and scale, there's actually a lot of factors that go into your color. So it's about using primary colors and secondary colors. And when I say those, I'm not talking like the red, yellow, blue kind of dynamic, but.

Candice (25:44.761)

The color wheel. Yeah.

Emily Foster (25:46.062)

Yeah, but basically choosing like the hierarchy of how do you use your colors and then how many colors you use. So that's also a big mistake that I see people do is like choosing more than like eight to 10 colors and that again back to consistency. So keeping your colors down, especially if you have a colorful brand, like you don't want to bring

every single color of the rainbow necessarily into your brand. And you can't have a rainbow brand for sure. Like I know your brand is very bright and bold and colorful, includes multiple bright colors. So that's very doable for wedding vendors, but you just don't want to have like 20 different colors in the palette. And then also looking at the shades. So I would say in general, like purple can be more luxury kind of across the board. Blue often

pretty much any shade you could use as a luxury shade, maybe besides like the true cyan blue that you see like come out of a printer. But then otherwise, I would argue that any other color can also be perceived as luxury, even if it's one of those like harder to work with colors like orange or brown, I think it's still very possible to bring in a shade in an intentional way with your color palette and have it look good with a luxury brand.

Candice (26:41.156)

Mm -hmm.

Candice (26:51.268)

Hmm.

Emily Foster (27:00.334)

We're also seeing a lot more greens being used in brands. I think especially as we kind of are seeing some markets shift to like more micro weddings and elopements and experiences like that. Or if you're in a tropical area, then green can very much be luxury. So I think that anyone who tries to tell you that there's like one color that you have to avoid is maybe limiting you a little bit. I think that there's a way to bring any shade in.

Candice (27:04.612)

Hmm.

Emily Foster (27:27.658)

intentionally as long as you're being strategic with the rest of the palette.

Candice (27:31.534)

Yeah, that's a great point, actually. It's not just one color that'll make your brand feel luxury or make your brand feel cheap. And it's not just color that makes your brand, color in general that makes your brand feel luxury or makes your brand feel cheap. You had mentioned earlier, there's this balance between typography and other design elements and how things just all work together cohesively that tell a greater story about your brand. I'm wondering if we could.

get people thinking about color a little bit by maybe sharing some examples together of bright and colorful brands that are successful that people might recognize, but that also convey luxury. So they can maybe see it around them when they think of these brands and they see the color in the brands, how those brands are still conveying luxury, even though they may have rich color. So when you think of a luxurious brand that also has color, what comes to mind?

Emily Foster (28:25.326)

Yeah, a lot of brands in the beauty industry and then like chocolate and wine industries as well. So one example is Drunk Elephant or Glossier. They still charge pretty premium prices compared to like drugstore brands. Or if you look at like Naked or Too Faced, even like Clinique, all of those. I was using a Dolce & Gabbana perfume today, like the light blue one, and that's a pretty colorful design, like bringing that blue in.

So they all bring color in a really tasteful way. A lot of them use accents, but then there is like Too Faced. It's a really fun brand. It's not necessarily what you would think of as the stereotypical luxury again when we're talking about like Dolce & Gabbana or Chanel or something, but it does actually charge like fairly similar prices and they bring in a lot of colors into their brand, but it's always in a balanced way. And then kind of like Drunk Elephant, Glossier, they have like that.

accent color in their brands. Chocolate companies too, like Cadbury or Lint, they bring in really bold, rich tones into their brands and you purchase their products. You look at the packaging next time that you're at the store and the whole packaging is a solid color. So it's also possible for your website to look like that, to have really solid, rich colors in the background, but still have that white space or the negative space that you're talking about so that you have that balance.

Candice (29:54.158)

Yeah, these are great examples. When I think of luxury too, I think of like Hermes, which is probably the most luxury brand on the market, right? You have that Hermes Orange, which is, as Emily mentioned, one of the hardest colors to kind of convey in a brand. And Hermes is known for it. When you see Hermes Orange, you know it's Hermes Orange. And this is one of the top brands in the world, the most expensive brands, the most elite, the most exclusive brands.

Emily Foster (29:54.488)

and

Candice (30:23.704)

So you have Hermes Orange, have Prada Green is very, Prada is a luxurious brand and they have this beautiful green color, this mint green color. You have Gucci, which is like an explosion of color and pattern and like shit everywhere, which you're known for. So those are some luxury brands that use color. But I guess in our mind, we think of something like Chanel, which is like your classic Chanel black quilted bag with gold tarred wear.

Emily Foster (30:27.67)

Yeah.

Emily Foster (30:40.8)

Yeah.

Candice (30:53.422)

very clean, very crisp, very old money, old luxury. And Chanel too is just black and white, right? And that is one brand story, but there's so many other luxury brands that make use of color.

Emily Foster (31:01.655)

Yeah.

Emily Foster (31:07.926)

Yeah, and I think Chanel is a good example of how maybe we need to take apart what we mean when we say luxury. like what you use the word classic. And I see that mistake a lot when I have people inquire with me because at first, like on the inquiry call, they're like, I need a high end brand. It needs to be luxury. And so they kind of start to associate it with that. And then when we get into their brand strategy, it's like, okay, you don't actually want a classic brand like what Chanel has.

You want a brand that's fun and bold, but still high end. So maybe taking apart, like when you say timeless and luxury, does it actually mean like classic and neutral? Does that make sense for your clients or does it mean a different fresh direction? I was also thinking when we were talking about like choosing your colors and what colors are luxury or not, thinking about the way that you use them in the shades. Like an example is like if you think of like Claire's, like the kids jewelry store versus Hallmark.

Candice (31:50.607)

Yeah.

Emily Foster (32:04.426)

They're totally different vibes, but they both use purple and even a darker purple in their brands. But if you think about those logos side by side, they look nothing alike. So that's kind of another example of how to use color in a really strategic way and balance it with your other design decisions.

Candice (32:22.392)

Yeah, that's a great point too. It's fun kind of thinking through different brands and how they use color and what conveys luxury or when you think of a brand, what reminds you of luxury versus what you think of as cheap or inexpensive. You just look at something like Target and Walmart and I would put Target in more of like the luxury.

Emily Foster (32:24.749)

Yeah.

Candice (32:42.874)

category, right, versus Walmart, and you look at different colors and the way that they brand their businesses and the experience you have in each individual store. I remember a colleague of mine way back when this is like many, many years ago, this is when I was just really starting to understand branding and luxury maybe back in like 2009.

Emily Foster (32:44.43)

Mm -hmm.

Candice (33:04.524)

She said, I want to provide an experience to my clients like Nordstrom. I want to give people the Nordstrom experience. And I hadn't really ever thought about giving customers the experience that you would have like in a department store in your business. And if you've ever had the fortune of shopping at Nordstrom or a store like Nordstrom, but Nordstrom is, guess they have their own way of doing things. It's just a different experience than shopping in a Target or in a Walmart or in another type of department store. The layout of the store is different.

the sales associates, how they greet you, how they speak to you, how they show you around, get free alterations or giving you free samples. Like everything about it feels so different than when you walk into Walmart and have a Walmart experience. I feel like if you were on this precipice of wanting to rebrand your business and now you have Emily's permission to use color.

Take your own experiences of interacting with companies and use that to inspire you to the same type of experience that you can give your clients.

Emily Foster (34:10.262)

Yeah, I love that. I've always thought of the restaurant experience too, like fast food versus mid -tier versus like high -end. Like how a five -star restaurant that serves burgers is gonna be different from Red Robin even, which is totally different still from McDonald's. But all of them can have bold and vibrant brands. yeah, thinking about the five senses too, I think is important. I know that we've been pretty much just talking about the visual sense today, but.

Candice (34:14.422)

Mm -hmm.

Candice (34:18.605)

Mm -hmm.

Candice (34:24.654)

Mm -hmm.

Candice (34:30.798)

Yeah.

Candice (34:34.596)

Mm -hmm.

Emily Foster (34:38.528)

In your brand, can really think about what are the textiles that your clients are interacting with. So if you get business cards printed, how could the texture of that, maybe it's a really matte smooth kind of finish to your business cards instead of a shiny, thin, cheap texture. All of that plays a huge part into that Nordstrom experience that you're talking about.

Candice (34:58.348)

Yeah, just, wedding industry is about details. And I think our clients notice the details and they, especially in the luxury market, they notice and appreciate the details. That's what they pay for because they could go to any business to really solve the same problem of needing a photographer, a planner, an imitation designer, a caterer, but they choose to hire certain brands over others because of the experience it gives and the attention to detail.

Emily Foster (35:28.321)

Yeah, definitely. And I think the reputation too, especially when you're talking luxury, a lot of probably your business is coming from referrals or preferred vendor lists, things like that. It's not always just off the first interaction on an Instagram post. And your reputation is your brand. I think that we could use those interchangeably. And people kind of forget that when they're building. So I think that's something to keep in mind.

Candice (35:34.329)

Yeah.

Candice (35:54.764)

yeah, for sure. We could talk about this all day. I love these types of conversations. I hope that you're feeling inspired to rethink what it means to be a luxury brand in the wedding industry and what it means to be the premium choice for your clients and your couples. I would love to know, Emily, when we look at like showcasing our work, because the eye is what buys, right? So we have

Emily Foster (35:57.996)

We could.

Candice (36:24.898)

A beautiful brand, beautiful website is very colorful, but then we're really trying to show people the images of the work that we do. And those images, the work that we do, maybe the colors don't match the colors of our brand. And so I feel like that's one of the reasons why people rely so much on neutrals because there's like this neutral foundation to your brand. And then the images of your work get to really pop.

So how do we balance wanting to showcase some of the weddings in our portfolio or our work if it competes with the colors in our brand or if it just feels like too Gucci, like there's just too much happening, too many patterns, too many colors, and it feels very distracting. Like how do we balance that?

Emily Foster (37:06.316)

Yeah, think thinking of your website design a little bit separately from your brand, so it definitely should infuse your brand still. But one example is like, let's say that you choose to bring hot pink into your brand, but most of your work is kind of like neutrals and pastels. So you could have like hot pink as your main primary logo design and then have the background of your website be a more neutral tone.

And then you could have pops of color maybe in your Canva templates that you use on Instagram and your business card and the tissue paper that you mail to your clients. That way on your website, the actual design isn't clashing. Like you just have small accent colors and then you have your galleries that are more neutral. On the flip side too though, I encourage you like if you do have colorful work, like if that is part of the reason that you're making a colorful brand, then show the colorful work.

especially if you find that those are the clients that you love to work with. I just had a planner client and she does a lot of colorful work, but she kind of wanted to attract more of the neutral clients. So we showed more neutral work on her website instead. so that was a strategic choice where it could have easily gone the other way of if she really wanted to show more colorful work, then we would have opted to curate that.

and kind of talking about how luxury clients care about the details. It's all about being selective with what you have. If you have a lot of experience or a lot of galleries, like you have more freedom to do that and be really selective with every single photo. So don't think that you have to kind of give them the kitchen sink and show them everything. Just be really tasteful with who you want to attract through the images that you're selecting.

Candice (38:38.372)

Mm -hmm.

Candice (38:44.172)

often do you think we should be switching out images on our website? Like I feel as though this really depends on where you're at in your career and the types of weddings you are involved in. Obviously, if you're upleveling your clientele, you want to keep those images as fresh and as current as possible. But should we be going to our websites after each wedding season and refreshing the images? often does it even matter? Like, what are your thoughts?

Emily Foster (39:06.86)

Yeah, it definitely matters. Especially I think for photographers, wedding planners, designers, calligraphers, like anyone where your aesthetic really matters. Venues, I feel like can sometimes get away with stretching their photos a little bit longer. But I would say anytime that you start to feel a shift in your audience, which because we are like such a kind of short -lived client base in the wedding industry, your audience is changing. So

you have to kind of keep up with that and keep up with the times and make sure that you're updating your portfolio every time that you feel like maybe the clients that you were working with in the past are a little older and they're not really booking you anymore. That's kind of the long -term change that I see. But then also, especially if you are in an earlier stage of your business, probably anywhere from one to even like eight years in business, you probably are kind of changing the clients that you want to work with.

every one to two years and you're either niching down more or you're raising your prices or offering a different change in your services. So being really thoughtful with how your portfolio needs to change with that.

Candice (40:07.066)

.

Candice (40:14.444)

Yeah. So something that's really important because the eye is what buys. And so if somebody goes to your website and the weddings feel like dated or things just don't, they're not clicking. People are going to filter themselves out.

Emily Foster (40:26.542)

Yeah, yeah, and I think like your galleries are kind of the opposite of your brand. They definitely make, they influence the feel of your website and brand. But when we're saying your brand should be timeless and evergreen, I'm saying that it should last like at least five to 10 years, if not longer. That's why I use like Starbucks, Coca -Cola as examples of like, they have timeless brands, but your portfolio is not timeless, unfortunately.

Candice (40:32.218)

Hmm.

Candice (40:41.485)

yeah.

Candice (40:50.03)

Yeah.

Emily Foster (40:50.776)

with the wedding industry, you know, dresses and ring styles and florals will immediately call you out and cake designs. So if your work is showing those, then it's kind of gonna call you out and like make you stand out as dated pretty quickly. Yeah.

Candice (41:04.966)

yeah, yeah. Almost instantly, especially with Gen Z because they can tell a millennial, you know, from they can spot us from a gazillion miles away. And it's not just our skinny jeans and our side parts just to make a joke, but no, seriously, I think, you know, today's modern client.

Emily Foster (41:15.778)

Yeah.

Candice (41:23.294)

wants a modern wedding and wants a modern team at the helm of designing an experience for their guests, especially the luxury experience. And so you kind of need to balance your business to appeal to a Gen Z client, but also their parents who are going to be Gen Xers, I think largely, kind of finding a brand that kind of balances the two and understands current trends. And they can see that on your website without feeling trendy. It's not an easy

needle to thread, is why you, when you're at a certain position in your career, you have to hire somebody to help you figure this out. You need some kind of brand strategist to make sense of this and to also like help you like save you from yourself and your desire to like use all the things in Canva and to follow every shiny object and to follow every design trend that's currently on your Instagram feed.

Emily Foster (42:09.336)

Yeah.

Emily Foster (42:16.034)

Yeah, yeah, and I have like two thoughts. There's a third person that I kind of want to add in there too, like if you're trying to get into the luxury market, and you can probably speak to this since you have so many years of planning experience, but if you're anyone other than a planner, you also need to be kind of thinking of luxury planners as your audience based on your market. So I think that's the biggest thing I see when you're shifting from that mid -tier to luxury market.

Candice (42:32.622)

Hmm. Yeah.

Emily Foster (42:40.814)

You are probably still booking couples, maybe parents, probably like 50 -50 from what I've seen of a lot of my clients. But when you make that shift to luxury, it's kind of like 75 % wedding planners, 25 % parents or couples. thinking about what they want and if they are taking care of their business and taking themselves seriously, then they're looking for serious brands to refer because they don't want to be associated with the embarrassment of a cheap brand, basically, for lack of a nicer way to say it.

Candice (42:54.404)

yeah.

Candice (43:03.895)

Mm -hmm.

Candice (43:09.219)

Yeah.

Emily Foster (43:10.316)

Yeah, so like that's one thing. And then I think also considering like, sorry, I totally blinked on this. I had a thought, but that's the second part. Sorry, Candice. What was the other part that you were saying was like about, we were talking before about planners and parents booking. And I was.

Candice (43:25.658)

That's okay.

Candice (43:32.642)

Mm -hmm. And I was just saying hiring a brand designer to help you make sense of all of this. Yeah.

Emily Foster (43:36.68)

yeah, okay. I think the other important factor to think about is when you are outsourcing a professional to help you in your business, a qualified brand designer and brand strategist will also be prepared to collaborate with you and kind of call you out to make sure that you are putting yourself in the right direction. So I think that's the thing that sets.

kind of like a more affordable designer apart from a higher end designer is you're hiring an expert when you work with a designer. so they'll kind of like gut check you throughout the process because I think it's our brands are so personal. So if you are feeling really attached to your brand and you're like, but I really have to have this shade of pink in the brand because it's my favorite color. A qualified brand designer will kind of go back to the strategy and be like, okay, but you told me that this is the client that you want to attract and these are your goals and this is your pricing. So

Candice (44:25.786)

Mm -hmm.

Emily Foster (44:28.364)

I really don't think that the pink makes sense based on this research and these facts. So that's really important to consider along with that when you're outsourcing is making sure that you have someone who's going to kind of guide you through the process and not just let you control the vision entirely. It should be collaborative so that you're able to get out of your head and get out of your Canva file.

Candice (44:45.496)

Yes, sir.

Candice (44:50.38)

Yeah, absolutely. And there should be a why behind the decisions that are being made. And a quality brand strategist is going to tell you why or why not something will or will not work, right? They're going to kind of guide you with the strategy that they're going to come with receipts and fax as to why something might be a good idea or not. And ultimately, that's what you're paying for is for somebody to be an expert and to guide you.

with their expertise and experience. I would love to know, and I'm to put you on the spot here, Emily, what do you think is going to be like today's version of the deer head logo or like today's version of the digital gold foil logo? Like what are we seeing today that in a few years time, we'll look back on and be like, that was my watercolor phase or that was my skinny jeans era. What's the style that you're seeing?

Emily Foster (45:46.808)

Yeah, I feel like this one's already kind of phasing out a little bit. The floral ring is a big one, like the circle with the florals that are kind of around it. The monogram, just for the sake of the monogram, is something, the handwritten logo too, like it can work again if it's in gear with your client, but I see a lot of people say, I just want my signature as a logo, because I've seen that before, so.

Candice (45:52.292)

Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.

Emily Foster (46:14.508)

Your signature is unique, but it's not always the main way to go. And I think fully black and white brands, honestly. I think that even if you do have a neutral brand, we're moving into an era where it's not just black and white and like one shade of gray anymore. I think that there's a lot of neutral brands that are like made up of blues or kind of creams and things like that. So it's not just like those hard neutral colors anymore. What do you think?

Candice (46:24.057)

Hmm

Candice (46:42.008)

Yeah, neutral can mean different things. No, I agree. I think it's interesting to explore what neutral really means. mean, to me, neutral is more of a subdued palette where there might be more than one color of blue, but it all meshes together and it's on the spectrum of color. Like you were talking about earlier, the wheel of one color. You're seeing different saturations and variations of it. To me, can be a neutral brand without feeling beige or without being blah.

Emily Foster (47:08.62)

Yeah. Yeah. I just thought of one more trend. I almost wish that we could like screen share on this call, but like the door shaped logos, like where it's like the like curve with the line on the bottom or like the oval shaped logos that are almost like a rectangle with rounded corners. And then there is like a one line with kind of illustration in it. Like it's like maybe a hand holding a rose or like a bird.

So maybe the bird, I see a lot of birds and like hands and logos, especially for florists and like makeup artists and whatnot. Those might be kind of like the deer head. Yeah.

Candice (47:45.518)

Yeah, the deer head logo. I agree with you on the rounded sort of window or doorframe logo or just design element. It's so overdone. Like it really took over every brand and almost every industry saw people introducing this and in weddings like backdrops for ceremonies were designed like this. Like it just really overtook that shape overtook everything. And these kind of

Emily Foster (47:51.48)

Mm -hmm.

Candice (48:14.5)

they're like dead colors to me. They're just like these browns and these rusty colors. They just remind me of like dirt. To me, it doesn't feel luxury and it doesn't really translate into wet wedding so much anymore. feel like that color of like dead flower was really popular for a while and I'm happy to see that kind of

Emily Foster (48:23.863)

Yes!

Emily Foster (48:37.475)

Yeah.

Candice (48:41.364)

move its way out from a brand design perspective and just a wedding design perspective.

Emily Foster (48:47.052)

Yeah, yeah, I think if you go into Canva and you go into like the templates tab and you look up logo design, you can tell that your logo is too trendy if it looks anything like those. Because yeah, I feel like you could just go get one of those logos on Canva right now if that's what you want to do. Yeah.

Candice (48:51.63)

Mm -hmm.

Candice (48:56.972)

Like that? It's true. Yeah. And if it's on Canva, everyone else is using it and it cheapens your logo because you think about the folks who are using Canva and creating their own first business logo, they're not luxury brands. They're doing it themselves. And so if your logo resembles something that somebody can easily find on Canva, it's going to cheapen the look of your brand for sure. Yeah.

Emily Foster (49:23.99)

Yeah, yeah. And I'm not a lawyer, but it also poses legal problems later. Like you can't trademark that. And you also don't own it. Canva owns everything that you create. So just remember that if you are creating a DIY logo, like you can't actually claim ownership over it because Canva owns everything.

Candice (49:28.184)

Yeah.

Candice (49:38.554)

No.

That's interesting fact. Scary. No, no, that's an interesting fact to know because I mean, listen, we all have migrated to Canva in some form of fashion. mean, I'm a Adobe diehard, but I don't use it as much as I use Canva because Canva is so easy and convenient, especially when we're looking at creating marketing graphics or social media graphics or things that you need to just quickly create and move on with your life.

Emily Foster (49:42.88)

Yeah, I know it's kind of off topic of our colors, but...

Candice (50:05.124)

but it's not the place where a designer goes to create a timeless, memorable, masterful brand mark that is going to differentiate you from the competition, so.

Emily Foster (50:17.548)

Yeah, I always say that Canva is better for short -lived one -off projects, not something that is going to need the last years. That's kind of in my role of them because I use it too for like social media posts and whatnot. Yeah.

Candice (50:25.132)

Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Yeah, that's actually a good rule of thumb. Well, Emily, I know that you have something special for our listeners to download for free that can help them figure out some of their brand colors, right?

Emily Foster (50:40.13)

Yeah, yeah. So it's a brand color document. It goes through color psychology even a little bit more than what we talked about in this episode. So you'll learn about like what each color means and the kind of emotions it evokes, as well as there's examples of popular brands that use each of them. So you can kind of get a picture. And then there's a list of tips to help you select your own color palette too, to get you started because I do recommend professional,

investing in a professional designer, but if you are just kind of playing around and trying to get an idea of what the vision is before you're ready, like financially or time wise to invest in a designer, then colors are the way to kind of start exploring that. And then I also have an offer if you are ready to invest in a designer and it's $200 off now through the end of September and September, 2024.

And it's off of my brand in a week or website in a week. So those services are 2 ,500 to 2 ,700 and you get $200 off when you book. And then that also, that package will allow you to get a fresh brand or website by the end of the year. So it's designed not to be quick and fast fashion or anything like that. We still go through a strategic process and we do a mood board and everything, but so that you can actually get something done before engagement season.

Candice (51:52.282)

Hmm.

Candice (52:03.418)

my God, it's such an amazing deal. Be sure to reach out to Emily if you're interested in that. And I've linked all of this inside the show notes on the podcast website so that you can also just easily find your way to any of Emily's offers and also so that you can go ahead and download that freebie. Emily, by the time this episode airs, which is just in a few days from when we were actually recording this, it's actually, I think it's airing on your birthday.

If I remember our email exchanges, right?

Emily Foster (52:30.637)

Yeah

Yes, it is. September 10th. Thank you.

Candice (52:36.312)

So happy birth, yes, happy birthday. You're welcome. If you are listening today, go wish Emily a happy birthday on Instagram, because it's her birthday. So happy birthday.

Emily Foster (52:49.144)

Thank you. I'm one of those annoying people who celebrates the whole month, so it's funny ending, we're recording this at the end of August, so I'm like, yeah, it is my birthday today already.

Candice (52:51.341)

I love those.

You

Candice (53:01.812)

love that. Well, I hope that you have the most amazing birthday month you certainly deserve it is Virgo season. So I hope you enjoy your birthday month. And Emily, if anyone listening would also like to connect with you on social and besides wish you a happy birthday, but follow you where should they find you on social media? Where are you hanging out?

Emily Foster (53:21.784)

Yeah, so brand consistency. I'm Emily Foster Creative on everything. Pinterest, I'm trying to get into threads, Instagram, TikTok, and then my website is also emilyfostercreative .com or you can shoot me an email at hello at emilyfostercreative .com.

Candice (53:39.962)

Absolutely love it. Well, Emily, thank you so much for proposing that we talk about this topic and for sharing your thoughts and opinions on colorful branding. I hope that everybody listening feels encouraged and even excited and like motivated and energized to infuse some freaking color in your brand. If you feel like it does not fully represent you or the types of clients you want to attract. So thanks for joining me today.

Emily Foster (54:05.813)

Thank you, Candice.