Some of my businesses have matured and need less day-to-day technology and process work from me. That gives me room to get involved in new consulting and project work.
For consulting, a brand can feel like an extra step. People hire me for my experience and judgment, after all.
But someone hearing about me for the first time needs to understand what I help with, how I work, and who they would be talking to. A clear message and a recognizable look help connect a referral, a post, and this website. That’s the job I needed the brand to do: make it easier to recognize my work and start a conversation. The work itself still has to earn their trust.
A necessary job, outside my usual work.
I’m not an art director or a content creator. For Just Asking, I needed an identity I could use to present my work and open the door to new projects. AI helped move that necessary task forward, with my own context and judgment guiding the choices.
Something I could react to.
I brought the business context, references, and photos. AI helped turn them into directions I could compare: a portrait, an M, and a question mark, shown in actual applications. I could point to what felt right and what needed work.
My judgment still had a job.
The portrait looked too severe. The M needed better balance. The first accent colour did not feel like me. Those corrections came from looking at the results and explaining what I wanted to change. Each new draft gave me something concrete to adjust.
Keep the decisions where you can find them.
I used the approach I’ve used in more than 1,500 client projects over the last 15 years: understand the situation, choose what to tackle first, put the change into practice, then check what changed. A working journal keeps the decisions, their reasons, and the next steps together, so I can revisit a choice and keep the work moving.
The approach
- Understand
- Simplify
- Build
- Check
My focus has always been operational efficiency: a better balance between valuable work people enjoy and the necessary tasks that support it. Here, the brand is one of those necessary pieces, helping me open conversations about new projects.
One piece ready for the next step.
I settled on a brand kit I could use: the M for the identity, the portrait for personal sections and the question mark for invitations. Since then, the website’s colours and type have moved on; the M stayed. The website is still in progress, so there are no new-client or revenue results to claim.
The useful question: what needs to get done so you can take on the work you want to do next?
Try it on a real stumbling block.
Choose a task that is holding something else up. Explain who it serves, what a usable result would look like, and what you can judge yourself. Ask AI for a small draft you can review. Bring the right specialist in where the task needs expertise you cannot assess. Keep the decisions and see whether the next step becomes easier.