Business in the Creator Age
Tangible brand merch for the small business and start-up thanks to Sticker Mule!
It seems not long ago that if you wanted a professional looking brand package you’d need to spend a small fortune to do so. For years, creating brand guidelines was in our wheelhouse, and now these are things that have gone by the wayside in the age-of-the-creator where everyone has the tools to create professional grade branding and online image. As a company at the forefront of human centered economy you may think that we’re lamenting that graphic artists and brand dev professionals lost work, but I think there has been a certain absorption of these skills into a much much larger economic pool. Picking out the pantone board still requires a whole lot of human level work, and now that everyone has creator tools, there is that much more creativity that needs guidance and fine tuning.
Another branch of this same tree is merch. Honestly, merch has always been the domain of the big brands who have the capital to create a diverse range of branded products that allow consumers to be your billboard. We all remember when these could be found at the back of that famous catalogue of office goods - and at prices and quantities that made it a non-starter for the start up.
Again, the age of the creator has made it so the volume of professional grade vector branded graphics, has made it so companies like Sticker Mule have been able to deliver the same high quality merch that the big brands flout at a fraction of the cost. Better yet the quantities make it so you can scale your merch spend based on the budget. Really cool. It’s also pretty cool to hold something tangible with your logo on it.
Our new Hero One Eleven OS needed a mascot which we designed and designed and designed on Adobe Firefly, and we decided that our edge servers should have the mascot on them so we turned to Sticker Mule to produce high quality stickers. While I was doing the order I couldn’t help but get ONE demo shirt made (very nice) that my son promptly made off with. I also played with a version of our H111 mascot with the logo of our favorite restaurant’s logo on its screen. (An homage to the many brainstorming wings-work sessions we’ve had there as we prepared to launch. If you see that sticker on the wall somewhere there, now you know the backstory. (Easter Egg)
We also enjoyed the service and follow up that Sticker Mule provided. Made it all feel less transactional. They also have gamified brand merch which is really a neat twist and audience builder for the small business, and reward for great brand design and merch. Check the Sticker Mule Give page to learn more.
The age of the creator keeps getting better for small business and start-ups.
Brand guide for HeroBridge, Hero One Eleven human centered operating systems, designed on Firefly, Adobe Express and implemented by humans!
