Colorful Tattoo Artist Branding
Building on an existing brand
Ginger Tea Tattoos is a private tattoo studio run by Denver-based artist Jess. When Jess inquired with Bart & Pen Co. about building a website for her studio, she already had a brand identity and presence on social media.
Jess had drawn a logo that perfectly matched her business’s vibe: a teabag with the tattoo studio’s name and a cool flower. She had also created vibrant watercolor backdrops for her social media posts.
Over the next several weeks, we worked together to build off these elements. The result was a super functional website and colorful, cohesive branding for this tattoo artist!
Establishing a framework
Before we dug into the nitty-gritty of web design, I suggested putting together a branding package based on Jess’s existing logo to guide the website’s visual identity.
I always recommend developing your business’s branding before you build a website or print business cards. Branding is the framework you build to make every customer-facing part of your business cohesive.
Setting branding “rules” for your business is also huge time-saver! Every time you create content – whether a social media post, a flyer, or an email – the work of choosing fonts, colors, and logos is already done.
If you need a website for your tattoo studio (or any other creative business), but you don’t have set branding, check out my web design and branding suite! Combining these services is the quickest way to establish your brand and get your website off the ground, all in one fell swoop.
Refining an artsy logo
To establish a formal brand identity for Ginger Tea Tattoos, I started by choosing a color palette. I wanted to keep everything consistent with the studio’s existing online presence, so I pulled colors from Jess’s watercolor artwork. I added dark and light shades that would work for text and backgrounds on the website and other communications.
Next, I pulled Jess’s hand-drawn logo into my professional design software and created a scalable, vectorized version of her artwork.
I paired the font Jess was already using – a quirky, handwriting-style script – with a rounded sans-serif font for the body text on her website and marketing materials. I handled all the logistics of ensuring the fonts were licensed for print and web use. That peace of mind is one big benefit of hiring a professional designer for your business’s branding!
From there, I designed a set of logos and wordmarks with alternate colors and backgrounds that Jess can use on printed products and across social media platforms.
Creating groovy icons
One of the last steps in developing this tattoo studio’s branding was making a set of icons. I created four unique vector icons from Jess’s original groovy flower artwork.
It’s easy to overlook icons when you’re deciding on your brand’s logos, colors, and fonts, but they have so much utility! You can use icons as the covers for your social media highlights or as bullet points on your website. They can also be a visual “stamp” for products and communications anywhere that adding your entire logo doesn’t make sense.
Delivering colorful branding
I sent Jess a mood board with the colors, fonts, logos, and icons I compiled for her tattoo studio’s brand. After some tweaks based on her feedback, I delivered a file package with every format she needs for her business.
With branding out of the way, the next step was to build a beautiful, functional website for this Denver tattoo artist!
