Get to Know THE LITTY BOARD Brand
I'm big on brand because I know the power. Brands tap into the psyche. One mention of a brand name can stir up instant emotion. Movie reels start playing in people's head about everything they associate with that brand, whether good or bad. Brands carry weight. A flicker of the logo below (even in reverse) makes people think of the highest level of sports achievement and just... cool.
I'm inviting you behind the curtain at my shop. So many details and nuances go into how a company decides what they want the public to think about them. So what should the brand for a luxury vision board inspired by hip-hop be like, you ask? The answer, in a word is: dope. Very dope.
When crafting the brand identity for THE LITTY BOARD, I had some great material to work with. There are multiple major themes baked into the concept itself. I was so grateful for that 😅 because it made many of my decisions no-brainers. Let's explore these themes.
A (LUXURY) VISION BOARD
Ok, so boom. A vision board is just a collage of pictures and affirmations that represent your dreams and desires in life. A source of inspiration and motivation. It's normally a DIY project. THE LITTY BOARD brand has all the positivity/motivation of a vision board, but in a sophisticated pre-made package.
Luxury itself is motivational, so I try to make all of our visuals communicate sleek, striking and high-end. Our logo is in the shape of one of our boards with the name in basic lettering. It's straight-forward with no frills. It probably won't even be updated in the future, like most brands do.
You'll find the same sleekness on our IG feed. Notice how clean everything is? How about the luxury-ish leather backgrounds in rich, bold colors? Mmm hmm, that's all on purpose.
- Our brand is motivational and luxury. Straight upper echelon.
HIP-HOP CULTURE / MUSIC
This is where things get fun - and very distinct. The LITTY in our name is a direct nod to hip-hop, where the word and it's base (LIT 🔥) was coined. Hip-hop itself is VERY aspirational. Of course, you can't separate the culture from the music - so we tap right into it. There are countless songs (and bars) about the come-up and/or money well spent on, wait for it, luxury items. So on our IG, every other post is a motivational quote from a hip-hop artist about desire, success or positive mindset. Our branding positions THE LITTY BOARD in people's minds as a solution to their inherent desire for more.
Our culture is fascinated with money. Forget money phones, now we're making whole statements with that coveted legal tender 🤣
50 Cent broke?!? Nah, can't be. Ahhh, you gotta love us. You just gotta! Well, THE LITTY BOARD is making a statement too. Our first design is called The Blewface (get it, blue/blew?) and it's covered in $100 bills. This design comes in 10 different colorways. Each color is shiny (or blinged out) - another nod to hip-hop. You choose a different colorway by changing the line colors, just like on a sneaker.
Not everybody is going to want $100 bills on their LITTY BOARDs though. Luckily, The Blewface is just our inaugural design. We know our product's subtext has global potential, way beyond hip-hop's core audience. Hey, kinda just like hip-hop itself 🤔
There will be many different designs in the future. But as a scrappy startup, we had to plant our flag with a design we could run with a little while that's true to the cultural atmosphere that birthed us.
- Our brand is hip-hop to the core, but with mass appeal.
ACTION / ACHIEVEMENT
The main improvement THE LITTY BOARD makes on the original, DIY vision board is that it provides a space to make your dreams happen. Old-fashioned vision boards stir up 'empty inspiration.' (Sidebar: I thought I coined that phrase but a quick Google search showed I did not 😗)
inspiration (noun) - the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative
Empty inspiration is when you get a vision of your future that excites you, but you get so high on the idea itself that you never move on it. We can't let the warm fuzzy feelings rock us to sleep. The dream is free. But actually living it will cost you in the form of a plan and execution.
- Our brand is all about doing.
CREATIVITY / SWAG
We're the cool kids. No, wait. Let me be more specific: we're the new kid who came mid-year that just seems light-years ahead of his peers in terms of fashion, self-confidence and every other major teenage metric of cool. Here's our secret:
It's all commentary - on hip-hop culture and the traditional vision board. Having a nagging opinion about what's wrong with something should eventually lead you to a creative solution. Otherwise you're just a worthless critic chirping in the night (if you're chirping).
Hip-hop culture focuses SO much on money and lavish lifestyle. But it does not emphasize the path to (legally) get there - which is necessary in light of the economic woes of hip-hop's core fans. And vision boards inspire you into a frenzy, but give you no clear way forward in life - just pics and emotions.
These two problems sparked a creative solution: THE LITTY BOARD. We have swag because our offering is well informed and novel. No other brand can do what we do like we do it. And I put that on our patent 😛
- Our brand is dripped out.
All of this is summed up nicely in our (new) slogan: