“When someone interacts with your brand for the first time, it’s literally a first impression.”
Sydney Michuda is the owner and creative lead behind Super Creative, a design and branding studio based in Milwaukee. With a nearly decade of design experience under her belt, most of which has been focused on branding small businesses, she’s most at home when working with passionate, like-minded creative entrepreneurs.
Whether it’s designing for brands large and small or educating fellow creatives, Sydney’s always game to make something super.
Questions and topics include:
And more!
Say hello to Sydney via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sydney-michuda-5146435a/
Find Super Creative’s Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/supercreative.co/
Learn more about design and creative production from other content Sydney is featured in:
Kenny Soto 0:01
Hello, everyone, and welcome to the people Digital Marketing podcast with your host, Kenny Soto. And today’s special guest is Sydney Machida. Hi, Sydney, how are you?
Sydney Michuda 0:14
I’m great. How are you, Kenny?
Kenny Soto 0:15
I am doing fantastic. Before recording this, I was telling you that this is a full-circle moment for me. Because when I was learning the foundation of branding and graphic design, if you will, using Photoshop and Illustrator, I stumbled upon you on YouTube for one of the Adobe live courses that they were doing and was inspired to reach out to you.
And have you been a guest on this podcast? And since then, doing more research on your career, I find that this is going to be a great episode, mainly because I’m certain there are going to be two types of people who are going to listen to this conversation. And this is a good way to prime everyone for it. You’re gonna have listeners who are actual designers, not like me, I don’t even consider myself one.
And then you’re gonna have listeners who are general practitioners, marketers in the space that just want to be better co-workers, better teammates for designers. So before we even dive into your story, and what you’re doing today, I want to basically hit reverse, excuse me, I want to go back into the past, and get more context about you as a professional. So my first question for you is, how did you even get into marketing and design in the first place?
Sydney Michuda 1:26
Yeah, well, first of all, thanks for having me on this podcast. This is my very first podcast interview, something that I’ve always been a mini goal of mine to be on a few podcasts here and there. So this is a really great experience already. Yeah, so how did I get into design and marketing? I was pretty lucky as a kid when I took a lot of art classes and my teachers recognized me pretty early on that I was decent at art and interested in that kind of thing.
Sydney Michuda 2:03
So my teachers kind of recognized that I was talented in the art industry or the art field as a little young kid. And then always taking those art classes. And then once I was in high school, I was lucky enough to take a commercial art class where we designed posters, magazines, logos, kind of just a very introductory level of graphic design. And I immediately fell in love with it. It just took the art side of my brain and then combined it with like, the organizer, the business mind, basically, all those other kinds of tools that a human being has.
So it just made so much sense to me. So I was again, lucky enough to know that at 16 years old that that’s what I wanted to do with my career. So I applied to colleges, knowing that I wanted to major in graphic design, went to UW Whitewater for four years for graphic design, and landed a job right out of school at an advertising agency. And that place was decent like they did a lot of really great activation work.
They’re very experimental, or experiential marketing. And I really enjoyed my time there. But it just wasn’t exactly what I wanted to do. I wanted to focus more on the design process itself. And they were much more concept-based and much more marketing and advertising based. So I left that job and went to a local design studio here in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where I’m based. And that was really the kick in the pants that I needed.
It was basically like a design Bootcamp 24/7. Every day, you have to be like, top-tier game creative, which didn’t really know when I signed up for that. But it was exactly the right experience that I needed. So it took my skills from like just intermediate to advanced super, super quickly because of how rigorous it was. But yeah, I worked there for about three years. And then once the pandemic hit, then we were a lot of that agency was laid off because of cutbacks in the hospitality industry.
And so once that happened, I decided that was a good enough time as any to start off on my own as a full-time Freelancer under my own brand name super creative. And that was two and a half years ago. So that brings us to where I am today.
Kenny Soto 4:33
What would you say? And this is vague on purpose, but what would you say is your day-to-day routine? Like what does that look like?
Sydney Michuda 4:40
Yeah, so generally when I wake up in the morning, I got to make my coffee fill up my water bottles sit down, and open the windows, so that there’s some fresh air, but I really like to start by just tackling all of my emails that are in my inbox. I just, feel like it’s a really nice way to just warm up and know what the highest priorities are versus some of the lower priorities versus the more concept-based or longer-term work.
So I send out those emails and figure out my click-up task list. See what I had planned or what I didn’t finish maybe from the previous day. And then in the mornings, usually, I tackle those smaller tasks first. So an update to a poster or an edit to a social media graphic changes on a website. So it’s a smaller one-off task. And then after lunch, then I really dive deep into the higher-level thinking work.
So logo exploration can take anywhere between four to 15 hours depending on the client that I’m working with. So higher level projects like logo work, diving into an entire website redesign. illustrations, I like to do a lot of illustrations in the afternoon where I can pop on a true crime documentary in the background, and then sit down and illustrate just really get in the zone. So yeah, morning time is for smaller tasks, afternoon is for those with deep focus work.
Kenny Soto 6:13
I’m certain that this has changed over time and correct me if I’m wrong because it’s an assumption. But could you tell the story of how you got your first set of clients? And how has that process potentially changed today?
Sydney Michuda 6:29
Yeah, so it’s kind of a mixed bag because I started doing freelance work when I was in college. And it was definitely not my best work. It was like a logo for a photographer, we were both kind of hobbyists at that point. So I think I probably charge like $150 for a logo, which is like, as a 19-year-old. Sure that’s, that’s what you can do. So that was the first freelance project that I remember. But in general, more professional work, I would say.
I started posting on Instagram, just random side projects that I was doing when I was at the advertising agency. And from posting that I would post illustrations, typography, logos, fake projects, even. And just from posting on social media, I would get some people messaging me saying, Hey, I love that letter you did.
Could you hand letter a header for my blog post? Or could you illustrate some brand illustrations because I’m a ceramicist or something? So I would get a lot of messages through social media, primarily Instagram, just to do fun side projects while I was also working full time. But let’s see. So then, that kind of just progressed and progressed, and there became larger and larger projects, which led him to logos and brand identities. But that was really kind of pretty taxing to work a full-time job while also doing all this freelance work.
And so when the pandemic hit, I was in a pretty comfortable position, honestly, where I could just take that full-time freelance, under my own brand name with my own clients, I had some existing work that I was already doing. So I had something to do with my days when we were all in lockdown. And just again, kept posting more, so I could drum up more, more of a reputation, more clout in the design industry in my community.
And promoting word of mouth never hurts, either. So yeah. And then from there, I would say, I would look for some jobs on Behance jobs, which is a design social network, where you can post your projects and other people can view it and comment and stuff. So it’s, again, very focused on the design community.
And that can honestly be a great place to look for designers if you’re looking for one. But then also, if you’re a designer with a few extra hours in your week, you can go on that platform, look under the jobs category and find some cool, unique jobs. That was one of the places where I found one of my pretty regular retainer clients at that time. So having a retainer client really helped me just have some kind of a stable income so that I could focus on pursuing other creative projects. But since then, it’s been mostly through either my Instagram account, those Adobe videos that you mentioned, and then also word of mouth.
Kenny Soto 9:25
When it comes to onboarding your clients, what’s your process? Like?
Sydney Michuda 9:30
Yeah, that’s a great question. In the past, I didn’t really do anything, they would just sign their contract, and they would make their payment. And then I would just almost ghost them until I sent them their first round of work, which I’m sure was not a great situation for them. But I talked with a few other designers and learned what an onboarding process really was. So I heavily adapted to that this recent year.
And now once they have signed the contract, and paid the invoice, I send them basically a welcome Guide, which is maybe a 10 to 12-page PDF, that kind of explains my design process and how they can best give feedback. So giving a few tips like, don’t just say, make the logo bigger, explain why you want the logo bigger, or be nice with your feedback, because we’re all human beings just giving them some tips and pointers because they’re not in the design industry. So they usually aren’t armed with that kind of knowledge.
Also, tell them that I’ll be posting updates on social media of their brands, so they can catch some sneak peeks. How late fees work, the next steps in the process, basically just giving them a rundown of what we’ll be doing together. And then, after that has been sent, I send them a brand questionnaire so I can get as much information about them as possible. So any potential taglines that are currently in use by their target audience, the meaning behind their brand name, what their goals are, for the next five to 10 years, and any kind of particular styles that they like a lot.
So I just want to get as much information, especially in written form, because it forces them to think about things a little bit too, that they may be united but might not have thought about. But yeah, I’d say sending that onboard guide and then sending that brand questionnaire.
Kenny Soto 11:27
Before I ask my next question, I’m interested in knowing how you would define what a brand is?
Sydney Michuda 11:35
Oh, boy, that is a super ambiguous question. I would say a brand can mean a lot of different things. From small-time brands, where it’s just like a person, that’s an influencer or something like that, like they are their own personal brand, to something like a wedding photographer, or an accountant or something like that, if they branch out on their own, to even the Giants out there, like Nike and Apple and Coca Cola, those are massive brands.
And they all have their own different requirements, really. So for someone that’s super small, just starting out, they’ll need kind of the basics of a branding package. And they’ll need a little bit of brand strategy to what they who they are, what they stand for. Once you get into a bigger business that has around maybe 20 employees, you need a whole lot more assets, because you’re going to be using your brand in a lot of different places.
And then again, with those behemoths in those industries, like Coca-Cola or something, they have just libraries and libraries of different brand assets, different strategies, different approaches, different campaigns, external and internal. So there’s a really, really wide range of things. But to reduce it down for maybe your potential listeners or small businesses or marketers, I would say your brand is represented by what your brand looks like and how it sounds. So the strategy behind it, is what your brand voice is rooted in if you’re welcoming or warm or inspirational.
So your brand voice and your strategy are rooted in who your customers are. But then for your visual brand, it’s really centered around your primary logo, your type system, color palette, patterns, and different assets that your designer would potentially create for you. Basically, anything that you would see that’s going to visually represent your brand and your business.
Kenny Soto 13:41
I personally hit a wall when I was learning about brand marketing and branding. And overall, when it comes to tactics, that pretty much makes sense to me creating a mood board creating an asset library, etc. But one thing that I’ve still struggled with is pushing for a brand strategy and really defining what that is. And I feel like you’ve touched on it already. But specifically when it comes to brand strategy, what are some things that people should be considering if they’re trying to document that?
Sydney Michuda 14:15
Yeah, so a brand strategy for me is a pretty new service that I offer. I would notice in the industry that people would be designing brands where they had more content written around their clients, or they would have Yeah, just those strategies in place. And I was super interested in that. I watched a ton of YouTube videos and took a few courses to really learn what it was all about.
And develop my own process through that, where I hire a copywriter friend of mine, she’s absolutely incredible and wonderful. Her name is Kelsey Lawler. And so with that brand strategy process, we really focus on distilling down a few key categories within a brand. So the first one is the brand heart, which is basically, your brand’s purpose, mission vision, pillars, and positioning, I might be forgetting one because it’s kind of a long list. But it’s kind of just taking apart those key elements of who your brand is and what you stand for, and what, like why someone would hire or purchase from you or hire you potentially.
So for instance, mine might be the like, my pillars would be that super creative is inspiring, trustworthy, knowledgeable, and friendly. Maybe I haven’t really, I teach, or I, um, I offer brand strategy. But I haven’t quite gotten to the point where I can do it for myself just yet, just little tiny things on my plate. But so we organize a brand’s heart. So those core elements, we do a competitive analysis of at least three competitors in their brand, or in their industry.
And we usually try to aim for someone exactly where they’re at, someone that’s a brand that’s aspirational, and maybe someone a little bit further behind where they are. So we can really figure out what their competitors are doing right and what they’re doing wrong, and just meet them and meet those opportunities in the middle. Then after that, we establish customers for at least three different customer personas. So figuring out who your key customers are, what their pain points are, how you can solve their problems, where they live, and what channels they’re on.
Like, for example, mine would be a lot of small business owners, a lot of them women, potential art directors, or creative directors at advertising or marketing agencies, or larger companies. And then younger designers that are looking to learn through educational content. So those are just some examples of my key customers. And then the last section of our brand strategy is establishing your brand’s voice. So kind of what I was saying earlier about how your brand sounds. So if your brand is insightful, inspiring, professional, and organized, versus someone that’s a little bit freer, loose, and free spirit and things like that.
So really kind of organizing exactly where your brand fits into your industry and how that sounds. And then give you some examples of do and don’ts. Like never use four exclamation points, or this is the kind of slang that’s okay to use. So you don’t sound too unprofessional or too like you’re aiming for a younger audience or something. But yeah, establishing the brand heart, customer, customer personas, competitive analysis, and the brand voice. That’s usually what we pack into all of our brand strategies.
Kenny Soto 17:49
Here’s another ambiguous and vague question. Why is consistency important for a brand?
Sydney Michuda 17:57
Yeah, that’s a really good question. And basically, what I always kind of preach to potential clients and customers. To me, consistency is just so important, because when someone interacts with your brand for the first time, it’s literally the first impression. So if they see something that is all over the place where you’re using, like if someone hasn’t had an established brand identity, and they’re using a lot of grays and neutrals, and browns, but then all of a sudden a bright red comes out of nowhere, that’s going to feel like kind of a jolt and signal to that customer that it’s not clearly established that they the brand might not be as professional as they’re looking for.
So consistency is important. So you have that good first impression. But then it also signals to your customers where you stand in your industry. So if you are like a super luxury wedding photographer or something like that, and you want to market to people that are having those $100,000 weddings or something and you charge $8,000 for an event, but your brand is inconsistent kind of all over the place using a crappy font, those luxury customers are going to see your portfolio or your website or something and just see that it’s not consistent, and it’s completely mismatched with the services and the quality that you’re offering.
So I would say that’s one of the key benefits. Okay. That would be one of the key benefits of why it’s important to have a consistent clear brand identity. And then the last point is honestly, it just makes it easier for you as a business owner, that you don’t have to redesign everything every single time you have to create anything, whether it’s an invoice or a social media graphic, or a website.
Whatever kind of material it is, I bet a lot of users are a lot of audience members that might not have an established brand. They feel like they’re reinventing the wheel every single time, they have to make something that sets you back on your entire schedule. It’s time-consuming, it’s confusing, and it’s frustrating. And I completely understand that because as it’s, it’s hard to do something outside of your career path, especially if you’re not always positioned in a creative market to begin with.
So having that consistent established brand takes a lot of that guesswork out of it, so that when you need to create an invoice or an informational, Instagram post or something, you have that really clear set of consistent graphics to draw from, so you know that your backgrounds are going to be lavender, your patterns are going to be floral or your type is going to be Helvetica or something, you have those automatic assets that you can use that saves you time and headache.
Kenny Soto 20:58
I’m attributing this quote that I heard recently to the reforge slack group, where they mentioned something along the lines, and I’m probably missing some key points, but they mentioned brand. And brand marketing overall, is the introduction, the first impression. And without that, even with the best performance and growth team imaginable, you’re still missing out on like 10 to 20% impact effectiveness that you could have with a strong brand coupled with the tactics that you’re leveraging.
So for any listener here who isn’t a graphic designer or a creative such as me, for example, always remember that you still should have some kind of educational background on the effectiveness of the brand strategy and creating a cohesive and consistent brand.
Because even if you’re not involved in the creation of that, it informs the performance of your paid media strategies, what you’re doing on your apps, and your products that are digital, etc. So that’s just something that I wanted to highlight based on what you were saying, because I didn’t want to just leave that in my brain. My next question for you, Sydney, is in terms of your approach, and overall work ethic. What do you think about rebranding? Is there any difference between creating a new brand from scratch versus rebranding a company?
Sydney Michuda 22:25
Well, thank you interesting, I would say the differences. Me, from my perspective, as a graphic designer, it’s pretty minimal, when it’s a completely new brand. So if someone’s launching a, like a pottery studio, or an accounting firm or something, and it’s completely new, it, it’s really nice that it’s you have complete creatable relatively complete creative freedom, where there’s nothing in place, there’s no expectation set, there’s, they might have some pain points, but there’s no existing pain or gripes that they might have with past experiences.
So you really get to create something entirely new, which is always just, it’s honestly a ton of fun. And then for a brand refresh, which I do quite frequently, usually, the client comes to me with, those pain points where they had a bad experience with the past designer, or their logo is only a JPEG and they can’t find vector files, which that’s getting a little bit more technical in the design world.
But yeah, like they have those existing pain points, which is they’re absolutely valid. But sometimes it’s just one small extra step to work around those and get to learn what those pain points are so that we can know to avoid them so that we communicate properly deliver the right files, and just make sure that everything is just going smoothly for them.
Kenny Soto 23:56
How do you measure the success of your work?
Sydney Michuda 24:01
That’s interesting. I could be super duper honest with that, I really don’t. Because right now I am in one of those freelance Limbo areas where I have so much work going on that I can’t really reconnect with a lot of clients or measure their success. And usually, I leave clients in a really great place we end on really great notes, they come back to me for repeat work, which is always a great signal.
But In the future, I would really love to reach out to them, send them some surveys, or even like reach out to them for testimonials, how their brand is performing things that they might that think that they might have missed out on things that they still in need of and then how the new brand is impacting their sales or their clients. That’s definitely something that I would love to do. I just haven’t gotten to that point quite yet.
Kenny Soto 24:57
No, but you mentioned something that I think it’s important to highlight what you mentioned, it’s repeat work as a signal, which is not necessarily a number that you can look at, oh, my brand work made this number in revenue increase, etc. But at the very least, if you are getting repeat work and or referrals even it shows that the brand work that you’re creating is actually making an impact in the business.
This leads directly to a question that I’m dying to ask, which is, there are a lot of people, unfortunately, this year being laid off from their jobs, whether it’s at an agency or in-house at a startup, etc. And some of us are considering becoming a freelancer. I’ve asked previous guests, some of them freelance writers, for example, their opinion on whether or not the freelance career path is right for everyone. And I want to know your opinion on that. Do you think freelancing is right for everyone? When is freelancing not A pickable career option for someone?
Sydney Michuda 25:59
Yeah, I would say, I mean, to be perfectly honest, freelancing is tough. It’s, I mean, at least for the position that I’m in, it feels like there’s just a mountain of work to do, which absolutely is a good problem to have. But I would say, to be a successful freelancer, you have to be very organized, whether it’s in your file keeping, or your time tracking system, or your product management system, I can always do a little bit to improve on my time management, sometimes I spend a little too long on certain projects, but that which results in weekend work.
But yeah, I would say being organized and having your stuff together can save you so much of a headache down the road. Finding a good accountant is really, really beneficial. Because I’ve definitely been there where I’ve tried to do my own taxes. And it’s just a nightmare because you don’t because that’s not your career path. You know, I mean, that’s why you hire other people.
So I guess that would be also a good trait to have in recognizing when you’re not the expert, and it’s okay to hire the expert for you for that role. So I hired an accountant because I’m not an accountant. Or I might hire a copywriter because I could write a headline, but I can’t write an entire brand strategy the way Kelsey can. So I’d say knowing when and how. Once again, trying to figure out how to say what I want to say.
Kenny Soto 27:33
Knowing to Listen, and delegate.
Sydney Michuda 27:35
Yeah, yeah, exactly. So knowing what to delegate, how to pick your pick and choose your battles, really, and what the best use of your time is, is a really useful skill.
Kenny Soto 27:46
I hate when I have these thoughts in my brain, and I can’t attribute who it’s from. So this is an original thought. But I heard recently on a podcast that your business grows faster when you hire people you can’t afford. So that’s just something that people should be keeping in mind. It’s like, you may need someone and the budget doesn’t make sense.
But hiring that person that you can afford is going to bring the revenue to your business that leads you to afford them an extra margin for even more growth. So that’s something that came to mind when you were talking about that.
Sydney Michuda 28:21
Yeah, absolutely. And honestly, I just recently hired my first part-time designer to help me out with my workload. And I posted about it on Instagram, got a ton of applications, interviewed some people, and it was down to a few different candidates, of whom, all of whom I would be so happy to work with. But it was between a couple of different people and one was more expensive than the other.
And that was I was really unsure about that, like, I want them to do some of the more tedious everyday tasks can I afford to pay this person to do that? But when I looked at her portfolio and had those conversations with her, I felt more that she had a little bit more competence to lend to my own business. So that if I ever do take a vacation I could potentially leave the business in her hands to email clients professionally, to potentially present to people.
So I totally understand how that feels when you kind of have to take that leap and trust someone and hire someone that’s a little bit outside of your budget. But um, so far, I’ve been super happy with her and I can’t wait to see what we can do together.
Kenny Soto 29:27
Sydney, I have two more questions for you. My next one has to do specifically for people who are non-creatives, and non-designers. What advice would you have for people who aren’t in the design slash creative industry for just working with people who are in that industry and want to be better collaborators with them?
Sydney Michuda 29:45
Sorry, could you repeat that? I think that might cut it out for just a second.
Kenny Soto 29:50
Of course, what would you say are some tidbits of advice that you would give to someone who’s not creative but wants to be a better collaborator with creatives?
Sydney Michuda 30:01
Gotcha, yeah, that’s a super good question, I work with a lot of non-creatives, especially some of my retainer positions, it can be not a struggle. But it can be a little bit of a learning curve when you are working with someone that has a more technical brain. So I would say the end, this is maybe a little bit obvious, but be as descriptive as you possibly can.
So if you say the word stamp, but you really mean badge, it’s just like small little terminology, things like that. Because as a designer, we’re the ones that take just random ideas, and random verbiage, and create tangible things with that. So the more just descriptive you can be, the better and it helps us so much.
So if you want something that’s green, but you really mean mint green, you gotta be again, use those adjectives. When using paragraphs when you think one will do just include as much information as possible. And then also just be nice and kind. Because as a creative person, and I’m sure you can empathize, it’s sometimes a bit hard to separate yourself from the work that you’re doing.
So just knowing that everyone is coming to things with good intentions and never assume that someone purposely sabotages a project or isn’t doing a good job, just tell them simply and honestly but kindly that it’s missed the mark, maybe or you’d like to see brighter colors or whatever the adjustment might be just doing it kindly and at their level.
Kenny Soto 31:38
Sydney, my last question for you is my personal favorite. And it’s hypothetical. If you had access to a time machine and go back into the past 10 years, knowing everything you know, today, how would you specifically accelerate the speed of your career?
Sydney Michuda 31:54
Yeah, oh, man, I love this. So I have two answers to that. My first one would be would tell myself to post on social media way sooner. I honestly attribute a ton of my own success to just randomly posting on Instagram one Thursday afternoon, because I was bored at my job. But, I would tell myself to post way more on Instagram and utilize new social media, because I kind of always didn’t know exactly what to do with social, and I knew that people were on it, and I knew that businesses utilize it.
But I didn’t really see the benefit for me as a single person, as a freelancer as a business. So I would tell myself to post way more use tick tock when it first came around, and use Twitter at basically all the different channels. But then my second one, which kind of ties into it is to I would tell myself not to be afraid. I like so many creatives. And even non-creative impostor syndrome is a huge thing.
And like I still struggle with it. Sometimes in my career. Now, it’s a little bit less now that I have around 10 years of experience where I can prove to myself that I’m good at what I do, and I have that success. But earlier in my career, I was always afraid of saying the wrong thing. Putting work out there that was bad or being judged for just crappy work, and just having my feelings hurt honestly, because of that.
So I would tell myself to just not be afraid to speak up in meetings to post on social, do adventurous work, do creative things, and do things that are outside of my comfort zone. And the worst that can happen is someone doesn’t like it. And that’s their own problem. And you get to just improve your skills and live your own life.
Kenny Soto 33:45
Thank you so much for your time today, Sydney. And if anyone wants to say hello to you online, where can they find you?
Sydney Michuda 33:50
Yeah, so I run my own agency called super creative. You can find my Instagram handle at Super creative. co which is also my website, important to get the. co not.com. So those are my two main platforms. I’m also on Behance under my own name, Sydney Machida, and then I’m trying to get into Tiktok. We’ll see if that is successful. But I’d say my website and Instagram are the best ways to reach me.
Kenny Soto 34:18
And thank you to the listener for listening to another episode of the people’s Digital Marketing podcast and mentioning it before, but it’s pretty crazy that we’re above 100 episodes As of recording this interview. If you haven’t done so already, please subscribe and please rate us on Apple podcast and Spotify if possible. And as always, I hope you have a great day.
Bye.