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Kristina | Brand Designer & DIY Mentor(@gemcreativeco)'s profile avatar HD Profile

Kristina | Brand Designer & DIY Mentor

@gemcreativeco

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💎 turning “hidden gems” into recognized signature brands
🤓 for savvy DIYers & outside-the-box entrepreneurs
↓ Be branded by 2027!
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Try this first ↓ if you’re held back by feeling unoriginal & half-baked, before scrolling Pinterest for your business’s brand inspiration: 1) get as clear as day about the qualities you want to bring into your industry. Such as the first example in the reel: a punk/rebellious brand in the therapy space 🤘 2) consider atmospheres, activities, or objects that feel relevant to the feeling you want the brand to create. Such as, a secret exclusive French salon vibe, for deep convos behind closed doors 🗝️ 3) think about the quality of the experience you want your people to have. Such as creating a similar sense camaraderie you’d find in a sports club/team, but at a local gym 🏋️‍♀️ 4) notice what strengths & commonalities already exist among the people you serve. Such as a group of smart, intellectual thinkers who are basically like a “guild” of unicorns in the marketing space 🦄 5) lean into a specific perspective, approach, or belief you have about the industry. Such as a old-timey/vintage-shop-inspired social media agency that approaches social media like the “soapbox” of this time period 🗣️ You can’t get any of those answers on Pinterest. All you’ll get is what’s trending, if you don’t highly specify your search with something that feels incredibly aligned to you. Brand Ed Students & custom clients go through prompts like this on a deeeeep level to fully uncover their signature brands. The result: Super freaking original visual identities, that they feel incredibly confident in and excited to market with. To bring this energy right into 2027, join the last 2026 round of Brand Ed Homeroom so it’s ready by the new year! Link in bio 🔗 by @gemcreativeco
4
8 days ago
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Soooo I’ve been keeping a secret 🤭 World, meet: @goodformgym. Dustin and I bought a second local business and as of today, are officially adding gym owners to our resumes! We’re so excited to serve the community of Lebanon and continue the legacy of a gym facility where people have worked out for over two decades, while bringing our fresh vision with a new, original brand. It was such a joy to collaborate with my dear friend @gemcreativeco again on creating the visual design & concept. Our goal is for Good Form to be your neighborhood 24-hour gym where you FORM good habits, strong bodies, and meaningful friendships. We’re rewriting the rules of what a gym membership experience should feel like. One affordable, flat monthly rate for everyone and no confusing contracts, hidden fees, or minimum commitments. This is a return to my roots in the fitness industry: I discovered a love of lifting in college @oregonstate where I earned my degree in Exercise Science and my first professional job after graduating was marketing for a fitness coaching & activewear company. Even my personal website ellenyin.com, originally started as a fitness blog. In my #MainStreetEra 😉 and excited to continue to expand my skillset as an entrepreneur between all 3 of our companies: @goodformgym @cubicletoceo & @runwaycorvallis Cheers to another side quest and the big adventure of life! 💪🏼 by @gemcreativeco
98
11 days ago
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Instead of hesitating to show up feeling disjointed, every creative business decision you make could be getting filtered through a unified brand with a clear direction, that’ll last you YEARS of marketing later. Down to the style of your content visuals, the photographer you work with, the name & vibe of your next offer, memorable personal touches in your launches & customer experience… etc etc etc (Along with picking fonts, colors, and elements, but it’s wayyy more than that!) My signature process gives you distinct cohesion by exploring the innate qualities of who you are, where you stand in your industry, how your business uniquely serves people, and the strengths you bring. These “hidden gems” will inspire the Creative Direction for your branding, so that you’ll actually WANT to go all-in with it (and not get stuck in the trends). As a result, showing up to creatively market your business just simply flows more easily as your branding centralizes it. I made this process available to DIY too, with my support! Like the students included above, these kinds of results are not gate-kept just for those who outsource my custom services. (Links to both in my bio!) Gems don’t stay hidden around here. We WANT to see your offers, webpages, content, ALL OF IT. I’ll help you get out of hiding and excited to market yourself again. 💎 by @gemcreativeco
8
14 days ago
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Being the “creative director” of the rest of my life hasn’t come as easily as with branding, but the everything grows wherever we put our intentions & actions behind it! So if you're curious about what it can look like for you to practice being the Creative Director of your own brand, chances are you'll appreciate getting the right guidance to uncover it. (That’s why I made Brand Ed). What skill areas are you not a natural in, but you’re proud to be exploring anyway? Drop it in the comments and I’ll cheer you on!!! by @gemcreativeco
17
25 days ago
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MYTH DEBUNKED. ✅ And they’ve made it even easier to make more advanced customizations through the app Affinity, a design tool Canva now owns and made free to its users. (yup) Canva is more powerful than you think!!! I teach this in my course curriculum, and in Brand Ed Homeroom, you literally get to collaborate WITH my designer brain when it comes to ideas for your logos (and the entire brand ecosystem). Access to *one-on-one* feedback & creative collaboration from me, for 10 weeks, plus an optional community chat & calls for live exploration & editing! Join me this fall—link in bio 🤓 by @gemcreativeco
3
a month ago
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Also, this is not AI. It’s learned skills—Creative Direction, strategy, and DIY design using Canva. It’s knowing exactly how to choose the right vibe, brand photographer, colors, fonts, and elements. It’s a non-designer believing in her own creative ideas, guided by a pro designer. @_angelinagurrola from Wildwave Podcasting came to Brand Ed knowing it was time for her visuals to better represent her personality and quality of work, preferring to be resourceful AND strategic about it. A few months later, she graduated with a whole brand identity she made HERSELF (with the feedback, curriculum, and 1:1 collaboration in the Brand Ed Homeroom support channel.) And as the confident Creative Director of her business, she built her own website, collaborated with other service pros who were impressed by her selection of brand assets, and now has REAL proof of brand recognition. Multiple people in my DMs knew this outfit was for her brand, before I shared who it was! If you want to start building brand recognition for WAY less $$ than typical custom services (mine are 4x this), and have your branding SET before the holidays, JOIN BRAND ED this fall! You’re more creative than you thinkkk 👀 by @gemcreativeco
6
a month ago
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Don’t start with a Pinterest board. Pinterest is a helpful SEARCH tool, not a strategic thinker or idea generator. If you want to build your own a brand on a solid strategy, I’ll get you thinking like a Creative Director and Brand Strategist first. Then, you’ll work on the vibey visuals! Build yours with me in Brand Ed Homeroom this fall! Link in bio 🔗🔗🔗 You’ll get my tried & true process in the 20-lesson course curriculum, plus 10 weeks of 1:1 personalized feedback to collaborate with you along the way! by @gemcreativeco
0
a month ago
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Reason # 1: too much shit talk from the design industry. Historically at least, DIY branding has been demonized in messaging when selling services, and Canva is often regarded as inherently a makeshift option. To be fair, I used to talk like this too—But I changed my mind when I saw how useful Canva is for clients, and fully explored what’s possible in there. I even created my Brand Ed branding using Canva to prove my point. Reason # 2: It *seems* hard to teach and learn, but really you just need a good educator and mentor. (Hi!) My course curriculum is a clear step-by-step process that doesn’t overstuff, while also keeping lessons potent & actionable. Plus the 1:1 mentorship you get in Homeroom is more like a collaborative experience than just general Q&A. Reason # 3: Misled assumptions about Canva. Yes, you CAN trademark a logo you made in a Canva, if it’s done the right way without premade elements (I teach this with examples). There’s also the claim that there’s no way to make vector customizations, but thanks to Canva buying Affinity and making it free, you can. (There’s a bonus less on this) Notice that NONE of these 3 reasons for not doing it are actually good reasons. The only reasons to hire out is if you have NO genuine interest in getting creative with it yourself, and have the budget for outsourcing. So if you want to DIY, you absolutely should. Be part of a literal narrative-flipping process, and join Brand Ed Homeroom this fall ✌️ by @gemcreativeco
22
a month ago
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My jaw literally dropped when I saw these client thank you card designs. Maddy was a Brand Ed student back in 2024, and she has continued to let me know TO THIS DAY just how much it has completely transformed her ability to design her own stuff. Even as a messaging strategist & website copywriter, not a designer! In the Homeroom Slack, some of the ideas I helped her refine were the secondary colors in the color palette and the logo submark design. Forever cheering on @bymaddyaucoin and thinking of her when I see and wear this color! 💕 Now it’s your turn! Get branded this fall as the Creative Director of your OWN brand—saving thousands doing it yourself. You get full say in your logos, colors, fonts, imagery & layout style, and can translate it into marketing graphics and customer journey pieces like these. Homeroom gets you access to 10 weeks of 1:1 feedback & creative collaboration from me, bringing your DIY brand potential out! Start this fall! Linked in my profile of courseee by @gemcreativeco
12
a month ago
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Start exploring these hidden gems in my free Brand Reorientation exercise, and if you send it to me by Tuesday, September 1st you also get: 1. A chance to win a free 1:1 Brand Consulting Session, a spotlight of your business, and an exclusive offer promo (you’ll find out laterrrr)
 2. I’ll personally read your submission whether you win or not, and reach out to you to let you know how cool those hidden gems are In this exercise, you’ll refocus on what drives you and the work you, audit your current brand presence & address any insecurities, and start envisioning how you can reshape your brand’s reputation moving forward. If you can’t be bothered with finding the link in my bio, drop a gem emoji 💎 here, and I’ll personally DM it to you! (I don’t use manychat so it might be a slight delayed response hehe) Branding is such a visible process, but THIS is where brand-building actually begins—the invisible strengths. by @gemcreativeco
6
a month ago
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Themed or not, the layers you want communicated through your brand identity ARE achievable with a solid process… A process that makes room for a million brand potentials, while also taking you step-by-step towards YOUR brand’s specific potential that only you embody. If having these decisions set sounds like it could solve your brand commitment issues, and make you actually look forward to marketing your business, you need my signature branding method. You can even become your own confident brand Creative Director in my DIY branding mentorship program, Brand Ed. The Homeroom tier includes 10 spacious weeks of 1:1 support access with me & creative collaboration as you go through the lessons. And it’s SO FUN, I love love love witnessing every student’s own creativity come through! (Link in bio—next start date Sept Oct 5th!) Is there a theme you’ve been secretly holding onto in the back of your mind? 👀 by @gemcreativeco
5
a month ago
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“How do I commit to just ONE vibe, when there are so many layers to who I am in my business?” Imagine if my brand photos were me wearing a sparkly bejeweled suit set, surrounded by crystals, wearing giant gemstones on my fingers, all for the sake of matching my “gem” brand theme (That could honestly be a vibe, if it truly matched the energy I bring 🤣💎) But branding is way more nuanced for me than that. 
Here’s how I recommend going about it: 1. Let yourself reflect on all the layers first so you don’t limit yourself from the jump. What’s your story, approach, personality, mission? Brain dump. Talk it out. 2. Notice what qualities, concepts, or themes seem to be coming up more often than others, and if there’s any crossover in what your customers notice about you too. 3. Study those aspects and see what connections you can make between you and the work you do. What emotions, symbolism, visuals, metaphors are coming up? 4. Collect creative inspiration ideas from here, using what you uncovered in the previous steps. Let it shape very specific inspo searches, online & offline. 5. Notice where you’re finding a blend of things that people normally wouldn’t think would go together, and experiment against industry trends. Do these steps first, and creating becomes so much clearer. This process is the foundation for all of my custom branding work, and I show you exactly how to do it yourself in my DIY branding program (Brand Ed).
 Personal brand-building gets to be as nuanced, creatively expressive, and layered as you want it to be. And it can evolve with you, too. I wanted my 2026 website & brand photos to show more layers of me and my work ethic over the years, under the umbrella of a couple themes: “cool art professor” and “crafty inner child.” I wore 3 different outfits, brought lots of personalized props, and let my messaging & other elements speak to the “hidden gem” brand theme. But who knows… maybe there is a bejeweled brand era in my future… 🤣 never say neverrrr by @gemcreativeco
13
a month ago
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