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The Branding Blog

Design tips, tricks, and all you need to know to grow your bold business through branding.

7 Brand Extension Ideas for Your Small Business
7 Brand Extension Ideas for Your Small Business

Here at Dox Design, we’re big fans of brand extensions because they are a true sign that our client not only loves, but takes pride in, the brand we created for them.   Brand extensions sound more complex than they really are. Formally, a brand extension...

How to use Pinterest for Design Inspiration in Your Branding
How to use Pinterest for Design Inspiration in Your Branding

Pinterest is a powerful visual search engine that can provide inspiration for all aspects of branding, including logos, websites, packaging, and product design. It’s a platform that allows you to save and organize images, videos, and other creative content in boards....

6 Unique Ways To Use Branding In Your Business
6 Unique Ways To Use Branding In Your Business

Picture this… you’re a small business owner who hired a graphic design team to create a custom logo, brand elements, font suite, and select brand colors to tell a visual story. You are furiggin’ OBSESSED with the results of the rebrand and have applied changes to your...

Achieve Your 2023 Business Goals With A New Brand
Achieve Your 2023 Business Goals With A New Brand

I love the promise and excitement that comes with the start of a new year! When done correctly, new year goals and resolutions can really help you take things to the next level… especially in your small business. It’s a chance to pause, assess what’s working and what...

Does good branding make your small business more money?
Does good branding make your small business more money?

As a small business owner, we’re going to guess you wear 10 hats - maybe even more? The buck stops with you, right? You’re working long hours, you’re carrying the weight of the entire business on your shoulders, and you’re full of pride and joy for this business...

Design Trends – To follow them or not?
Design Trends – To follow them or not?

If there’s one thing we’ve learned from history, it’s that trends come and go. We don’t have to look much further than fashion to know this to be true. For all my fellow millennials out there, we know how trendy skinny jeans used to be, and now (apparently) it’s...

5 Ways to Re-Energize Your Brand in 2022
5 Ways to Re-Energize Your Brand in 2022

We’re days away from 2022, and as the saying goes: New Year, New You… or, New Brand! We like to think of design and brand as entities in and of themselves. As people, we are likely to take this time to reflect on the kinds of people we want to be in the new year. We...

9 Ways to Prepare Your Brand for the Holiday Season
9 Ways to Prepare Your Brand for the Holiday Season

The holidays are finally here! If your first instinct as a business owner is to freak out over everything you need to do, then we strongly encourage you to pause, take a deep breath, and slow down. After all, the holidays are supposed to be FUN, and not just for your...

The Ultimate List of 2022 Holidays You Can Use in Your Marketing
The Ultimate List of 2022 Holidays You Can Use in Your Marketing

We’ve had lots of our Fur Friends asking, and drumroll, please………    The day has finally come! Your Ultimate List of 2022 Holidays: Pet Holidays and Beyond!    This year, we’ve changed it up a bit and have also included plenty of non-pet-related holidays so...

What Color Palettes Say About Your Brand
What Color Palettes Say About Your Brand

One of the main reasons why so many people love the autumn season is the beautiful array of colors all around us! This month for our “What is a Brand?” Series, we’re going to be covering color palettes. What does a color palette say about your brand, and how do you...

How to Set Your Business Up For Success with Self-Care
How to Set Your Business Up For Success with Self-Care

Last month on our blog, we mentioned self-care during the summer and how important it is to take care of yourself so you are better prepared to take care of your business. With that in mind, we’ve been thinking more and more about business burnout. After a tough 2020,...

5 Ways to Create Passive Income Streams (AND ENJOY) This Summer
5 Ways to Create Passive Income Streams (AND ENJOY) This Summer

Pop quiz: What’s just as important as making money for small business owners? The answer: Self-care. Come on, don’t roll your eyes! 🙄 Think about it. How can your business thrive if the person who runs it isn’t thriving? If you’re like us, you love being on the grind...

How To Use Dogs (or Other Pets) in Your Business Marketing
How To Use Dogs (or Other Pets) in Your Business Marketing

The world is a diverse place, but one thing most people have in common is a love of animals, namely pets. That’s why, more and more, you’re seeing pets being showcased in marketing strategies. And we’re not just talking about pet businesses, either. We’re seeing this...

Creative Marketing Ideas to Celebrate National Pet Week
Creative Marketing Ideas to Celebrate National Pet Week

The first week of May (1st-7th) is National Pet Week, which is very convenient for our special Fur Friends since May 7th also happens to be National Packaging Design Day!  As small pet business owners, one of your many responsibilities is to engage your audience via...

Spring Clean Your Brand: Find Out What’s Working (& What’s Not)
Spring Clean Your Brand: Find Out What’s Working (& What’s Not)

There’s a reason why “spring cleaning” is so widely applicable to every area of our lives. Think about the revolving seasons, and what Spring means after a long winter of burrowing in stagnancy: re-birth, renewal… coming back to life! When that fresh air hits and...

A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Dox Design Branding Process
A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Dox Design Branding Process

When you sign up for a service, you trust that magic will happen and your results will be delivered, right? After all, that’s why we rely on professionals to get the job done! Still, it’s always better to take a look behind the curtain—that way, you can see what level...

3 Creative Pet Brands Who Are D.I.Y (Doing It Themselves!)
3 Creative Pet Brands Who Are D.I.Y (Doing It Themselves!)

Ever wonder what happens after you work with Dox Design? One concern we’ve heard from potential Fur Friends is that they’ll be left to their own devices after being given their tools, especially when it comes to design.  But the beauty of working with Dox Design (and...

The Ultimate List of 2021 Pet Holidays
The Ultimate List of 2021 Pet Holidays

Back by popular demand our master list of pet holidays are here! ICYMI last year we created an ENTIRE calendar with a year's worth of graphics and captions. The calendar is now more than 80% off and you can snag it here!   January Pet Holidays Month-Long...

Creative Swag for Pet Businesses and Where to Get It
Creative Swag for Pet Businesses and Where to Get It

Come on, admit it: you love swag just as much as we do! Having branded swag to offer your customers is not only a fun way to market your small business, but a creative way of taking care of your clients’ needs. Just about everyone can use something that’s cute and...

The Dox Design Guide on How to Roll Out Your New Brand
The Dox Design Guide on How to Roll Out Your New Brand

Let’s be real, Fur Friends. Launching a brand is no trivial thing, and should never be treated as such. Think about what you see when you drive past a brand new business: enormous banners and flags, maybe even those wacky inflatable dancing balloons… needless to say,...

Printing Resources For Your Business and Branding Materials
Printing Resources For Your Business and Branding Materials

If you ask around, some might say that print marketing is a thing of the past. Everyone and everything is online these days, so wouldn’t that be the best way to reach your audience? As small business owners ourselves, we’re here to tell you that this idea is false,...

Uploading Your Gif To Giphy!
Uploading Your Gif To Giphy!

Ever wondered how other businesses have their logos beautifully animated on their Instagram Stories? Because, we sure did! As more and more consumers flock to Instagram Stories to learn more about brands and what products and services their favorite influencers and...

DIY Graphic Design: Canva For Small Businesses
DIY Graphic Design: Canva For Small Businesses

It can be hard to know where to begin when it comes to designing graphics for your small business. Especially if you don’t have much experience with the more advanced design software, like Photoshop, Indesign, or Illustrator. We get it. And for those who are looking...

How To Find The Right Designer For Your Brand
How To Find The Right Designer For Your Brand

Okay, so you know you need a designer. Awesome! That’s the easy part. The hard part? Finding the right one for you. And hey, before you get any ideas, we aren’t here to tell you 100% that you need us. That’s not the point of this blog post.  The point of this blog...

Resources To Master Your Pet Brand
Resources To Master Your Pet Brand

You are probably aware of the hundreds if not thousands of resources out there to run a business. It can honestly be overwhelming. We’ve been there ourselves. So, we’ve decided to compile a list of resources for those of you who are wanting to master your brand from...

Master Your Brand with Claire Wolfson of BeanGoods
Master Your Brand with Claire Wolfson of BeanGoods

Ever wonder how these pet brands out there are seriously #killingit when it comes to their cult followings, instant brand recognition, and seemingly endless success? Would you want a chance to hear their brand secrets, best tips, and stories? Dox Design did, too,...

10 Dog Moms Shirts You Need Right Now
10 Dog Moms Shirts You Need Right Now

While branding and design is at the heart of what we do at Dox Design, at the end of the day, we’ll always be Dog Moms first and foremost! One of our favorite things about being in the pet industry is seeing all the pawsome products launched by fabulous brands we love...

20 Things To Do In 2020 To Upgrade Your Brand
20 Things To Do In 2020 To Upgrade Your Brand

Another year is upon us, which means Dox Design is in high gear, working to help our amazing clients and community build effective brands they love. While planning our strategy for the new year, we put together a list of 20 things you can do in 2020 to upgrade your...

The Ultimate List of 2020 Pet Holidays
The Ultimate List of 2020 Pet Holidays

What’s your LEAST favorite part of marketing your pet business? Coming up with content ideas? Hey, we’ve been there! Figuring out what to post on social media, your blog, your monthly email newsletters...whatever it is - it can be overwhelming and stressful. Running a...

5 Brands That are Crushing the Packaging Game
5 Brands That are Crushing the Packaging Game

We’re changing it up this month because we want to highlight the best of the best when it comes to business packaging. Because, this stuff is POWERFUL, guys. How powerful, you ask?  Well, when you receive a light blue box with a beautiful white ribbon tied into the...

Drool-Worthy Design Feature: Paws
Drool-Worthy Design Feature: Paws

Let’s have a round of paws for this special #droolworthy feature! We’ve talked before about the endless and overwhelming amount of pet supplies out there in store aisles (specifically in our Wild One brand feature - if you haven’t read this one, you really should 👌)....

How To Successfully DIY Your Pet Brand Part 3: Photography & Copy
How To Successfully DIY Your Pet Brand Part 3: Photography & Copy

Do you actually consider photography and copy a strategic part of your business’ brand?  From our experience, most people confuse the term ‘branding’ with just colors and a logo. But, we’d actually argue over at Dox Design that your photography and copy are JUST as...

Blog Post Ideas For Your Pet Store
Blog Post Ideas For Your Pet Store

Running a pet store is A LOT of work. From a designer’s perspective here at Dox Design, it’s always worth it to invest in making sure that even if you have a large selection of different products, you still fall under one cohesive brand. Of course, that’s something we...

Drool-Worthy Design Feature: Wagg Foods
Drool-Worthy Design Feature: Wagg Foods

Today we bring to you a #droolworthy design a little different than the others because we wanted to show you a brand that was recently rebranded and upscaled to the MAX. The difference in this rebrand is as clear as night and day (kudos to the designers over at Robot...

Blog Post Ideas For Your Pet Grooming Business
Blog Post Ideas For Your Pet Grooming Business

So, you finally got your pet grooming business professionally designed. It looks fantastic and you know there’s SO much value and you want the world to see it! You know that means you need to get the word out there and begin marketing. We’ve all heard how great...

Drool-Worthy Design Feature: Woodruff
Drool-Worthy Design Feature: Woodruff

As summer approaches, the vacation and adventure planning begins as well, which means our next #droolworthy feature needed to embody that spirit. 🛣 If you’ve been following along with our #droolworthy brand features, you might have noticed that each one encapsulates a...

An Interview With Dox Design Founder, Kaila Piepkow
An Interview With Dox Design Founder, Kaila Piepkow

As a design agency, it can be easy to fall behind-the-scenes without reallllly getting to know who we are as individuals. When people hear the word “agency,” they tend to think they’re working with people who don’t typically care about their brand and their business....

Client Spotlight – Lucky Dogs Canine Services
Client Spotlight – Lucky Dogs Canine Services

What does it even look like to work with us? What situations can we help with? What problems can we solve along the way? To help you see the branding and web design process of Dox Design, we are diving into the client experience of Lucky Dogs Canine Services. Amy came...

How To Successfully DIY Your Pet Brand Part 1: Colors & Fonts
How To Successfully DIY Your Pet Brand Part 1: Colors & Fonts

Are you struggling to piece together your own brand or brand guidelines for your pet business? Maybe you’re not reaching the right people or you aren’t converting customers at a level you’d like. Regardless, the effectiveness of your branding can be a direct...

10 Simple Things You Can Do To Upgrade Your Brand Visuals
10 Simple Things You Can Do To Upgrade Your Brand Visuals

Building a brand can be overwhelming. As pet industry designers, we know it all too well. But, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t certain things that you can do yourself to uplevel and upgrade your brand visuals. We compiled a list of some of the best things you can...

Drool-Worthy Design Feature: Ollie
Drool-Worthy Design Feature: Ollie

By now, assuming you’ve been following along with some of our other #droolworthy features (which, if you haven’t… 🤦🏽‍♀️), you may be aware of some of the commonalities amongst the brands that earned the title of a DROOL WORTHY brand with Dox Design. These features...

5 Brands That Are Killing It On Instagram
5 Brands That Are Killing It On Instagram

We’ve got a startling statistic for you. Only about 10% of your Instagram followers are actually seeing your posts in their feed. MADNESS. What does this mean for you? It means it’s time to take a look at some of the other value Instagram offers for you as a pet...

Drool-Worthy Design Feature: Soenchie
Drool-Worthy Design Feature: Soenchie

Earthy, calm, handmade, inviting, natural, homey, warm, gentle, friendly. Some words to describe this month’s #droolworthy feature. Try to tell us you actually read the above adjectives to describe the following brand and DIDN’T feel personally invited to learn more....

The Importance Of A Branded Social Media Feed
The Importance Of A Branded Social Media Feed

Dox Design is always promoting the importance of having a strong and cohesive brand presence throughout your whole pet business. And for good reason. However, as most businesses default to focusing on their website and packaging, they end up leaving their social media...

Why You Should Be Content Planning
Why You Should Be Content Planning

As branding and website designers for the pet industry, Dox Design has a primary focus on uplifting brands and setting them up for success as they move forward. Where a lot of pet businesses fall flat is taking their new branding and with it, utilizing a content...

5 Ways To Successfully Brand Your Pet Business
5 Ways To Successfully Brand Your Pet Business

Yes, we know. Every single blog post that touches on the concept of branding starts out by mentioning the obvious: Branding is more than a logo. Been there, done that. If you do want to read about it, you can head here and soak up the info! But for now, here are the...

Drool-Worthy Design Feature: Zippy Paws
Drool-Worthy Design Feature: Zippy Paws

When it comes to building a pet business that stands out and converts customers online, branding is one of the first words that should pop in your head. Without it, you’re left with inconsistent strategy, messaging, and marketing that can leave your potential...

Drool-Worthy Design Feature: Wild One
Drool-Worthy Design Feature: Wild One

As professional designers for the pet industry, we take notice of those pet-related brands that have amazing branding. We’re talking like...#droolworthy design here. These brands deserve to be noticed and appreciated in the hopes that it not only provides you with...

5 Ways to Stand Out in a Crowded Veterinarian Market
5 Ways to Stand Out in a Crowded Veterinarian Market

Tell me this. If you drive down a popular city street, how many veterinarian hospitals do you think you’ll see? At least a couple, right? It’s no secret that the veterinary market is very competitive, so what are some ways that your practice can ACTUALLY stand out...

The Ideal Veterinarian Website User Experience That You Need
The Ideal Veterinarian Website User Experience That You Need

Ahh, the dreaded website user experience. As a veterinarian or veterinary manager, you probably couldn’t care less about the technical aspects of your website and the science behind an effective user experience for your audience. But, you’d probably care if you knew...

Template Veterinary Website vs. Custom Veterinary Website Design
Template Veterinary Website vs. Custom Veterinary Website Design

We’ll be honest. We acknowledge that different web design services work best for different veterinary practices. If your current website is working for you and you see no need to change or update it, then awesome. We’re happy for ya! But, if you see room to grow in...

Avoiding Scope Creep : The Project Killer
Avoiding Scope Creep : The Project Killer

When we start a new project, we collaborate with our clients to develop a course of action that will help them achieve their goals - whether it’s a full strategic rebrand process or creating updated marketing materials. This ensures that we’re on the same page about...

An Honest Look Into The Design Process
An Honest Look Into The Design Process

Whenever I onboard a new client, I always get asked about 10,000 questions about our process—which is totally valid! Dox Design does our best to be as transparent as possible to give clients a step-by-step timeline of what we'll be doing for your project and when......

Why We Think Branding is More Than A Logo
Why We Think Branding is More Than A Logo

Branding is More Than a Logo   I have seen it too many times. A brand finds a premade logo on Pinterest or Creative Market and replaces the “Your Name Here” with their business name. They then slap it on everything and think, “Our marketing is done!” To be...

Is Your Business Hot or Cold?
Is Your Business Hot or Cold?

How to Pick a Color Palette that Works for Your Brand Is Your Business Hot or Cold?   No, we aren’t talking about weather in today’s blog post. We are talking about which colors are right for your brand. So, what does hot and cold have to do with the colors for...

Design Resources For Small Businesses
Design Resources For Small Businesses

Design Resources For Small Businesses I am Giving Away All My Secrets   Are you a small business owner who wears many hats? Maybe you do all the accounting, sales, and design of your business. Wow that’s a lot of hats, no worries though we get it and were here to...

Worlds Best Client
Worlds Best Client

Are you a right fit for Dox Design The World's Best Client   We have had the fortunate experience of working with some awesome people. Many just like us decided to start their own business, some of our clients are local and some we have never even met in person....

How to Give Valuable Feedback
How to Give Valuable Feedback

How to Give Valuable Feedback on Your Dox Design Project Feedback is an essential part of collaboration and the design process. However, there’s a difference between valuable, thoughtful feedback and simply providing an opinion.    1. Ask Why I approach the...