Brand Revealer #12: "Branding starts with knowing what YOU yourself long for" with Tevin Stuurland
New Q&A with product designer and creative, Tevin Stuurland + thoughts on brand-to-brand collaborations
👋 Hello branding enthusiast. How are you doing today?
It has been quite a busy period, and I have not shared with you some cool minds. I directed my efforts to Your Creative Letter, as many projects are happening there. This month, you will have two Q&As from Brand Revealers and in December, there will be a big question and investigation on ‘‘Space brands’’; stay tuned for that!
As always, a little reminder of the mission of Your Branding Letter which is to demystify the ''big word'' branding so that anyone can understand its paradoxes and implement their version of branding. By collecting an eclectic panel of definitions and visions of what branding is and implies. Showcasing those who do, use, and expand branding: Brand Revealers.
Wise words from Brand Revealer Tevin Stuurland
Tevin is a product designer I connected with on WATBD. He shared his work and found himself on my branding radar. I was curious about his mindset and approach as a UX designer with a twist on branding. I thought to invite him to join our conversation and expand some ideas with us.
☕ Grab some tea or coffee and let’s go!
As you know, these Q&As are short, yet straightforward
and spot on in reminding us of Possibility!
Who are you?
My name is Tevin Stuurland. I am a Freelance product designer and creative.
Your agency/studio
Where are you located?
🇳🇱 Almere, Netherlands
What is your definition of Branding?
Branding gives intention to how you want to represent yourself in the world.
Tevin
Branding is made of trial and error. The positioning takes effort, time and dedication. How can entrepreneurs recover from a branding that doesn't resonate yet with their audience?
Branding starts with knowing what YOU yourself long for.
If you don't know what you like and you perform for an audience, you'll always follow the idea of doing it for someone else instead of your own ideas.
Tevin
What are the repeated words you hear about your Brand and Branding from your audience, teams, and people who discover you? (3 to 5 keywords)
Professional • Multi-hyphenated/multi-disciplinary • Cohesive
Tevin
What is your best branding story from clients, yourself or an iconic brand you look up to?
Well, perhaps not specifically branding, but I have designed for an institute focusing on innovation within cancer surgeries and research.
It was eye-opening to me how the medical world is an important component of a healthy life, but their machines are far behind in their UX (user experience). Getting the chance to immerse myself and bring change by working with a client who wanted to do it differently felt like an honour. It turned out to be the most impactful project I have done.
Tevin
You are a navigator of skills as well: design, writing, strategy, mentoring, entrepreneurship (ideas for solutions, I think about Aidea)... I know how challenging that is. How do you keep up the balance within all your skills?
I think the way I go about it is trying to plan my weeks in and making sure I give attention to all those different sections. There will be weeks where I focus more on one thing but I find all of these endeavours so interesting that I just keep moving towards one and the other. And sometimes even picking up new things.
Tevin
Branding and interaction are co-dependent. You have created several visual systems and interactions for the medical, art, and tech arena. How have these Brands leveraged your solutions to speak better about their Brand? How did your solutions enhance their brand awareness towards their users and audience?
I think it was less about creating brand awareness and more about understanding how design can inform important changes. For example working in a medical situation they saw that design could affect how quickly surgeons could pick up a new system — as the current systems focus on pure functionality instead of also account for usability.
Tevin
Do you enjoy designing for the machine or alongside the machine?
I enjoy designing for both the machine and alongside the machine. Along side the machine though; I find more interesting purely because I get to see the way all of it gets to be constructed together. Which in turn gives me new knowledge that I can use in future projects.
Tevin
You can connect and discover more of his work and mindset @Tevin Stuurland
Collaborate with another brand: it is combo magic
Branding is also a leverage exercise. There are numerous brands: personal, corporate, trendy, confidential, pop, sophisticated and so much more. Brands are diverse, and some brands can benefit from collaborating mindfully to shed light on each other.
I have collaborated with various creatives, brand revealers, and brands. What I consistently discover as a magical truth is the powerful impact when two or more brands stand side by side and walk the route together for as long as they want.
Top 3 tips to improve brand-to-brand collaborations
✅ Set your expectations and be open.
✅ Get to know more about each other’s vision. It is key to becoming co-pilots.
✅ Engage in each other’s content, and just share the love you receive.
✅ If it was a success* and the chemistry did wonders, well, do it again!
Train and become co-builders.
✅ If it was not that of a success*, no worries! You may have found yourself a branding buddy. Numbers cannot define a collaboration.
When you collaborate, you always learn, and that is a gift.
*Success: as a brand builder it is always good to redefine what success stands for.
🤩 Bright, they are!
Branding a healthcare (A refined visual story + some nice UX interactions).
The female start-up landscape is changing (A great time for female Founders).
An AI website builder (Things are moving superfast, and now generating websites with the help of AI is getting democratized. The question is, "Where do designers stand in this AI world?").
Upgrade your marketing content (Content published in bulk with a dash of AI).
Therapy for Black Girls (A bright vision and a needed platform. Too bad they don’t market to the EU).
🎈 Fun Brand(ING) prompt / 020
What is brand magnetism for you? Have you experienced it personally as a brand builder, and why does it matter for the future of your brand?
Video, words, illustration, animation… you choose. Short and sweet.
Kairos in branding is really interesting!
Happy branding.
Keva.