Latest / The Scene Projects / Eric Siegel on Sports Branding, Emerging Tech, and Design Storytelling

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Eric Siegel on Sports Branding, Emerging Tech, and Design Storytelling · The Scene Projects

• 0:12
  Welcome in to another exciting episode of Real Biz.
• 0:15
  I'm your host, Bubba Starts.
• 0:17
  And with me today from eSiegel Designs, Eric Siegel.
• 0:20
  Eric, welcome to the show.
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  Thank you for having me.
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  Appreciate it.
• 0:24
  How's it going?
• 0:24
  It's going well, man.
• 0:26
  Appreciate you waking up early out on the West Coast, to do this with me.
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  I think people may be a little, confused.
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  We are on the Real Bish channel.
• 0:36
  We see a lot of guitars and music stuff in the background, but you're also a big sports guy.
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  We got a lot to cover.
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  You kinda hit on all the, all the different topics that we cover here on the seed projects,
• 0:47
  you know, network as a whole.
• 0:49
  But, before we get into all that, I really want to, give you an opportunity.
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  Give us a little bit of your backstory, and then we'll get into, everything you're doing
• 0:57
  now.
• 0:58
  Yeah.
• 0:58
  No.
• 0:59
  Definitely.
• 0:59
  I appreciate it.
• 1:00
  Well, yeah, first of all, I'm Eric.
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  I, I'm a sports brand designer based out of the Bay Area.
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  I help a lot of sports companies kind of level up, you know, uplift their game and their
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  branding.
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  That could be, you know, their brand identity system, brand characters, flyers, posters,
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  merch, you name it.
• 1:20
  Yes.
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  I do have a well versed kind of collection of music stuff too.
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  Music is a big passion of mine.
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  Play music as well, write songs, and also even have some kind of clients with their personal
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  branding when it comes to music and really putting themselves out there on the marketing
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  front.
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  So anything music oriented, anything sports oriented, like having both of those
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  backgrounds, any way that I can kinda help out and be creative, that's kinda where I come in.
• 1:49
  Yeah.
• 1:49
  You couldn't be a more perfect guest for what this network is and and what we have become,
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  because I'm the same.
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  Right?
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  I I was leaving JV basketball games in high school to go play in the bars with my dad's
• 2:01
  band.
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  Right?
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  So my life has always been kind of equal parts sport and music.
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  Now granted, you know, unlike you, I didn't get to go on and play at the collegiate level.
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  I know you're a a UC Santa Cruz slug.
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  Shout out to the slugs out there.
• 2:16
  Oh, yeah.
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  That but it to me, they're two universal languages.
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  And I think that's kinda where I I want to start because you have a foot in each one of
• 2:29
  these.
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  How has that kind of informed a lot of your life to be able to talk to anyone from really
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  any culture and background because of your involvement both in music and in sports?
• 2:42
  Yeah.
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  That's a great question.
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  I it's funny how I really started to dabble into music actually before I started playing
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  sports.
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  My dad was always kinda big into, like, Eric, like, play guitar when I'm young and play
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  piano.
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  I would play and dabble a little bit, but I think my true first love had to be kinda, like,
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  just wanting to just play basketball.
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  I was always playing outside, always trying like, I played it in middle school and high
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  school, thought my career was over in high school, and then had an opportunity to walk on
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  at the collegial level, which was, you know, such an opportunity for me.
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  And then next thing I know, COVID hit, was able to finish my college career out.
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  And then I just always remember, was like, you know what?
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  Like, I was young.
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  My hands were small.
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  It was hard for me to really kinda be able to play guitar, but I always wanted to be able to.
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  Was big also really big and interested in playing drums, and I think co was that perfect
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  time for me.
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  I was like, you know what?
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  I think I gotta leave the sports career behind me even though I had this love and passion for
• 3:44
  it still and try something new.
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  And and that's really when I started to, like, kinda take music seriously and really have that
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  be a part of me, you know, on the instrumental slash musician level.
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  But then always still kinda found opportunities where, like, all the friends I made, all the
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  connections I made at Santa Cruz was, you know, kinda leaning in the sports area.
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  We're having just reoccurring projects come up, having a lot of case studies and kind of
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  experience of building those projects for sports.
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  And even just, that style of just how it's fun and playful and there's a lot of personality
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  that kind of comes behind that.
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  It's it's amazing to see there are some similarities in both music and sports.
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  And, yeah, I think knowing that kind of language like you're mentioning is always super
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  important.
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  Like, always just trying to kinda solve my client's problem and everything.
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  Now eSiegel Designs, obviously, you're in the marketing and branding space.
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  Did you come from it from the artistic side, or did you come from it from more of the business
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  end, and kind of where did that go and what is where's the passion at, or is it kind of equal
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  parts?
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  Yeah.
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  Definitely.
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  Definitely more on the kind of artistic.
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  I think initially, I was always just like, how can I draw?
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  How can I design something really cool for them?
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  And then it really just kinda morphed into this level of I think sports has such an amazing
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  market of, like, there is a level of artistic expression in that of, like, how you know,
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  like, I'll say, like, you know, I'm from the base.
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  The Golden State Warriors is just like, you just see this branding and the jerseys and all
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  these cool designs that come up every year and, how that's utilized.
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  All the signage and theme art that they kinda use and apply at the Chase Center just that
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  always fascinated me.
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  But then now how you use that and then convert that into a more business model of, like, okay.
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  Well, how come how can we scale something, you know, to be huge on a on a poster that you see
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  right outside Chase Center or something as small as, like, a social media icon?
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  So over time in my career, I started to really kinda understand the business idea of, like,
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  okay.
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  Like, how can we create visual identities that are scalable for companies that want to, you
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  know, expand their, you know, horizons on who they serve to, who their market is, and
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  everything like that.
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  And, we want our branding to kinda reflect that.
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  Yeah.
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  Kinda referring to the Golden State, you know, logo and and the brand that they are.
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  It could be very hard to take a massive thing like the Golden Gate Bridge, right, and to make
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  that small scale and to still feel impactful and to still feel powerful as it would if you
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  were standing in the city and looking out across the bay.
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  Right?
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  And that's a a powerful symbol of their brand and many others.
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  And sports branding is just I mean, I I grew up in Chicago.
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  So the bull.
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  Right?
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  Benny the bull, it's just so ubiquitous across, I mean, across all cultures because of who, you
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  know, obviously, who Michael Jordan was, you know, in the eighties and nineties.
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  But that brand, you know, do people remember all of that without the brand that is the Bulls
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  around that or, you know, vice versa?
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  Does anyone remember the Bulls if you don't have a Michael Jordan?
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  Mhmm.
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  Definitely.
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  Definitely.
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  Yeah.
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  And and, you touched on a little bit of how, right, like, thinking about, like, the Golden
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  State Warriors or thinking about just memorable icons of, like right.
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  Like, when you look at the bowl, you instantly think of, right, like, Michael Jordan, Scottie
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  Copeland, Phil Jackson.
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  Right?
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  Like, it's how, excuse me, that a logo is kinda just that vessel, just like all this kind of
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  how, you know, a customer or user or a fan kind of experiences a brand.
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  And I think that for me is always the biggest challenge of what I've you know, what gets me
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  up in the morning is just that level of, like, how can you simplify a brand to its finest
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  points?
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  Like, how the Golden State Warriors just has that bridge and it's just so recognizable.
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  Or, you know, like, something as simple as just like the Nike swoosh that I refer to all the
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  time.
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  It's just so iconic, so recognizable.
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  You see it in any different application, any scale, and everyone knows exactly what that is.
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  And, obviously, Nike just does an amazing job with their brand that I think the if you were
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  to imagine what a hotel would look like created by Nike, everyone would kind of have a a very
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  clear vision and idea of what that would look like.
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  Right?
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  Just because their core branding is just so strong.
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  It better be shaped like a shoe or a check mark.
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  Oh, yeah.
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  For sure.
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  One of those, like, a like, shoe beds.
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  Right?
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  Like, it's just the bed and then you sleep.
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  Yeah.
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  That'd be awesome.
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  We're giving Phil Knight and Crew some ideas for, the future.
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  It's all experiential marketing now.
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  Right?
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  Everybody's gotta be fully immersed in the brand, and, that's not going away anytime soon.
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  I have a lot of conversations now with people that, you know, whether it's digital media and
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  the, you know, XR reality that we're stepping into, you know, the combination of VR and, you
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  know, AR and kinda bringing it all together under that XR, you know, umbrella.
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  Experiences and brands are are going to change, and they need to to to evolve with the times as
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  well where, you need to have something that not only is scalable in the small to the big on two
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  d, but you need to be able to think about what does this look like three dimensionally now and
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  and fourth dimensionally and who know fifth dimensionally.
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  Right?
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  How Yeah.
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  People are thinking about your brand.
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  And and it's a new wave of marketing, I feel like, is really coming our way in the next five
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  to ten years that I don't know a lot of people that are outside of it, you know, general you
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  know, just the general population Don't really understand what's coming, but, that's why I
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  love podcasting, man.
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  Even from a small town in South Dakota, I get to stay on that forefront.
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  You're out in the Bay Area, obviously.
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  You're seeing the newest tech and experiences, you know, nearly daily, I'm sure.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  The the AI and tech boom here is just it's so well, I mean, like, OpenAI is kind of like it's
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  kinda founding company is is based out of the Bay Area in San Francisco.
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  But, yeah, the it's funny how AR has been such it's been rather prominent as in it's it's been
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  around for a while, but I honestly think that's something that I would love to see brands
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  experience more.
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  Where now, like, they have the NFC tags and kinda just, you know, tap your phone there and
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  how you can kinda see this mixture between a level of virtual reality to a level of, you
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  know, augmented reality or real you know, in real life of, like, you showing your phone.
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  Like, it's funny.
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  It it brings me back to, like, the Pokemon GO kind of realm that we used to be in.
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  Like, I feel like stuff like that was ahead of its time where, like, imagine if you were going
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  to live events and you start seeing animations on your phone that weren't really there, but
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  because of you know, you might scan, like, a QR code or NFC tag that for a young kid, you know,
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  going to the game, it just elevates their experience to a whole another level.
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  Right?
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  Seeing their favorite players play and then all these cool animations when someone scores a
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  three.
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  Just something that I think we could just continue to use now that we all have these
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  smartphones in our pockets.
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  Right?
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  Beyond that, the smart glasses.
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  Right?
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  And that tech coming around and becoming more affordable and more ubiquitous across the
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  board, becoming more stylish and smaller, and the tech really catching up, becoming
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  affordable.
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  And I think that's when brands really go all in, and I think we're a lot closer to that than
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  people realize.
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  And then the experiences are going to go.
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  Like I said, the next five to ten years, inside of stadiums, you're already seeing it where you
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  can scan and get the experience on your phone.
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  But, eventually, you're going to be walking through, and some of the conversations I've had
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  is, like, the replays in real time as you're, like, watching the game or on your screen at
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  home of, like, being able to clip that and take that and to watch it again is, like, that stuff
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  is here.
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  It's here now.
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  The tech is here.
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  Whether it makes it to the, you know, the the market at large yet is kinda yet to be seen,
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  but I I actually have an interview that airs, this week on the Scene Project Sports Network
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  with Luke Gaiden of the, of Accredo.
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  They are working with brands in a in a lot of the same ways that you are, you know, bringing
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  this reality and this branding and really being full stack.
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  There are a lot on the tech side, but understanding that people need to understand
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  this from every single level to really understand what it can do for a brand.
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  Yeah.
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  Definitely.
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  Definitely.
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  And I would say a lot of clients, I think, you know, one of the biggest things I really enjoy
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  when working with clients is, like, right, we present the logo, but we also present things
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  like mock ups and brand applications.
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  And I love to just kinda go beyond what they even thought was possible.
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  Right?
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  Like, it's just like, hey.
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  Like, if you took this mark and put it all the way here and make it this big and apply it in
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  this fashion, and that's where, like, those creative kinda challenges and and solutions
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  come in.
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  It's just like, you know, I've found a lot of clients like, oh, wow.
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  I haven't even thought about doing that.
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  And it's just like, well, here's this opportunity.
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  Right?
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  Like, again, in the next five, ten years, it's like, there might be this level of, like, you
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  you wanna stay ahead.
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  You wanna be, you know, ahead of the curve.
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  So, yeah, I I I do agree with you totally that it it is here and it's not going away.
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  So, how can we kind of incorporate this experience for both the brands that are using
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  it as well as the fans that are, you know, are being welcomed by it.
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  Do you find yourself working with more, you know, kinda smaller, not necessarily startup,
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  but smaller companies as opposed to some of the giants that are out there being a small company
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  yourself, assuming you and maybe a small team, any, that are working on this.
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  Do you find it rewarding to work with the small companies as opposed to those as well?
• 14:26
  Yeah.
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  I think it I I mean, it depends.
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  I think there are opportunities where, like, getting hired on as a freelancer for a much
• 14:36
  bigger company and they have their extended team.
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  You know, there are opportunities like that that are great.
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  And then also, right, if there is an opportunity to be like, hey.
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  Like, we have this story, like and we have this opportunity to really build something great,
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  you know, being a part of that kind of founding, you know, story and building up their
• 14:59
  branding from the ground up is really is really, you know, such an amazing experience.
• 15:04
  Shout out to Nova's Hoops.
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  That's a a woman's kind of sports program that I've been working with and was able to create
• 15:12
  their branding and everything.
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  And, you know, actually, the midst of kinda creating some more kind of brand identity work
• 15:19
  for them.
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  But to be able to see not only what we worked on and collaborated with from the ground up and
• 15:25
  seeing how they're just taking and expanding out has been such a such a surreal moment.
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  And then, right, like, there are all the there are also are those, you know, two to five year
• 15:37
  kinda marks where it's like, hey.
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  Like, we've been running with this logo that we found, you know, or we kind of scratched up
• 15:44
  because we needed some branding, and now we wanna reposition.
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  So that brings a whole other challenge of, like, okay.
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  Everything that, you know, the client or the fans love about this, we wanna keep, and then
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  how can we reposition ourselves to do something different?
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  And, you know, having that just be an even tighter parameter brings an even bigger
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  challenge, which also brings even more enjoyment when executed, you know,
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  successfully.
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  So but, yeah, I would say, normally, I kinda stay within that, like, two to five year kind
• 16:19
  of business stage, with a lot of clients and everything.
• 16:26
  Yeah.
• 16:26
  And that's kinda it's funny how, you know, the first two years, maybe the logo and everything.
• 16:31
  I mean, for some people, it's everything.
• 16:33
  For others like me, I I had my wife design something for us, and it worked very well for
• 16:38
  two years, right, when we were just an audio only podcast and then moving through and as we
• 16:43
  are growing our community.
• 16:44
  But this year, we're doing a lot more what I would call premium content.
• 16:48
  It's going on to the streamers with Roku, Apple TV, and Amazon where a rebrand for me was
• 16:52
  necessary to to the scene projects TV because it more accurately reflected who we are now
• 16:58
  rather than who we were.
• 17:00
  We're almost, you know, just labeling us as a as a podcast was like, we're not even that.
• 17:06
  We're hardly that.
• 17:07
  Like, the podcast as it sits to me, a lot of, you know, con anything can really be a podcast
• 17:13
  and not that this won't go out as an audio version as well, but everything that I do is on
• 17:18
  video.
• 17:18
  So rebranding to that and the fact that we were available on all the all these things was
• 17:24
  necessary to accurately reflect who we are.
• 17:28
  And I've already seen the the turn on that as I start to talk to people in that fashion.
• 17:34
  Hey.
• 17:34
  We're the with the scene project TV.
• 17:36
  And all of a sudden, you're getting a little bit different buzz to it.
• 17:40
  Right?
• 17:40
  It's no longer just the award winning podcast that we that we are and, you know, kind of have
• 17:46
  that to fall back on, but we're evolving.
• 17:50
  And and what we do, it wasn't it wasn't enough to categorize everything.
• 17:55
  So, yeah, I understand that from a very personal level now of what it means to have to
• 18:01
  kind of make make readjustments.
• 18:04
  And in another five years, we may have to adjust again, right, and to change, and we're
• 18:09
  gonna continue to evolve past that.
• 18:12
  And that doesn't necessarily mean that we have to, like, start a new company or anything, but
• 18:16
  you can rebrand and reimage yourself as needed as a business.
• 18:21
  You just have to be very conscious of how you're doing it and rolling things out the
• 18:25
  bigger you are.
• 18:26
  Right?
• 18:26
  For Nike to come out and be like, hey.
• 18:27
  You know what?
• 18:28
  We're gonna change everything.
• 18:30
  Like, that's a massive undertaking because billions of people on the planet know you by
• 18:36
  this thing.
• 18:37
  Right?
• 18:38
  Like, it it's much harder to move that aircraft carrier, right, as opposed to, you know, our
• 18:44
  little skiff out here that is the scene projects.
• 18:47
  Yeah.
• 18:47
  For sure.
• 18:48
  And I think, right, like, in your position, like, it's a good problem to have.
• 18:53
  Right?
• 18:53
  You're you're scaling in a way that it's just like, hey.
• 18:56
  Like, what we currently have doesn't doesn't hold as much weight as it as it could.
• 19:00
  So to be able to expand in a way that, you know, you have a flexible design system now
• 19:07
  that can be suitable for audio, for visual, for, you know, social media, redesigning of how
• 19:14
  you identify yourself of, like, hey.
• 19:16
  We're not just a podcast.
• 19:17
  We're more than that.
• 19:18
  Right?
• 19:19
  And it's a living, breathing thing of how, you know, how, you know, you want to, you know,
• 19:26
  please the audience and kind of favor towards the audience is a is a is a good problem to
• 19:31
  have, and and you wanna just kind of have your branding, you know, like I mentioned, reflect
• 19:37
  that.
• 19:38
  But yeah.
• 19:40
  Again, you want to have, like, those timeless marks like a Nike swoosh, but even still, a
• 19:45
  rebrand doesn't have to be, like, the main kind of their primary mark is, you know,
• 19:50
  reestablished.
• 19:50
  It could always be improved, uplifted, or, you know, an additional kind of design system of
• 19:56
  additional secondary marks, icons.
• 19:59
  Having it then be suitable to both digital and print is, you know, still you see a lot of,
• 20:04
  like, things for, like, redesign.
• 20:07
  A perfect example I can think of with that is, like, I know Walmart just did, like, within
• 20:11
  this past year did a redesign.
• 20:13
  And I it was funny how it's funny how to see how rebranding gets kind of reflected on social
• 20:19
  media, but everyone's like, I I don't see a difference.
• 20:22
  And then you look at how everything follows of their packaging changed, their marketing
• 20:28
  changed.
• 20:28
  There's a little bit of a a much cleaner, tighter, brighter blue that they're using.
• 20:33
  A little bit of their mark kind of, right, I understand it's like, well, for here, might as
• 20:39
  well, like, adjust these kind of things, adjust the kerning, the type of the Walmart kind of
• 20:43
  word mark and everything.
• 20:45
  Yeah.
• 20:45
  The branding goes so far beyond just the logo and maybe a font that you're using or a color
• 20:51
  scheme that's happening with these large companies.
• 20:54
  I mean, it's the way they design the stores, and they're changing the shelves every couple
• 20:58
  of weeks.
• 20:59
  Seems like every time I go there, I can't find anything, but it's all by design.
• 21:03
  Right?
• 21:03
  Like, it's not that these things are done, you know, kinda willy nilly.
• 21:08
  There there is a plan behind all of this, and there is psychology behind the brand changes.
• 21:13
  And, yeah, the Walmart one was sneaky.
• 21:16
  Now one that was not so sneaky that got a ton of headlines and for better or for worse for
• 21:21
  the company, but the Cracker Barrel rebrand that they went through, you know, in the last
• 21:26
  year and a half.
• 21:27
  I I can't remember exactly what it was now, but, you know, that was massive.
• 21:31
  It it made waves, and you have to be careful sometimes with those kind of moves to not turn
• 21:39
  away your current customer base.
• 21:42
  Mhmm.
• 21:43
  Yeah.
• 21:43
  I I can't tell you how many DMs I got from my friends in the design community.
• 21:49
  Like, do you see this?
• 21:50
  Are you see or do you see what's happening?
• 21:53
  And then two weeks later, oh my god.
• 21:54
  They changed it back.
• 21:55
  What's going on?
• 21:57
  But, yeah, that was just the level of right.
• 22:00
  I think yeah.
• 22:04
  I think there was a level of not understanding maybe their audience and having to strip away.
• 22:09
  And I I do think too that, you know, a a company that's been around for so long like a
• 22:18
  Cracker Barrel might feel cornered or pressured to feel like they have to adjust in this level
• 22:24
  of a digital age.
• 22:27
  And I think I this might be a hot take.
• 22:30
  I think they actually did a great job of that because of how the badge was simplified, and it
• 22:36
  had this system that they can then use, and the packaging kinda made sense for that.
• 22:42
  But I I do think the one thing I felt like they missed their mark on is that it it did feel
• 22:47
  like they stripped away a lot of the the the legacy inherited and personality, and I wish I
• 22:52
  wish they found a more you know?
• 22:54
  Again, I can't say too much because I hey.
• 22:56
  I wasn't on the client calls with them or anything like that.
• 22:59
  But I can see how, right, like, in this now digital age that everything lives, all
• 23:06
  marketing is really just, like, the strongest tool that we have now is social media and, you
• 23:11
  know, online that, like, the system that they had works, you know, since it wasn't such a a
• 23:19
  print dominant kind of marketing tactic, like, you know, how when Cracker Barrel started.
• 23:25
  Forgive me.
• 23:26
  I don't know what year it started, but definitely not when, you know, the the.com boom
• 23:32
  was a thing.
• 23:32
  Right?
• 23:33
  So, but, yeah, I think, there's so many different ways that I think it could have been
• 23:42
  handled.
• 23:42
  But
• 23:43
  Right.
• 23:44
  And even if even if everything on the design and the, you know, even if everything was on
• 23:50
  point, maybe the messaging or the timing or the so many things that can go wrong that can kind
• 23:57
  of, end up with it blowing up in your face as it did for them.
• 24:01
  And, you know, sometimes if you're a Walmart, but, like, most people probably didn't even
• 24:06
  notice, they rebranded.
• 24:08
  Right?
• 24:08
  Like, they don't they don't even realize it.
• 24:11
  And Walmart's gone through this change several times.
• 24:14
  They've rebranded and re you know, kind of done everything probably five times in in the last
• 24:21
  twenty years that I can kinda remember where it's like, this is their their letters all used
• 24:25
  to be red.
• 24:26
  Like Yeah.
• 24:27
  It used to be red and blue.
• 24:28
  And I don't think people kind of remember that and that massive change from the red lettering
• 24:35
  to the, you know, the yellow and the light blue that you see now.
• 24:38
  Like, it it's different.
• 24:40
  And maybe that was, you know, maybe the light the lighter colors that they have now, that
• 24:46
  could have been a thought twenty years ago, and they went, hey.
• 24:48
  If we just go from this to this, it's gonna be nightmare.
• 24:53
  We need to implement these things slowly.
• 24:56
  And I think those are what, like, higher level branding and marketing people are thinking
• 25:00
  about.
• 25:01
  It's like, look.
• 25:02
  This is a titanic.
• 25:04
  Right?
• 25:05
  We need to steer slowly and slowly bring people along on this journey.
• 25:10
  Otherwise, you end up on the other side of the spectrum with a Cracker Bar.
• 25:13
  It was too change.
• 25:15
  It was too much change at one time.
• 25:16
  People don't like it.
• 25:17
  They get uncomfortable, and then they're like, I've and then the outrage comes.
• 25:21
  Right?
• 25:21
  Where if you slowly implement changes over the course of a five, ten, fifteen, twenty year
• 25:28
  plan, which these major corporations have to think on that level.
• 25:32
  To me, that's impressive.
• 25:33
  I mean, we are getting, like, super high level branding and marketing talk now, but a a small
• 25:40
  person a a a consumer doesn't think about that at all.
• 25:45
  A small business maybe thinks of, well, you know, a logo as their branding and what that
• 25:51
  means.
• 25:51
  But as you get larger and larger, you have to, address these things.
• 25:55
  And especially when your marketing budget starts to become in the, you know, from the the
• 26:01
  maybe hundreds of dollars to the tens of thousands to hundreds to millions or tens of
• 26:08
  millions of dollars.
• 26:09
  Right?
• 26:09
  Like, you have to be very careful with this because it's yeah.
• 26:14
  Missus at that paint, people lose their jobs.
• 26:18
  Yeah.
• 26:19
  Definitely.
• 26:20
  And, I I I honestly try to push a lot of the clients that I work with.
• 26:25
  It's like not only just, like, the idea of creating a brand, but then how it's more so a
• 26:31
  plan of action.
• 26:32
  Right?
• 26:32
  Like, how do you roll out this brand?
• 26:35
  Right?
• 26:37
  Do you kind of, you know, kinda soft test, you know, a little soft launch of everything?
• 26:44
  Again, also, when it comes to, like, social media marketing, having a whole kinda campaign,
• 26:49
  maybe a monthly, maybe a whole quarterly kind of thing of of an event to to build buzz
• 26:56
  around.
• 26:58
  I think, you know, having that level of just, like, you want to kind of get the snowball
• 27:03
  effect that a lot of people are hearing about.
• 27:05
  A lot of people are getting this buzz and excitement to then when the event happens, it's
• 27:09
  like everyone has already seen so many posts about it and knows about it.
• 27:13
  You know?
• 27:15
  I always try to come in, you know, what I call as, like, a strategic partner, And it's like,
• 27:19
  hey.
• 27:19
  Like, we have this branding.
• 27:21
  We've established this.
• 27:22
  How can we expand on different things?
• 27:24
  And then how can we kind of lean into what the audience is looking for or or really showcase
• 27:29
  this in a level of, like so the audience understands why we did what we did.
• 27:34
  Right?
• 27:34
  So they under the audience can really feel like they've been heard, they've been seen.
• 27:39
  Right?
• 27:39
  That's kind of you know, in in other instances like Cracker Barrel, I think it feels like, you
• 27:47
  know, this level of, like, what a brand that they might know and love gets stripped away
• 27:52
  from them.
• 27:53
  Right?
• 27:53
  Yeah.
• 27:54
  Cracker Barrel tried to do what I did where I was, like, up at three, 04:00 in the morning
• 27:58
  one day, and I'm like, I think I wanna design a new logo.
• 28:02
  And, then during the course of that time before anyone woke up that day, I have changed
• 28:07
  everything from the old logo to the new one and, like, nope.
• 28:11
  This is us now.
• 28:12
  Right?
• 28:12
  And and I'm able to do that because we have thousands of followers and maybe 10,000
• 28:16
  followers total across everything.
• 28:19
  But, I'm able to make those changes ubiquitously, not, taking the risk of pissing
• 28:24
  off millions of people in an instant.
• 28:28
  Yeah.
• 28:29
  No.
• 28:29
  I, yeah.
• 28:31
  I even in the design space too, I think showing your work is now more important than ever,
• 28:38
  showing why you did what you did.
• 28:40
  And and a lot of the content I've been looking to, you know, continue to create on my case
• 28:46
  studies and show my case studies on my website is just really showing why I did what I did
• 28:51
  based off what the client was looking for, based off of, you know, all the things that we
• 28:55
  could see this direction, but why we decided to go this direction.
• 29:00
  Right?
• 29:00
  Could've gone left, decided to go right.
• 29:02
  You know?
• 29:04
  And really, like you know, intention is always the word that I use of, like, well, for
• 29:10
  example, I created that Noah's Hoops badge, and there's these two stars on the badge.
• 29:15
  And it's like, okay.
• 29:16
  Well, two stars, like, right, like, doesn't mean anything.
• 29:18
  But I actually represented you know, it's these co owners, and those two stars represent them.
• 29:25
  Right?
• 29:26
  Like, so having just little intentional kind of design decisions that I've made and showing
• 29:33
  that on social media and explaining why I did what I did, I think, it's just super important.
• 29:38
  It's not like, oh, we wanna make it blue because blue is cool.
• 29:41
  You know?
• 29:42
  Like, if you can have some meaning behind a lot of the branding decisions that you're making, I
• 29:46
  think it just it it shows why, you know, potentially other instances or other directions
• 29:53
  and decisions, you know, might not be as strong as the ones that you do make.
• 29:58
  Yeah.
• 29:58
  You're telling their story with a simple logo, and I think that's really cool.
• 30:02
  But people don't know the story if you don't tell them.
• 30:05
  Right?
• 30:05
  Like, to include them in that process a little bit, at least to have it out there of why it
• 30:09
  is.
• 30:09
  A little you know?
• 30:10
  So now you're able to actually tell the founder story through the logo.
• 30:14
  I think that's so impressive, and that's kind of the higher level branding that you bring to
• 30:19
  the table.
• 30:19
  Absolutely love it, man.
• 30:21
  Wanna let you get out of here.
• 30:23
  One more chance here, kinda plug the website where people can work with you, where they can
• 30:27
  find your stuff, where they can see some more of these brands and things that you've worked
• 30:30
  on to see your work.
• 30:31
  And, yeah, man, thank thanks for spending some time with me today.
• 30:35
  Yeah.
• 30:35
  Of course.
• 30:36
  Yeah.
• 30:36
  Feel free to follow me at e sequels designs.
• 30:39
  And then, yeah, I have my website on this kinda ticker below.
• 30:43
  Yeah.
• 30:43
  Looking for always looking for new opportunities and clients.
• 30:47
  I'm based in the Bay Area, but always looking for opportunities beyond The Bay where it's
• 30:51
  sports related, music related, stuff like that.
• 30:54
  Feel free to hop hop on a call with me, and, yeah, I would love to get to work.
• 31:00
  I appreciate your time, and thank you again.
• 31:02
  No.
• 31:03
  Absolutely my pleasure.
• 31:04
  I don't get a chance to to dive deep on a lot of this stuff, with a whole lot of people.
• 31:09
  So, after our discovery call a few weeks ago, was really looking forward to getting this done
• 31:14
  today.
• 31:14
  And, yeah, you caught me as I'm getting ready to take off on a 5,000 mile tour, journey and
• 31:21
  shooting content the entire time.
• 31:23
  And, that's that's why the the move to the Scene Projects TV was just imperative.
• 31:28
  It's like, I'm about to go and do all of this, and to really put us out there.
• 31:33
  I don't wanna put us out there with the old logo knowing that we're kinda moving into
• 31:37
  something new.
• 31:38
  So in a lot of ways, while we are, you know, supporting operation combating veteran suicide
• 31:42
  and we're raising awareness for that, we're also raising awareness for ourself as a company
• 31:47
  always as well, and and what a chance to do that.
• 31:49
  So appreciate you taking some time.
• 31:51
  I know it's an early morning for you, but absolutely blessed to to share a conversation
• 31:56
  with you, Eric.
• 31:57
  Thank you.
• 31:58
  Thank you for being here, and and thank you for being part of the scene.
• 32:01
  Yeah.
• 32:01
  Of course.
• 32:02
  Thank you for having me.
• 32:03
  I appreciate it.