How to Create Memorable Side Hustle Branding

Having distinct and recognizable side hustle branding is essential in today’s ultra-competitive landscape. For side hustlers, or anyone looking to transform their passion into an income source, having a memorable and cohesive brand can be the key to standing out, attracting customers, and building trust.

At the Side Hustle Blueprint, we have a long history of developing identities for brands and businesses, with a few of us making graphic design our own side hustles. So, in this guide, we’ll explore the essential elements of side hustle branding – from choosing the right colours and fonts to creating a distinctive identity that resonates with your audience.

But before we do any of that, it’s important to know why good side hustle branding is so important.

Why is Having Great Side Hustle Branding so Important?

For many business owners, creating a logo and picking a couple of basic colours is as far as they go when it comes to creating a brand. But the reality is that a brand is so much more than just a logo; it’s the personality of your side hustle.

A well-thought-out brand image will convey who you are, what you stand for, and how customers should feel about your business. It’ll allow your audience, at a glance, to understand a whole range of things about your business.

It can help show industry, price range, overall tone, and whether or not they can trust you. But outside of this, why is good side hustle branding actually important?

Well, a solid brand identity can:

• Build Trust: A professional appearance fosters credibility, even for small businesses.

• Encourage Loyalty: Memorable branding ensures that customers remember and return to your side hustle.

• Increase Visibility: A unique brand helps you stand out in a crowded market.

• Simplify Marketing: A cohesive brand streamlines content creation, from social media posts to advertisements.

Creating Your Side Hustle Branding

Great! Now we know why good branding for your side hustle is important, it’s time to look at how you can actually go about developing a strong brand identity.

We’ve broken it down into seven steps to make things as easy as possible. We’ll walk through the early stages, like the questions you need to be asking when making key decisions, all the way to developing brand guidelines.

So up first, define the brand identity!

Side Hustle Branding: Step One – Define Your Side Hustle’s Branding Identity

Whilst creating the actual designs for your side hustle branding is the fun bit, you need to spend some time thinking about the essence of your brand before diving into the visual stuff.

This is where you define the mission of your brand, determining how you want to be perceived by your audience, and what you want your customers to think about you.

Spend a good bit of time on this section to ensure that you’re developing a side hustle brand/business that you’re passionate about. Consider these questions:

• What is your mission? What do you aim to achieve with your side hustle?

• Who is your target audience? Understand their preferences, needs, and values.

• What are your brand values? Define what principles guide your side hustle.

When you’ve answered those questions, write a brand statement that captures your purpose and personality in one or two sentences. This will become the cornerstone of the work you do with the side hustle – not just when it comes to developing branding, but everything.

For example, the mission for The Side Hustle Blueprint is…

We aim to empower creative individuals to harness the power of their passion by transforming it into a viable side hustle to generate additional income.

Whenever you’re unsure about what you should be doing next, or what the next project of your side hustle should be, you can come back to this statement. It’ll act as inspiration in any and all situations.

Bonus: Check out this easy checklist to help you build your brand!

Side Hustle Branding: Step Two – Choosing the Right Colours

The colours you choose for your side hustle branding will say a lot about your business, and what it is you stand for.

In graphic design, there’s a term called colour psychology, and it refers to how our brains interpret colours when we see them in branding, advertising, logos, posters, etc. Regardless of whether or not a person is conscious of it, they’ll have automatic responses to each colour they see.

Using the image above, you can see the main colours and their respective meanings. Whilst this is a very basic overview of colour psychology, it will give you an idea of how the colours your potential select will be perceived.

A good approach to side hustle branding is sticking to a colour scheme of 1 – 2 colours. This will stop the overall brand from feeling overwhelming, and too disjointed. To help create a cohesive colour scheme, you can use tools like Coolors and Adobe Color.

Something to keep in mind is that the meanings of colours (both conscious and unconscious) change depending on geographic location and culture. So, if your side hustle will be focusing on the eastern side of the globe, for example, the colours you pick likely won’t have the same meanings as they do on the western side.

To help with this, we’ve put together an infographic that highlights the main colours, showing the differences in meaning around the world.

Side Hustle Branding: Step Three – Selecting Fonts and Typefaces

Just like with colour, fonts and typefaces go a long way to communicating your side hustle’s overall tone and style. A rounded (also known as sans-serif) font will be seen as more relaxed and informal, whereas a non-rounded (serif) font will be considered more formal.

A quick overview of the primary types of fonts can be seen below:

Serif (Not Rounded) Fonts

Serif fonts are seen as being professional, traditional, and dignified. You will see serif fonts in books, professional business cards, newspapers, and anything else that contains large chunks of text in printed media.

If your side hustle branding will make use of printed elements, it’s best to make use of at least one serif font, as our eyes find this much easier to read when it comes to physical media, like books or business cards.

Sans-Serifs (Rounded) Fonts

Sans-serifs are the rounded cousins of the serif. The difference between the two is that the former lacks the strokes (serifs) on the characters, instead utilising a more rounded style, hence the name sans-serif.

These fonts are much more casual, clear, approachable, and relaxed. Often, you’ll see sans-serif fonts being used on websites, posters, in apps and small chunks of text. Sans-serif fonts are easier to read on screens, so if your side hustle will be purely online, these fonts are the way to go.

Script Fonts

Scripts don’t fall into either the serif or sans-serif category but are instead their own entity. These are often cursive fonts that, when used correctly, convey the feeling of opulence and class. It’s generally best practice to avoid using Script fonts in large chunks of text, but they can work for headings and logos.

Monospace / Display Fonts

A monospace font can be both serif and sans-serif, although they are most commonly the latter. The main feature of a monospace font is that they have a fixed width between each of the letters (in the graphic design world this space is known as kerning) which enables them to be easily understandable.

Having worked in graphic design for nearly a decade now, let me tell you, there’s far too much information about typography to include in this section. However, if you’d like to dive deeper into the subject, here’s an excellent guide to the basics of font theory.

A good approach, however, when selecting fonts for your side hustle branding (much like colours) is to limit yourself to 1 – 2 fonts only. One for small text (like what you’re reading now), and one for headings/logos/etc. Too many fonts can overpower the branding.

Side Hustle Branding: Step Four – Use Imagery to Tell Your Story

A lot of people, when asked what makes up a business’s overall branding, will only mention the logo and colours. But we already know that this isn’t the case. Branding encompasses everything a brand does, including the imagery and photography it utilises.

When making use of photography for your brand, be sure to only use high-quality imagery that is free of copyright issues.

On top of that, if your side hustle involves selling physical products, make sure to invest in professional photography to showcase them in the best light. This can either be working with a freelance photographer, or teaching yourself product photography.

Side Hustle Branding: Step Five – Create a Memorable Logo

Your logo is the visual cornerstone of your brand. It’s most likely going to be the thing that sticks in the mind of your target audience. This means your side hustle brand logo needs to be simple, scalable, and reflective of your business.

Whilst logo design looks easy, it’s something that takes a lot of work to do correctly. If you’re a beginner to graphic design, just making the most of a simple text logo might be the best approach.

However, if you’re serious about creating a logo that will really show off your brand, the best move may be to contact a professional designer. They’ll be able to help you brainstorm ideas, develop a whole bunch of different logo directions, and ultimately develop a logo that accurately reflects your side hustle and its goals.

With that being said, you can take a DIY approach by using free platforms like Canva. Keep in mind that everyone has access to these platforms and their templates, so the logo you create may not be 100% unique to your side hustle branding.

Side Hustle Branding: Step Six – Build Brand Guidelines

In the same way that your mission statement will be the guideline for your side hustle as a whole, the brand guidelines will act as a reference document you can keep coming back to.

A brand guidelines document will encompass everything we’ve discussed in this article, including logos, colour codes and usage, photography styles, and more. Having all of this information in one place will ensure that you have someone to come back to when you’re unsure of the direction something should take.

Additionally, if you find yourself in a position where you’re working with external parties – like a freelancer, for example – sending them your side hustle brand guidelines will allow them to immediately get an understanding of how your brand should be visually represented.

If you want help with developing a full-scale brand guidelines document, do get in touch with us!

Build a Simple One Sheet for Your Side Hustle Branding

The problem with brand guidelines documents is that they’re typically HUGE! And if you’re looking to start your side hustle, you won’t want to spend hours and hours building a huge document.

This is where our simple branding one sheet comes in!

Our barebones, straight-to-the-point template makes space for:

• Logos (Primary and Sub)

• Colour schemes

• Typography

• Related brand imagery

This makes it possible to have everyone available to you in one place, without the need to spend hours developing HUGE documents. Just drag and drop and you’re good to go!

Download our customisable side hustle branding one sheet on Gumroad here!

Conclusion: Stand Out with Strong Side Hustle Branding

For businesses of all types, even side hustles, memorable branding isn’t just a luxury – it’s essential for standing out and growing in a crowded marketplace.

By spending time deciding on the overall mission and goal of your side hustle, you’ll be able to select colours, fonts, and imagery, that allow you to create a cohesive brand that resonates with your target audience!

If you’re just starting out on your side hustle journey, and aren’t sure of the best place to start, be sure to read through our ultimate guide to Starting a Side Hustle Blog That Will Generate Passive Income to give you a running start!

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