Alanna Frattaroli

How Do You Find the Soul of a Brand?

You can have a beautiful logo and still not have a brand that feels like anything.

I see this all the time.

The colors work. The typography is lovely. The website looks professional. Everything technically belongs together, but somehow, there's no pulse.

That's usually when I start looking for the soul of the brand.

I know "soul" isn't exactly a technical branding term, but after nearly 20 years of creating brands, it's one of the best ways I know to describe that intangible thing that makes a business feel alive. It's the part you recognize before you've consciously analyzed the logo or read the About page. You simply feel who they are.

And every business has the ingredients for one.

The soul of your brand is hiding in why you started it, what you care about, what you notice that other people don't, and how you want someone to feel after experiencing your work. It's in your taste and your personality, but it's also in your standards. It shows up in the things you refuse to compromise on and the tiny details you care about more than anyone reasonably should.

Those are the things I want to know when I'm building a brand.

I want to know why this business had to exist. I want to know what you wish were different about your industry. I want to know what your clients say about you when they're describing you to someone else. I want to know what you love, what you're drawn to, and what feels completely wrong for you.

This is also why I love exercises like finding your Brand Animal. Tell me your brand is "sophisticated," and we could go in a hundred directions. Tell me your brand is a swan because it feels graceful, effortless, and quietly beautiful, and now we're getting somewhere.

We're finding its soul.

Only then do I want to start translating that into color, typography, photography, language, and design.

Because your visual identity shouldn't be a costume you put on your business.

It should be evidence of what's already inside it.

That idea became a huge part of why I created SEEN. I wanted women to have a way to uncover their brands before trying to design them. To dig around a little. Follow their instincts. Notice the patterns. Find the parts that feel undeniably theirs.

You don't have to manufacture a personality because someone told you every business needs a brand archetype. You don't need to become more polished, more interesting, or more like the women whose businesses you admire online.

You need to get curious about what is already there.

Because when you find the soul of your brand, the design decisions stop feeling quite so random.

You're no longer trying to make your business look like a brand.

You're making it look like yours.

Alanna Frattaroli is a Creative Director and brand strategist with nearly 20 years of experience creating brands and creative experiences. She is the founder of AlannaCo and creator of SEEN: Build Your Brand in Canva, a self-guided branding experience designed to help women uncover the strategy, personality, and visual identity already inside their businesses.

If Your Brand Were an Animal, What Would It Be?

It sounds like a strange question, but stay with me.

If your brand were an animal, what would it be?

Maybe a hummingbird, a golden retriever, a black panther, or a flamingo. Maybe it's a very expensive-looking horse with better hair than most humans. Whatever came to mind, don't overthink it. Pick one, and then ask yourself why.

If you chose a golden retriever, maybe your brand is warm, welcoming, and easy to trust. A panther might feel confident, instinctive, and quietly powerful. A hummingbird could represent curiosity, energy, and a constant pull toward beautiful things.

Already, you've told me far more about your brand than you would have by saying you want it to feel "professional, modern, and elevated."

And that is where branding starts to get interesting.

After nearly 20 years of creating brands, I've learned that the most important part of the process often happens long before we choose a logo, color palette, or font.

We're trying to find the soul of the brand—the thing underneath the business that makes it feel alive and distinctly yours.

Sometimes, that soul begins with why you started.

Maybe you wanted women to feel more confident. Maybe you have a gift for making something complicated feel easier. Maybe you looked at your industry and knew there had to be a better way. Maybe you simply believe the world could use more beauty.

Those things matter because your brand should be an expression of what you believe, how you see the world, and how you want people to feel when they encounter your business.

The trouble is, we tend to lose those wonderfully specific things when we start trying to sound like a business. We reach for words like authentic, elevated, innovative, and luxury. There's nothing inherently wrong with those words, but they rarely help us uncover what makes one business feel different from another.

That's why I love questions that take you somewhere unexpected.

Tell me your brand is a hummingbird, and then tell me why.

Maybe you love that something so tiny can be impossible to ignore. Maybe hummingbirds remind you of someone you love. Maybe it's the color and movement that draws you in. Maybe you can't explain it at all, except that something about it just feels right.

That little moment of recognition is worth paying attention to.

It's also part of why I created SEEN. I wanted women to experience branding as a process of discovery, rather than sitting in front of Canva wondering which shade of green makes them look more professional.

Your brand has a personality before it has a palette. It has values before it has a logo. There is already a story, a point of view, and a feeling underneath the thing you're building.

The creative work is finding it, naming it, and eventually giving it a visual language so other people can feel it, too.

So before you ask what your brand should look like, try asking something a little stranger:

If your brand were an animal, what would it be?

Your answer might lead you straight to its soul.

Alanna Frattaroli is a Creative Director and brand strategist with nearly 20 years of experience creating brands and creative experiences. She is the creator of SEEN: Build Your Brand in Canva, a self-guided branding experience designed to help women uncover what makes their businesses distinctive and turn it into a brand they can actually use.

How to Build a Personal Brand That Actually Feels Like You

Women are often told that building a personal brand begins with choosing colors, designing a logo, and creating a polished Instagram feed.

That is usually where the confusion starts. After nearly 20 years of building brands for companies, entrepreneurs, and creative leaders, I have learned that the strongest brands do not begin in Canva. They begin with recognition.

A personal brand should help people recognize your value, but it should also allow you to recognize yourself.

When a talented woman tells me that her brand does not feel right, the problem is rarely a lack of taste or creativity. More often, she has collected so many references, templates, trends, and opinions that she can no longer see the thread connecting her own ideas.

Her brand is not missing. It is buried under too many possibilities.

Your Brand Is More Than an Aesthetic

A visual identity includes elements like color, typography, photography, and graphic style. Your brand is the larger experience those elements are helping communicate.

It includes:

• What you want to be known for
• How you make people feel
• The perspective you bring to your work
• The people you are best equipped to help
• The qualities people consistently experience when working with you
• The visual signals that make your work recognizable

Choosing a beautiful color palette without understanding those things can produce an attractive brand. It will not necessarily produce one that belongs to you.

This is why copying the aesthetic of someone you admire rarely feels satisfying for long. You may be borrowing the appearance of her clarity without discovering your own.

Look for the Pattern You Already Have

Before creating a new mood board, examine what is already present in your life and work.

Look at the spaces you love, the clothing you repeatedly choose, the books you keep, the images you save, and the brands that hold your attention. Notice the language your clients use when describing you. Pay attention to the parts of your work that feel especially natural.

The goal is not to collect more inspiration. It is to identify repetition.

Perhaps your choices consistently feel warm, intelligent, and expressive. Maybe they are clean and structured with one unexpected detail. You might be drawn to softness, bold color, natural texture, editorial typography, or playful language.

Those recurring choices are evidence. They reveal the visual and emotional vocabulary that already belongs to you.

Separate Your Taste From Your Strategy

Your personal preferences matter, but your brand also needs to communicate with the people you want to reach.

Imagine that you love quiet, neutral design, but your strongest value is helping women become more confident and visible. Your brand may need more energy or contrast than your home décor.

That does not mean abandoning your taste. It means translating it.

A useful brand direction sits at the intersection of three things:

1. Who you are
2. What your audience needs to feel
3. What your business needs to communicate

When those elements work together, your brand feels personal and purposeful.

Create Boundaries That Make Designing Easier

Many women assume that creative freedom means having unlimited options. In practice, unlimited options often create paralysis.

A usable brand system gives you boundaries.

Choose a defined color palette, establish a clear type hierarchy, decide how photography will be treated, and create a small collection of repeatable layouts. Then use those decisions consistently.

You should not have to reinvent your visual identity every time you open Canva.

A strong system makes content creation faster because the foundational decisions have already been made. Instead of asking what every post should look like, you can focus on what the post needs to say.

Allow Your Brand to Be Seen Before It Is Perfect

A personal brand becomes stronger through use.

You learn what feels natural by publishing, speaking, teaching, and observing what resonates. You notice which parts of your message people repeat. You discover which visuals feel sustainable and which ones were simply exciting for a week.

Waiting for complete certainty keeps your brand theoretical.

Choose a thoughtful direction, begin using it, and allow clarity to develop through action. You can refine your brand as your business grows. Consistency does not require permanence.

You Are Not Starting From Nothing

The most powerful shift happens when you stop treating your brand like an identity you need to manufacture.

Your experience has already shaped a point of view. Your taste already contains patterns. Your clients are already responding to particular qualities in you. Your work already creates a feeling.

Building your personal brand means learning how to see those elements, name them, and express them consistently.

You are not missing the raw material.

You may simply need a mirror. Ready to make your brand visible? Get SEEN for $97.

Author Bio

Alanna Frattaroli is a creative director, brand strategist, and founder of AlannaCo. With nearly 20 years of experience shaping brands and creative experiences, she helps women entrepreneurs turn their ideas, expertise, and personality into brands people recognize and remember. She is the creator of SEEN: Build Your Brand in Canva, a guided branding experience that helps women uncover their brand direction and transform it into a cohesive visual identity.

Ready to make your brand visible? Get SEEN for $97.