Over the past 12 weeks, we’ve explored how to transform visual chaos into business advantage in our Visual Assembly series. Today, I’m sharing how these principles shaped the Solo Business School brand refresh, developed in partnership with designer Hollie Arnett.
While the new logo and color palette catch the eye, they’re the surface of something more valuable: an intentionally crafted visual system. Come behind the scenes and see our Visual Assembly principles in action.
A Logo’s Backstory
Here are three versions of the final visual identity. The logo (or logo lockup, the company name with icon) is in two formats for vertical or horizontal placement. The word ”Business” is in a heavier weight to emphasize the school’s focus.
At first glance, the Solo Business School icon (logomark) may seem an abstract shape. But each element carries significance.
🔵 The overall circular shape represents solopreneurs as independent entities.
🔵 The diamond illustrates the talents, experience, and qualities that make each solopreneur distinct.
🔵 The overlapping circles represent solopreneurs connecting and supporting each other while maintaining individual uniqueness.
🔵 The negative space shows the dynamic between working independently and in community.
🔵 The overall design communicates unique solopreneurs as part of a larger global community of individuals working solo.
The primary typeface is Scale, created by Mark Caneso of the digital type foundry PSTL. A secondary typeface is Commissioner, a Google font. The company name typeface is similar to the earlier logo font, Conduit.
This coherent design approach (covered in Visual Assembly Issue 03) ensures every element serves a purpose, not merely an aesthetic preference: to communicate visual authority in milliseconds.
Colors That Work Together and Independently
Remember our discussion about creating core brand elements and colors that trigger instant recognition (Visual Assembly Issue 02)? The Solo Business School palette demonstrates this principle.
Primary Colors
Solo (blue): The core brand color projects trust and approachable authority
Connection (cyan): Represents community and collaboration
Wisdom (eggplant): Adds depth and expertise
Supporting Colors
Highlight (yellow): Creates emphasis and energy
Canvas (subtle warm white): Communicates space and clarity
Strategy (charcoal): Adds weight and credibility to the messaging
As part of a well-designed toolkit, each color serves a distinct purpose while contributing to the whole.
A Tagline Based On Values
The new tagline — Stay small. Play big. — emerged from understanding solopreneurial values.
It’s about intentionally staying small and building a meaningful business while maintaining independence. At the same time, it calls for solopreneurs to compete confidently with larger companies while having outsized fun doing so.
This mindful approach to messaging ensures every word carries weight.
These elements — logo, colors, fonts, and tagline — form a flexible brand toolkit. It provides the freedom to combine these tools in countless ways while maintaining professional consistency. Each piece works independently yet creates something greater together.
Now, ready to strengthen your own brand toolkit?
This Week’s Build: Review Your Brand Tookit
Let’s do a quick check of your brand elements to spot opportunities for fine-tuning.
1️⃣ Document Your Color Universe
- List the hex code(s) of your primary brand color(s).
- Create a chart of 3-4 tints and shades.
- Note the use cases for each variation.
2️⃣ Decode Your Core Elements
- What’s the strategic purpose behind your logo?
- List the digital file locations of each brand element (logo, colors, fonts).
- Review your tagline. Does it resonate with your core audience?
3️⃣ Plan Your Enhancement
- Identify gaps in your visual system.
- Choose one element to strengthen.
- Schedule time for improvements and document decisions in your style guide.
Pro tip: Use the FAST naming system (Visual Assembly Issue 07) to organize these brand elements for easy access.
This week’s SOLO Insight:
Strategy transforms visuals
into value.
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When every visual choice serves your business goals, your brand becomes a powerful asset. |
Fresh Finds for Creative Minds
Here are three gems this week from around the Web for visual thinkers and solopreneurs:
✨ The Emoji That AI Claimed
Ever notice how AI has adopted the sparkles emoji ✨ as its symbol? In this captivating 29-minute video, technology journalist David Imel traces the evolution of emojis from their manga roots to AI’s cultural takeover of sparkles. His masterful editing makes this deep dive into visual communication history both entertaining and enlightening.
✏️ Seven Ways To Add Dimension
Want to level up your sketching skills? Artist Mark Liam Smith demonstrates seven essential shading techniques in this 2-minute masterclass. From simple scribbles to sophisticated cross-hatching, watching him work a pencil is mesmerizing and instructive. Perfect for visual thinkers looking to enhance their drawing toolkit.
🏊♀️ Excellence In The Everyday
In her memoir, Just Add Water: My Swimming Life, Olympic swimming champion Katie Ledecky reveals how she finds joy in the solitary, often monotonous daily workouts that built her record (so far!) of nine Olympic golds and 21 world championship medals. Her genuine, upbeat perspective on embracing excellence in daily practice resonates powerfully with the solopreneur journey. A perfect audio escape during these turbulent times.
⭐️ Have an item I should share in this section?
Don’t keep it a secret. Email me with your find!
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SOLO Marketplace
Introducing a curated marketplace of solopreneur resources and opportunities, supported by listing fees.
Your website's getting views, but your bank account isn’t feeling it.
You redesigned your site, added testimonials, even lowered prices — yet visitors still land, scroll, and vanish.
The issue? Visitors don’t care about solutions — they care about their specific symptoms, the pains they can point to right now.
Symptom-based marketing flips the script.
Click here to stop wasting traffic & start converting
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News about programs and resources at the Solo Business School:
🔵 Solo Business School Soft Launch
The Solo Business School’s new site is up! Come visit and check out the programs and links to free resources.
🔵 Women Solopreneurs Coworking
New visitors to our coworking sessions for women solopreneurs arrive each week. If you’ve been thinking about it, come join us on Tuesdays for an hour of focused online coworking. Sessions are free, friendly, and productive. A simple click on this link will add you to the list to get full details.
🔵 Content Velocity — If you hate the slog of creating content
I continue to build Content Velocity, my new online course for solopreneurs on creating AI-assisted content fast without sounding like AI-speak or abandoning quality. Latest update: The digital workbook, filled with guidelines, AI prompts, and templates, is now at 68 pages! Here’s where to learn more about the course and get on the waitlist to be first in line for limited special offers.
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Want to check out past issues?
Visit the SOLO Newsletter archive.
Know someone who wants to know more about using visuals to communicate and stand out? Share this newsletter with another solopreneur!
And if you received this issue from a friend, I invite you to subscribe.
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That’s a wrap for SOLO issue #57 and Visual Assembly #13.
Thanks again for being a SOLO reader and coming along on this adventure!
Until next week,
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Terri Lonier, PhD
Founder, Solo Business School
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