“5 Questions With” is an ongoing series featuring kickass entrepreneurs, community leaders, and other superheroes.
Amanda Guerassio is a brand strategist and designer. She helps clarify messy brain dumps around what you want your brand to be, and translates those abstract ideas into concrete, aligned visuals through her proven branding process. Life introduced her to the world of freelancing post-college, which is exactly what led her to becoming an accidental entrepreneur. She quickly fell in love with the freedom that came with it. These days she resides in Round Rock, TX with her husband, daughter, and dog. She’s an avid traveler, amateur chef and can often be found with her nose in a book.
Enter Amanda:
Question 1: What’s your superpower?
My superpower is in bringing clarity to messy brain dumps and translating abstract ideas into visuals. I do this as a brand strategist and designer at Studio Guerassio, a chill branding agency for driven entrepreneurs launching their next venture or revamping their current one.
I’ve had clients describe what I do as ‘brand therapy’ – I don’t just slap some colors and fonts together and make something pretty. I DO make pretty things, but there is always strategy behind it, and that strategy comes from diving deep into what my client really want their brand to evoke and stand for.
Clients tell me they understand their business so much better after working with me, and feel excitement and momentum for moving forward.
Question 2: Why are you the exact right person to do what you do?
I have always had a creative side. As far back as elementary school, I was drawing and illustrating my own books on loose paper. When computers became a household thing, my creativity started to merge with that medium, too. So when it came time for college, Graphic Design seemed like the natural choice for what to study. I’m one of those rare people actually working in the field their degree is in!
I will say, though, that owning my own business was not something I ever planned on. I’m an accidental entrepreneur. I moved to Austin after college and intended to get a job at an agency or studio, but took on a few freelance gigs off of Craigslist on the side just to have some income. Those ended up working out great, and I LOVED the work-from-home lifestyle, so I just shrugged and ran with it. Not something I recommend necessarily!!! I had zero plan, zero financial cushion, and zero business know-how. All I knew was design, and luckily I was (and am) very good at that.
Running a successful business has been a long learning curve, and my business has morphed and evolved more than once. I think that helps me bring a certain empathy to the branding process, as I understand to my core what it is to build something up from nothing and struggle to figure out what you want it to be and how to help it grow.
Question 3: Tell me a story about a time your work made a difference.
I think my favorite client story is about Slackers Brewing Co. My client, Derek, had a homebrew operation that he had long dreamed of turning into an actual brew pub. He was smart and came to the branding process early on, to help get crystal clear on what he was wanting to build and how it would be different. We built out a foundational brand for him, and that helped him grow his social media following and launch a successful Kickstarter campaign to help fund his brew-pub location.
I helped with everything from the logo suite and color palette, to website, to keg collars, to swag, to signage. He even brought me in to consult on paint colors for the walls! I’ve loved seeing it come to life and helping him get it there. He’s also been an absolute pleasure to work with. Slackers Brewing Co. is up and running and thriving now in northwest Austin, definitely stop by if you’re ever in the area!
Question 4: What’s your go-to move for drumming up business?
Whenever I’m having a slow month, there are two things I turn to: making sure my social posting is consistent and strategic, and touching base with past awesome clients to see if they need anything else, or if they know anyone who could use my help. These are usually pretty great about bringing some business through the door. But I also believe it’s ok to just let slow months be slow months, and use that time to recharge or learn or build something new. Summer is a traditionally slow time for me, and this year I’ve used that time to launch my own rebrand and read more.
Question 5: Tell me a story about a time you fell down and got back up again.
The occasion that comes to mind most strongly as falling down/failing was actually a different brewery client of mine. I was very pregnant at the time, and the client had signed on for branding work, and we meant to get at least the initial logo concepts done before baby came – but baby had other ideas and came almost 3 weeks early. So the project was put on hold, which was no big deal in itself.
When I came out of maternity leave, however, trying to work was such a slog – my mind was sludge, I was tired all the time, and ideas just weren’t coming. I didn’t know it until a few weeks later, but aside from just having a newborn I was also suffering from Postpartum Depression pretty badly. The initial logo concepts I sent off… well, they weren’t that great. And we went through I think 2 rounds of revisions to try to improve them, but again, not great, not hitting even close to the mark. The creative part of my brain was just underwater.
The client ended up parting ways with me to have their branding done elsewhere, and I can’t really blame them. It was a hard lesson in making sure you take care of yourself first, as you can’t help anybody else if you’re in distress. I did get the help I needed for PPD, and luckily that cloud lifted, but I still feel horrible about how that project went. I’m happy to say, though, that I haven’t lost a client like this since then.
Where to Find Amanda
W: www.studioguerassio.com
E: amanda@studioguerassio.com
LI: www.linkedin.com/in/amandaguerassio
I: instagram.com/studioguerassio
