I live in Athens, OH and one of the things I love about Athens is their absolute dedication for all things healthy, local, and eviromental friendly. This community more than any other community I’ve lived in works to reduce, reuse, and recycle. It’s great!
I’m a fan of caring for the environment, but that’s not what I’m thinking about today. Today, I’m thinking about what it means to recycle a brand.
As you may or may not know, Color Canvas Media was started as a video company in Defiance, Ohio by myself and Matt Mills. Soon after launching it, we added photography with our friends Brie (she eventually married my brother John) and Jennifer. Over the years we did hundreds of weddings, alongside with some really great people (Matt, Austin, David, Ben Lesson, and others). Anyways, in November 2015 we shot our last wedding, and it was time to shut the business down.
Much of our marketing and strategy and energy had sat idle for a good year, and it would have been easy to shut it down for good. Then this dream of self-publishing came along, and I asked myself: What if we recycled this brand, reusing it for something new?
In reality, it’s not really new. This endeavor is in line with the same vision and energy that I started the business to begin with. In fact, we named it Color Canvas Media because we wanted it to be flexible to line up with a variety of creative endeavors. Yet, it is very new. Selling self-published books is a completely different market from booking wedding videography and photography.
To be honest, I’m not entirely sure you can recycle a brand. It might even be a bad idea. Yet, I’m doing it anyways. I’m excited about it for more than just the fact that it means I don’t have to throw away the website and logo and work to build a new one. I’m excited about it because there is rooted into the fabric of this brand years of sweet and tears. I’m excited to honor that legacy. I’m excited to resurrect that passion for something new. In fact, I can think of a lot of brands (and churches) that have a similar legacy that might be worth recycling.
What do you think? Do you think it’s possible to recycle a brand or is it better to just start with a new one?
[This post originally appeared on Facebook in a Color Canvas Media “note”]
Joe Graves 