Branding 101: The Complete Toolkit with Danielle McWaters

As a creative professional I struggled a lot with understanding the concepts and theory behind branding. Every time i filled out a worksheet or application where I had to talk about my business's missions and values got me really confused. This course has completely changed the way I think about branding. The way Danielle broke it all down just clicked in my head, I guess it built a bridge in my head between the analytical theory side and the creative visual side. Highly highly recommend. I just finished the course and I'm on cloud nine because I feel so empowered.

I love this class! In fact, I've listened to a couple of classes twice! This is exactly what I have been looking for awhile. The explanations and descriptions she gives are GREAT!

Great content and really benefical deep dive into branding. Loved the link between the feel of the brand and how you execute on it. Ya know's and all : )

Just finished watching the course. Absolutely loved it! I have no experience in branding at all and this course has given me so much information that will help me a lot. I am so excited to get started and creating my brand style sheet. Thank you so much Danielle you were brilliant! Constructive criticism: If would be better if you knew the information rather than reading off the screen in front of you. Paraphrasing would help, too. But very good job nonetheless!

Excellent, very informative and helpful easy way to deal with branding.

I enjoyed the simplicity of the concepts and the 'clean' layout of the material - it's easy to read and succinct. I do wish that she had explained the process of coming up with the brand 'essences', as well as better defended the font and colour choices for the case study. Otherwise, a definite confidence booster!

I liked the course. I was able to follow along and get a basic understanding of what's required to begin the branding process. I would've appreciated working through a brand concept during the class instead of Danielle utilizing a pre-determined one. I think it would've conveyed more of the mindset required to work through the process on our own at a later date.

I really enjoyed this course and recommend it for those with some familiarity with the subject. It was really informative and the examples were very helpful.

Great class for anyone looking to design a brand from scratch on their own dime. I come from a business background, so this was very helpful in bridging the artistic gaps

I loved this. This is so thorough and really broke the DNA building process to make sure your brand has a true reason for being

I watched this class during the live showing and really enjoyed it. It gives a lot of basic knowledge to help guide you on building your business brand. This is more of a tool which teaches you how to ask the right questions. Danielle also gives some helpful websites for fonts and mood boards which I appreciated. The price may be a bit high for what the course contains, so I would aim to buy it on sale.

This is a great class and full of a lot of info on visual branding. For those giving it negative reviews, did you even read the description first? Maybe if you had you wouldn't have thought it should be something else! And for those annoyed by the "ums" and "uhs" and "you knows", you must have one tough time navigating life if that is what bothered you about the speaker. Stop being so picky about things no one else cares about and just enjoy the knowledge you gain from the class.

I'm a brand new solopreneur, and this course was brilliant for helping me think through my visual branding. Yes, as other reviewers have pointed out, there are a lot of ums and ahs in the first couple of videos but the content is great (and the ums and ahs decrease significantly after the first few minutes of warming up).

Too many "ums...." and "you know....". She also didn't explain what messaging hierarchy consist of. I had to do a search online to know what she was talking about. There are useful information but definitely not a complete toolkit even just for designing visuals. I like the resources. I think CreativeLive should invite a brand professional other than Debbie Millman to conduct a market positioning workshop for small business. Maybe Denise Lee Yohn or Steve Miller?

Just started listening to the free version. Goes into way too much intro and lots of "ums" and other fillers! Might get better later. Suggest editing or working with her on delivery.

Danielle gives great basics for branding. I would recommend this course. What I love about her course is she gives the information and moves on and doesn't waste time repeating the same thing and chatting. It's short and pack with information. I understand what others have said about her "um" and "you know" which can be distracting.

I would recommend this to anyone trying to build or rebuild their brand. It might be too basic if your a graphic designer or stylist but I thought it was perfect for me! She gives great resources and websites.

You know - she needs how to speak without every other pair of words being you know!

This class is AWESOME!!!

Amazing class! I've been looking for something like this on Creative Live for a long time. It taught me all I needed to know about creating my brand's visual identity and I finally got that needed push to formulate a brand strategy and assemble the visual elements for my brand. Very simple and straight to the point. Thank you, Danielle!

Short & concise, simple & clear - no fluff. It seriously is '101' like as in start here before you move on to anything else! Thanks for the great class CreativeLive - keep the business classes coming!

Great information with handy resources to use after and apply into our own project. The concepts explained made it more clear and I loved the quotes Danielle used to explain this words we heard a lot when talking about branding, the mission, vision, etc. These weren't clear to me up until this point. Thanks so much!

The information Danielle provided was clear and straightforward. I can't wait to apply these newly acquired skills to my business.

Danielle broke down the elements of creating a strong brand and visual guide into easy to access segments. Her excitement about branding was palpable and inspiring and she shared many real-world tips for putting these tools into practice.

Danielle's class was great! She broke down what was an abstract idea, and make it clear to understand and gave great takeaways to create a "sticky" brand- a brand that will create connection and emotion with my target market. I hope there is a next course!