I would consider myself pretty good at branding and design considering I've been practicing it for my whole educational and professional career. I have so much fun designing logos and developing the look of new brands.

Until, of course, I quit my full-time job to freelance instead and had to develop my own brand. Only then does it become a massive struggle.

It's like this insane little voice in your head saying "YOU are a designer, your brand has to be the best thing ever in the history of things! It has to appeal to the masses, yet stand out and be different, it has to perfectly capture your personality and all of your expertise & experience, it has to be versatile and simple yet different from every other creative person and it has to convince clients to pay you money to do work for them." No pressure, right?

My logo and branding looks incredible simple now, but it's taken at least two years to get there. Unless you're a creative yourself, you may not realize that for every finished product you see, there are bazillions of unfinished, rough drafts, sketches, scribbles, hidden layers, alternate versions and countless abandoned thoughts and ideas.

I feel like I finally had the breakthrough for my current logo when I stopped trying so hard. I was literally doodling in the dirt with a stick in Nepal or India or somewhere when I made this M shape the looked like a rune. And I've committed it ever since then.

Anyways, I thought it would be fun to look back at the evolution of my Mirambling brand. It's both humbling and hilarious.

Moral of the story: Keep doing, learning and growing, y'all.