This episode kicks off a 3-part mini-series called “Brand Designer Gets (re)Branded”, diving into my own rebranding journey —from Eva Couto Design to Flying Colours Creative® — one year after the fact. With my 6th Brandversary on the horizon, I’m giving you the good, the bad and the ugly of what rebranding yourself looks like (spoiler: it’s a wild ride).
Using my Three Ring Confidence framework, today we’re tackling the first ring: Direction and unpacking why I decided to rebrand in the first place, the messy emotions that came with it, and how outside perspective makes all the difference to finding clarity.
I didn't rebrand just because it sounded fun or because five years felt like a milestone moment (though between 48-50% of new businesses don't even make it to five years, so yeah, worth celebrating).
I rebranded because I had to.
My brand had quietly expired. You know that feeling when you start remixing your brand colours with random elements? When you're creating this Frankenstein monster of assets that don't quite fit together?
That was me. And it wasn't just an "out of date" problem — my brand no longer matched the work I was doing or who I'd become. The discomfort was translating into missed opportunities because I didn't have the confidence to be that go-getter anymore.
And here's the kicker: I know better. I literally help other people solve this exact problem. But we're all our own worst clients, aren't we? It's like that saying — the cobbler's children have no shoes.
Let me tell you, rebranding brought up all the same feelings from when I first started out: the insecurity, crippling doubt, and straight-up fear.
I knew it would be intense, but I didn't expect it to feel so personal (which sounds insane even saying it out loud). It's like reliving every stage of my client's journeys times ten. It's messy, it's vulnerable, it's having five identity crises a day and staring at your business in the mirror asking, "Who are you now? Who do you want to be?"
And then feeling like going into fetal position on the couch because you don't have the answer.
Just like my clients, I started wanting clearer visuals that I felt excited about. But it ended up triggering something much bigger — suddenly I was rethinking everything about my business. Messaging, offers, the entire identity beyond just the visual side.
One of the biggest aha moments came when I realised the core issue: the separation — or lack thereof — between Eva the person (the friend, the daughter, the partner) and Eva the designer (the business owner, the Instagram persona).
For five years, my personal brand was literally my name: Eva Couto Design. And somewhere along the line, my self-worth got tangled up in my business achievements. If a client project went amazingly, I felt amazing. If something flopped, I felt like I was the flop.
I started avoiding new moves and exciting opportunities because I was afraid of personal rejection.
But I've always known I want to be a company of one. I never started this to become an agency or to outsource the design part (if you haven't read Company of One by Paul Jarvis, the link is all the way at the bottom of this post). I started this because I love designing. I have a post-it note from my primary school teacher calling me an artist. That's what I want to keep doing.
Yet it felt like changing to anything that wasn't Eva Couto Design meant creating this studio or agency that I never signed up for.
And then — the lightbulb moment: Changing my brand name doesn't mean I have to change me.
Rebranding isn't about changing you to fit a new identity. It's about changing the identity to fit with you.
I could still be the bold, colourful, weird Eva you've come to know — but under a name that gives me space to grow and separate my personal value from my business wins.
As business owners, we're so close to our own business that we've birthed and watched grow every day that we don't have the outside perspective needed to reflect and make appropriate changes.
Which is why I brought in Katie Pannell from 26andthensome to help me with the Direction ring. To help me see all the things I couldn't see for myself, ask the questions I hadn't thought about, and make sense of the emotional word vomit I was throwing at her.
Basically — do for me what I do for my Extravaganza clients at the beginning of every project.
I was running around like a headless chicken trying to figure out where to start. But when I leaned on Katie for that much-needed outside perspective, we dug deep to find this all-encompassing theme that was uniquely mine. Something that tied together my visuals, messaging, offers, and made content creation easier and more fun.
And here's what's crucial: the name didn't come first. The strategy did.
Together, we articulated who my audience had transformed into: creatives and service providers who want to build something bold but can't quite articulate it. They don't want minimalism. They want to stand out. But they've DIY'd their branding into a corner, they have nothing cohesive to show for hours of Canva-ing, and they're overwhelmed trying to translate everything into actual brand assets.
(If you're sitting there thinking "oh, that's me" — yeah, that's precisely the point of working on your audience.)
From there, we distilled my beliefs and approach about branding. We nailed my on-brand points of view:
After all that became clear, I needed a name that reflected this without sounding juvenile. Something that could work at scale across offers, content, any future digital products. It needed to be scalable, memorable, flexible, and most importantly — it needed to make me sound like the only possible choice.
That's how we landed on Big Top Brand Energy — this maximalist message I could own that turned me into a brand ringleader. It gave me just enough of a funhouse theme and rules where getting creative actually felt easier than having no guidelines whatsoever (which is what I'd been trying to do for five years).
And the name itself? Flying Colours Creative®.
When Katie pitched this, I was like, how did I not think of this myself? It references the phrase "with flying colours" — meaning to win boldly and unapologetically. It aligns with my perspective on colour, confidence, and creative victory.
It's bold, it's playful, it's a touch weird, but it's still professional. The perfect encapsulation of my brand's beliefs.
Plus, it gave me the separation I needed. My business is no longer just Eva — it's a creative force of its own, and I'm the ringleader behind it all.
Setting direction is hard when you're doing it for yourself. So I pulled some of my favourite questions from my Brand-Thinking Prompts — the same ones I give my clients to uncover their brand's visual potential, audience, and unique edge.
If you're in this season where you think you want to rebrand but you're not sure, these prompts helped me find direction:
One of the hardest parts of rebranding myself was staying accountable. It's really easy to prioritise client work over your own brand. So I wrote down this intention and kept it by my side the whole time:
"I hereby commit to treating my own brand as my most important client and be as thorough and intentional while rethinking my brand and business as I would for any of my clients. I will strive to put my brand first and be an example of what showing up confidently looks like, even if I don't have everything figured out. Because let's face it, no one does."
Writing this gave me permission to take this seriously and approach it with the same care I give my clients.
If you're walking that tightrope yourself — needing a rebrand but haven't fully committed yet — let this be your permission slip too.
If these prompts or this story have you thinking "maybe it's time to rethink my brand," head over to The Extravaganza and fill out my inquiry form to book your own rebrand project. I'd love to be the person who helps you bring your show to life with a brand that looks the part, acts the part, and seals the deal.
See you on the next show!
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✦ THE EXTRAVAGANZA: 12-week, all-inclusive brand transformation that gives you all the visuals, website and marketing assets it takes to succeed with Flying Colours
✦ THE COLOUR CIRCLE: Bring the Canva design you’ve been (over)fiddling with for hours
✦ Check out Paul Jarvis's book, "Company Of One: Why Staying Small Is The Next Big Thing For Business"
✦ Follow Katie Pannell, from 26&thensome
✦ Read the brand naming case study behind Flying Colours Creative®
Over the last 5 years as a Brand & Marketing Designer, I’ve helped freaks like us design their unconventional brands so they can step onto the main stage & own their weird. Because if you wanted to be, look or sound like everyone else, you wouldn’t be where you are today. Now it’s your turn.
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