An Introduction To Our New Visual Identity

Hi friends -

As you may have noticed, thanks to the white graphics we've been posting on Instagram for the past few weeks, Bossladies has been undergoing a visual brand overhaul. Over the next week, we'll be sharing more details of our rebranding, but for now, I want to share the narrative that guides our new direction.

Historically, there has been a divide between the professional self and personal self. In English we don’t have language to express it – at least no specific, concise language. So I’ve always struggled to articulate it properly. But Pete taught me Japanese words that capture it perfectly.

Tatamae is the part of yourself that you present to the public, the outward façade. And honne is that which you keep sacred or personal, the piece of yourself you share with your closest friends and family.

I loved thinking about self-compartmentalization in this way, and I began creating more space for honne. Because I think, even as a business owner in this age of perpetual documentation, we deserve to keep pieces of ourselves untouched, if we’d like to.

But, like any good Rebel (thank you, Gretchen Rubin), once I saw a definitive line, I immediately wanted to cross it. I began to list moments when the line should be blurred – when we should let the personal inform the professional and vice versa.

I believe our personal selves – the intimate, sacred pieces of us – are what make us good at business after all. They allow us to see the world differently than the person standing beside us, and therefore, they allow us to design solutions differently too.

Those of you who follow along with our Instagram Stories know I allow my personal life to bleed into my professional life often. The fact that I mentioned Pete in this letter is a testament to that. I share my heart in this business. Because I can’t imagine not. So much of what I do and what I create is rooted in who I am, what I have experienced, and the people I love.

The same is true for the women we feature. And I worried I was doing both them, and you, our readers, a disservice by documenting only their professional journeys. Because that’s only one piece of their complex and intricate stories.

So this autumn we’re refocusing our energy. We will still feature the most interesting women building creative businesses, but we’ll seek to tell their stories more holistically – allowing space for the personal, the intimate, the non-business. By doing so, we hope to share a more honest portrait of each of their uniquely precious lives.  

Today we present the new visual identify of this business that continues to be more special to me as the days go on. An identify that holds space for the tatamae and the honne and finds value in the place where they merge — just as we do.

Warmly,
Chelsea