If you do nothing else for your brand, make a playlist

As a music lover, I've known the power of playing specific music while engaged in creation — at least since since spending hours depression-painting to The Cure in high school.

I have music on 90% of the time while I’m working, and imo it absolutely influences the outcome.

The habit of curating music for whatever I’m working on is so second-nature to me that I forget to recommend it to branding clients — who DOESN’T listen to music all the time??

Playlists are one of my favorite ways to energetically explore and develop a brand without putting pressure on the visual part of it.

They are especially helpful if:

You don’t consider yourself a “visual” person.

You DO consider yourself a music person.

Your brain doesn’t “visualize” things easily.

Your mind goes blank when confronted with an empty, static “canvas.”

You create best when you’re allowed movement, impermanence, language, time, or situational context that isn’t easily captured in ONE image.

You like to shift and update your inspiration regularly — a playlist is SO easy to edit and evolve.

Here are a few prompts on how to approach a “brand” playlist:

What mood do you want to create, and what songs get you in that mood?

Is there a song that *always* hits right and instantly changes your mindset?

If your business were a club, what music would you play?

What musicians have an image/ethos that inspires you?

Experiment with the music you play while you’re working and creating content… and see what happens.

Here’s the *latest* playlist I created for Swail.

To try to articulate a few themes that run through it:

Quiet depth, negative space, darkness. Distorted, fuzzy heaviness. Daring, persevering, adventurous lyrics. Eight of cups vibes.

It’s also loosely inspired by the Jean-Luc Godard quote that recently made the rounds after his passing:

“He who jumps into the void owes no explanation to those who stand and watch.”

This playlist feels, to me, like jumping into the void - and the anticipation of what we can create there, floating free.

But I’m not a musician - you tell ME what you hear 🤟🏻

SEND ME YOUR PLAYLISTS!