Building a brand identity from scratch

Overview

How I designed a branding workshop that turned our unorganized DJ group into a festival-ready brand

Galena Crew is a Chicago-based DJ/producer trio comprised of myself (Henry), Maksym, and Tuzzy. We've been childhood best friends since 8 years old. We formed the project in 2017, and slowly grew from college house parties to opening for global artists like The Chainsmokers, Said The Sky, Galantis, and Audien. We've landed releases on labels like Lost In Dreams (Insomniac) and Discovery Project (Insomniac). On paper, everything looked great, but our brand wasn't keeping up with our music, and that gap was starting to prevent growth.

I spent several months designing a branding workshop from scratch, facilitated a 4-hour session with the group, and built an identity system that we immediately put into practice across every area: social media, photography, tone of voice, production, graphics, and live performance.

Problem

An unclear story

If you stumbled across our Instagram a year ago, you likely had no idea what Galena Crew was about or who was actually in the group, leaving little reason to follow our journey.

Beyond our confusing aesthetics, the lack of alignment between the 3 of us was the real issue. We each had different instincts about what to post, how to talk to fans, and what our "vibe" was supposed to be. Our brand was inconsistent and all over the place — which didn't translate to ticket sales, streaming numbers, or social media growth.

Approach

Designing the workshop

I identified key areas for the workshop — pulling from industry frameworks, the 12 brand archetypes, and case studies from other artists. The goal wasn't to reinvent the wheel, it was to organize and better execute what we already were.

My proposed structure

Each section enabled us to systematically address each aspect of our brand identity.

• 01

  Intro

  An honest discussion about what Galena Crew means to us. Then setting the stage with an SCQA.

• 02

  Internal Audit

  An current audit of where we were, what we were doing well, and what we weren't.

• 03

  Vision Setting

  Aligning on where we'd like to be in 1 year, 2-3 years, and 5 years.

• 04

  Brand Identity & Archetype

  Defining our essence, our voice, and our personality through the 12 archetypes framework and a brand language exercise.

• 05

  Visual Identity

  Identifying our moods, motifs, color palette, photography style, and performance look.

• 06

  Sound Identity

  Establishing our sonic lane: genres, production elements, reference artists, and reference tracks.

• 07

  Content Strategy

  Defining content buckets that link back to our brand identity.

• 08

  Content Calendar

  Building a repeatable content calendar with consistent post formats, platforms, and cadence.

• 09

  Close

  Establishing commitment to the work, next steps, and accountability measures.

We sat down together in December 2025 and went through each section, which sparked a lot of great conversations, honest reflections, and most importantly, alignment.

Result

The brand we landed on

We were finally aligned on our identity. Galena Crew is an Everyman (80%) / Jester (20%) — a relatable, wholesome friend group that also happens to throw the most energetic party in dance music.

What we were doing well vs what we weren't

Words that described us vs words that didn't

None of these attributes were ground-breaking, we simply hadn't vocalized, organized, or leveraged them effectively.

Implementation

Applying to our content strategy

This was the most tactical part of the workshop. We used sticky notes to identify specific video ideas, that we then organized into five distinct content buckets, each tied to a specific set of brand attributes.

Every post we make moving forward will map back to one of these buckets, and thus, back to our brand identity. This structure makes content creation easier and more consistent, while also ensuring posts are intentional and on-brand.

Cadence & planning system

We established a weekly check-in: 1 hour every Sunday night to finalize the upcoming week's content, as well as a longer planning session: first Saturday of each month to plan the full month ahead. Defining this regular cadence was super important because it created an accountability system and ensured that content is always planned in advance, rather than being thrown together last minute.

Impact

What happened next

We've already seen substantial impact within the first few months:

Reflection

What I learned leading this

This project has been incredibly rewarding. It was a unique blend of strategy, creativity, and execution, that forced me to reach outside my comfort zone. I'm already thinking about how to apply this framework in a professional context.

Here are my key takeaways:

• →

  Frameworks are adaptable

  The corporate brand strategy frameworks we used didn't originally apply to our situation. Going beyond branding, I learned that any framework can be modified to fit a unique context.

• →

  Honest conversations are necessary

  This is why being best friends first was an advantage. It wasn't uncomfortable to say "here's what we're bad at" or be vulnerable throughout the process. I learned that honesty and realism are foundational to a successful brand strategy.

• →

  You don't need to burn it down

  We didn't need a new name, genre, or logo, we needed alignment. I learned that the answer to a problem might be within, just buried under different issues.

• →

  Organization outworks motivation

  This one was the toughest for me to accept. How could I be so motivated, but not see results that reflect it? I learned that motivation only gets you so far and real success comes planning, structure, and consistency.

Gallery

Scenes from the workshop

Candid of Tuzzy (clearly he loved the workshop)

Self assessment — what we're currently doing well vs not, and defining who we are and who we're not, bucketed into common themes

Goal setting — where we'd like to be in 1, 3, and 5 years

Social media strategy — 5 content buckets, connected to brand themes from the self assessment and mapped to specific social media ideas