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, things were moving. But our brand wasn't keeping up with our music, and that gap was starting to cost us.

I spent several months designing a structured 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

Good music, 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.

Sure, our initial aesthetics were confusing, but the real issue was deeper: three people, zero alignment. We each had different instincts about what to post, how to talk to fans, and what our "vibe" was supposed to be. We were posting inconsistently, and even when we were posting, it was without meaning (no common language, no framework, no north star). Our brand was everything, everywhere, all at once — and it wasn't translating to ticket sales, streaming numbers, or social media growth.

I knew fixing this wasn't as simple as a conversation or a few weeks of posting. Solving this required extensive research, careful preparation, and a true framework - and I decided to start building just that.

Approach

Designing and building a workshop

Over the next few months, I identified key areas for the workshop — pulling from industry-standard, brand strategy frameworks, the 12 brand archetypes model, content systems thinking, and case studies from other artists who've successfully positioned their project. The goal wasn't to reinvent the wheel, it was to organize and better execute what we already were.

My proposed structure

Each section served a unique purpose, allowing us to systematically address each aspect of our brand identity.

• 01

  Intro

  Began with an open discussion about what Galena Crew means to us followed by an SCQA to ensure we were all on the same page.

• 02

  Internal Audit

  Levelset with an SCQA followed by an honest 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 identity we landed on

Through the brand archetype exercise, our answers were all aligned. 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

Overall, these brand attributes weren't anything ground-breaking, we just hadn't named them, organized them, or leaned into them the right way. The next step was determining how to plug this newly defined identity into our content.

Implementation

Applying the brand into 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 will make content creation much easier and more consistent, while also ensuring that everything we post is 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:

• →

  Brand strategy isn't just for corporations and brands

  Artists, just like ourselves, that have no management backing or deep industry connections typically sit on untapped identity gold. The frameworks used in brands and boardrooms work just as well (or even better perhaps) for a three-person DJ crew in Chicago.

• →

  Honest conversations are hard but necessary

  This is why it's been such an advantage to be best friends first before artists. It wasn't uncomfortable to say "here's what we're bad at" or be vulnerable throughout the process. 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. The answer was already there, it was just buried under inconsistency and lack of communication. The workshop gave us the consistency we needed and it's changed so much already.

• →

  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. The real success comes from a content framework tied to brand identity and a defined cadence for planning sessions.

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