JST.B Creators

As creatives ourselves, we believe in the necessity of collaboration and connection for the thriving of anyone who creates. Understanding that JST.B has a voice in the corporate world as we are working with clients all around, we wanted to create a network for creatives to do just that - collaborate and connect.

JST.B Creators is a network for Asian American creatives to get into contact with each other, to get inspired and stay motivated in their respective creative fields. We also form potential relationships between our Creators and clients who may be seeking one-time creative work.

There has been a push for more Asian American representation in all fields, and we don’t want creative fields to be lacking in that push. Our founder, Joo Eun Yoo, and other involved employees are currently Asian American women. As we discussed the concept of JST.B Creators, we felt that it was important to offer a voice for people. Asian American creatives have a powerful one, and we wanted to gather these voices to create one strong voice for the corporate world to see.

Why is collaboration and connection important for creatives? Creativity exists because we see or think something of value that we want to further cultivate. Collaboration allows for people to see other beautiful works which only then continue to inspire us to create more. Connection is necessary because without any outlet to express creativity, we can feel trapped. As creatives, we need space to move, and connecting with other people allow for that

JST.B Creators exists for the creatives. For the people who want to see advancement in their creative work and have fun along the way, this is for you. For more information about JST.B Creatives and its benefits, check out the page here.

JST.B Feature: The Ministry Launch

Enter into the aroma of coffee, then shock your eyes with pops of bright pink laid in the smooth whites of the background. Order your choice of beverage while being met with a smile, then sink into comfort and class in one of the plush emerald seats as you admire the personalized mural packed with heritage and meaning. Our friends at The Ministry invited JST.B to their opening, and this is what we got to experience.

From the last feature, we got to sit down with Elisa Bennaton, founder of The Ministry, as she shared her vision with us for this wine and coffee bar. Her ideas were backed with many intentional branding choices, which we explored further as we asked her how she planned to execute those ideas. We were able to see those come alive, and each decision played an important role in how we enjoyed our experience.

The color choices of the seating and mural were bold and risky - but it worked because it is such a unique color combination that added to the feel of the place. The mural itself held so much to uncover, from the tribal print background, to the maps of certain areas in the world, to the famous figure. The staff was kind as every person we interacted with had a pleasant attitude and seemed genuinely excited to serve us.

This is where branding comes alive beyond just logo designs and creating names. Every detail matters when it comes to shaping how people will view your brand. The colors created the luxurious, yet casual feel. The mural appeals to the curiosity people may feel from the peculiar choices. The staff forms the community aspect that occurs around coffee or wine. These all stem from Elisa’s fundamental vision for the brand’s identity. Luxurious, casual, mysterious, community-oriented. This was her hope for The Ministry, and she executed it.

But, we don’t want to spoil too much - Bennaton’s idea behind the wine and coffee bar was to add mystery, after all. They officially opened on Monday, so check them out, and experience it for yourself.

JST.B Curious

Essential to sustain a creative and motivated mind is to constantly be in a state of curiosity. In the digital age, we have the privilege of being able to have almost any kind of information at our fingertips, as we can quickly search a topic on the web. As people who want to excel in their work, we are always reading and seeking inspiration from what is available to us online. Here are some websites we look at regularly:

1. The news. Whatever is happening around us will directly influence what kind of content our minds will come up with. We may come across news of injustice, which could fuel a new passion. We may come across a new law that passed, which could lead to our brand showing support or disagreement to take a stand and make a statement. Whatever news we come across, just like how all news impact people in some way, news will impact our brands.

2. Branding Mag. A magazine focused on facilitating the discussion on branding, Branding Mag is a great resource to stay updated on what is going on in the branding world. They highlight great strategies and the evolution of fresh brands, which would be a great way to see what the competition is and to let this shape our future strategies.

3. Medium. This is a widely used platform for bloggers and anyone who wants to share their thoughts. Because anyone can write posts, there is such a diversity of topics and viewpoints that you can read up on. This is a thought-filled hub that will stimulate your mind as you read and think about the ideas brought up.

4. T Brand Studio. As the branding department of the Washington Times, T Brand Studio showcases several brands that have utilized creativity and stories to inspire. Though this website does not necessarily have information on branding in itself, this is a fun and innovative website to show how brands use storytelling to boost their brand image.

5. SiteInspire. Continuing on the idea that we must stay inspired always, we must do so and keep up with what is relevant. Right now, an aspect of the design realm that is relevant is good website design. SiteInspire is a showcase of several websites that have exceptional design and user experience.

Important to cultivating the individuality of each person, this may just be a starting place for you to find your own list of websites that push you to dream and stay motivated. Make sure to include this into your work routine to ensure that you will stay up to date and be moved to keep creating. The more we know, the more we will realize that we have so much to learn. Feed your curiosity, and keep it alive.

JST.B Feature: The Ministry

Coffee shop by day, wine bar by night. For coffee lovers and wine connoisseurs, a place like this really would save the day. In August, this type of superhero will reveal itself in the form of The Ministry. Located in our nation’s capital, this café-and-bar-in-one is intended to be “a high-end coffee house and a relaxed wine bar”.

In a city like D.C., we may be quick to think that the café and bar market is too saturated, but The Ministry founder, Elisa Bennaton, utilized her branding skills to ensure that The Ministry will be timeless as she aims to “set a standard of new experiences in D.C.”.

Aside from offering high-quality coffee and wine, Bennaton recognizes the importance of designing a positive experience from entrance to exit. As she offers these select beverages, Bennaton believes that the quality of the beverages does not solely rely on the drink. She states that the quality of the drink can be reflected in the experience and environment that the customer is immersed in. Her goal is for others to feel like they are in a “destination that is cool and fresh”.

As for the visual and scenic experience, The Ministry will feature a “vibrant and light” look, steering away from the usual “earthy and deconstructed industrial” looks that have become popular in cafes and bars. Important for the sustainability of the brand, she states that this is an important differentiator as it adds to the timeless element, rather than just following trends.

Running through the process of coming up with a brand name, Bennaton knew that this would also be a part of the experience. Intending to be playful in its curiosity, “The Ministry” was chosen because of its play on the religious aspect and the mystery behind the name itself. The name was curated so that people would say that they are meeting at The Ministry, provoking people to think, “why would you hangout at a ministry?”

Going deeper into the intangible aspects of business preparation, the values of The Ministry are highly important to the brand as it serves as a foundation for the decision-making process. The most pertinent value for brand? Community. Coffee and wine have the power to draw people to these beverages and it creates a space for people to form around. Having such a people-oriented view, Bennaton has decided that with this value at the core, all her choices should be driven by this.

“As a business, it’s important to be respectful of humankind. If we’re going to source something, it must be ethical. All decisions relate to people.”

Follow The Ministry on Instagram and Facebook for updates and make sure to ease your curiosity by visiting when they open.

JST.B Motivated

When in the creative process, it is tempting to resort to lazy habits and think that this is just a natural reaction to being faced with many tasks. But instead of blaming our lack of productivity on laziness, it is important to search further. There’s always a deeper reason behind why at times, all we want to do is waste several hours on social media or binge watch a new show.

It is possibly our own perfectionism, pulling us away from the start as we fear that we might mess up during the process. Perhaps it is the threat of other competitors that stunt us because the competition is too overwhelming. These reasons stop us and lead us to resort to other activities that do not bring us any closer to our goals. Whatever these reasons are, they are roadblocks, and we must learn to move past it.

At JST.B, we’re passionate about nurturing the growing, creative mind, and we believe that it is this caring for our minds that allow us to keep moving with motivation. To do this, we make sure to do three things:

1. Have creative inspiration days. We must be aware of our surroundings. Your surroundings can inspire you or drag you down, so be wary. We have taken day trips to places where we knew we would be inspired and had meetings there. We have discussed what is around us, as we share what has inspired us and how it can help us move forward with a fresh perspective.

2. Collaborate, share ideas - often. We are constantly talking with each other about what trends we have seen, and how we could incorporate these ideas with our own. When it comes to other ideas for JST.B and how the company can move forward, we always try to receive input from each other because we know that attempting to be creative on your own can be its own roadblock. Collaboration is essential to the creative process because each individual holds their own unique creativity that could serve as fuel for our own ideas. Having an open ear will only motivate us to keep moving forward and stay innovative.

3. Feed your curiosity. Using platforms like Slack, we send each other articles or news about brands that have provoked us to think. Whether it’s an informational article about brand case studies, or a company that has utilized a new tactic in the branding realm, we share these things so that we are regularly faced with new information. Constantly being in a curious state is important so that we genuinely want to keep seeking how we can grow and learn.

These are some steps that we take. How will you stay motivated?

JST.B Purposeful

The moment two people see each other to the moment they turn to say goodbye, there is a control over how they will perceive each other. We all have biases, but when we initially encounter a new experience, there’s a blank canvas on how we will create ourselves to be. This is what people will see and how they will begin to shape what they view of us.

As a brand, it’s important to consider this as the initial encounter a person will have with your brand will immediately begin to shape how they view you. Starting from the roots, your brand must have a purpose. What is it that your brand stands for? What is the drive for why your brand must keep existing?

With this purpose, every single action that your brand takes will begin to stem from that, and there will be visible consistency. A more focused target audience will view this and begin to shape their opinion about your brand, and they now have a more solid foundation to base this off of instead of thinking about your brand based off of scattered information.

Looking at JST.B as an example, if there was no purpose for the brand, then there would be no stability as there is no backbone to keep everything else in tact. All the services that we offer would just be relying on a frail foundation that could easily fall apart becoming useless if there is no way to keep it up.

Our purpose is to simplify, unify and amplify yours. So we ask you: what is your purpose?

JST.B Responsive

Thirty rescues, one person missing, and many destroyed buildings. This was the effect of last month’s flooding in Historic Ellicott City which follows nearly two years after the last flooding that devastated businesses. This is JST.B’s local community, and we recognize why it is necessary to respond. As we continue to speak about making positive impacts, this begins with reacting to the needs of our own communities.

At JST.B, we mainly focus on responding to needs from a business standpoint. However, we want to live out our values by being responsive from an ethical standpoint as well. We cannot just speak about being a trustworthy brand if we do not live that way. When people see a business tending to the needs of the community they are in, people will begin to view the business as honestly seeking the best for their customers as they go beyond just providing a service or product.

Every business has the potential to provide good services. But every business also has the potential to reach further and provide valuable impact. If all we ever offer is services, are we really reaching our full potential to have a strong, positive presence in the market?

As you analyze where your business can make an impact, you must first understand - who is your community? Your answer may depend on where your business is physically located, but it may instead rely on who your target group is and the community you’ve invited your target group to be a part of.

Once you determine this, you must listen well. Listening does not just mean that you research or hear about what your community needs. It includes critically thinking about what the issue is, why it exists and how it can be solved. This deeper thought on the issue will reflect your business’s passion for resolving the issue and show genuine care for a resolution instead of just responding with superficial solutions.

There are needs everywhere, and there are people hurting everywhere. Too often we as individuals, and we as businesses, get so caught up in the daily grind of work and routine. But we must take time to stop, take time to listen, and take time to just respond.

JST.B Present

In relation to making positive impacts, we must be present. Having a mindset that is fully existing in the moment allows for a heart of genuine involvement. This is important to business owners because being authentic can lead to sustaining loyalty from customers and clients.

HOW TO BE PRESENT (JST.B)

1. Understand your environment. To be present is to fully understand your surroundings and understand what you’re saying through it. This can range from the tangible things of what you see, touch, and hear; to the intangible things of what you feel, think, and believe. This means that your environment or your work is an extension of your business’s message and promise.

2. Be aware. Once you have an understanding of the environment, you must be aware of your business’s overall purpose of existence. This purpose will help direct you and the people around you to follow your vision. When the vision is clear, people are able to have integrity to the work, and to you.

3. Take a breather. We live in a world that always wants more. We tend to crowd our to-do lists with things we have to do; forcing us to live in a world that is always in the future, or in a world that is constantly stuck in the past. We need to learn to stop, and just be, so that we can honestly engage with our current clients and customers.

Our company, JST.B, stands on the premise that we are here to take control of time, not to be overwhelmed by it. We collaborate with clients to gain a mindset of simplicity by creating trustworthy, current, and purpose driven brands. If you want to grow a loyal customer base, sit down with one of our consultants now to see what could be improved to stand out and stand for something!

JST.B Positive

Finding a way to be impactful in this way can be overwhelming because this requires discovering what values your brand holds and how to convey this in an authentic way. Whatever these values are should be the foundation for how your brand chooses to interact with people. If your brand holds a value of honesty, every action your brand takes should be honest. If the value is professionalism, every action should be professional. Whatever the value is, this should be the tone of the interaction.

Each brand must critically evaluate what positive values they want their brand to represent as this will play an important part in the experience that the public will have with the brand. We must strive for positivity, for ourselves and for our brands as it shapes who we are.

When we were young, we seem to have dreamed about doing something that would help others. Kids talk about wanting to be doctors, veterinarians, and firefighters. It’s possible that those are the careers that kids are told about the most, but we’d like to believe that kids are up to something revealing about human nature.

People are naturally drawn to others who are positive, making them leave feeling inspired. Positivity is not just smiling and saying happy thoughts. Positivity is seeing a situation that is not necessarily the most convenient or pleasant and being able to find ways to enjoy the moment. Positivity is seeing a person who may not be successful but seeing the potential in that person. Positivity is inspiring and motivating.

JST.B Moved

“Great brands know that brands are built not by what you say, but by what you do, and so they make brand culture—not communications—the priority” 

The other day, I came across a very moving story on my news feed.  Earlier this month, a homeless man walked out of the cold and into an Alabama Chick-fil-A asking to work for food.  After seeing the man, store manager Mark Meadows gave him not only a free meal, but the gloves he had worn to work that day.

While Meadows says he doesn’t feel like he did much, thousands of people have been touched by his compassion.  I’ll bet 

that his generosity has inspired many to serve others in ways that they wouldn’t have previously considered.  Just as Meadows’s simple gesture probably meant so much to the man who came to his restaurant, he has likely helped another person’s needs be met without even knowing it.

Martin Luther King once said that everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. It’s easy to wonder how much of a difference we can make sometimes, but the reality is that every time we meet someone, we can have more of an impact on his or her life than we’d imagine.  As you think about your brand, consider the people you might be helping through your work. How can your organization make a difference?

JST.Beginning

ULTIMATELY, we want to make you more efficient, sustainable, and scalable...so you have more time to JST.B YOO

First, we hope everyone enjoyed ringing in 2015!   For those of us at JST.B, we have a little something extra to celebrate since the company was founded a year ago this week. 

With this in mind, we thought it would be fitting to write about JST.B’s mission and vision, and what it means to us to, well, “just be.”  JST.B believes that branding should be so much more than logos, fonts, and accessories.  Our vision has always been “to unify and amplify what people fight for.”  We aim to “unify” the client’s mission, niche, and experience with the people he or she serves and “amplify” the brand to the desired audience.  To us, the core mission of each business or organization we work with is something they “fight for” since they devote so much time and energy to accomplishing that mission. 

We hope that by working with JST.B, we will make each and every one of our clients’ endeavors more efficient, sustainable, and scalable.  We want you to have more time to “JST.B Yoo.”  When you’re able to just be yourself and use your unique talents and passions to pursue your goals and dreams, you can accomplish great things for yourself, your company or organization, and those you serve.

P.S. There’s no way we could properly end this blog without wishing a very happy birthday to our founder, the lovely JooEun Yoo (okay, it was Sunday, but still!)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

JST.B 101

“Remember that brands often earn their reputation in the same way that individual people do”

In defining good branding, it is helpful to remember that brands often earn their reputation in the same way that individual people do.  When someone meets a person for the first time, he or she immediately forms a “first impression” from what the person says or how the person appears.  As he or she gets to know the person better, more opinions will be formed based on the conversations they have or the way the person behaves. 

Likewise, the way the public perceives a brand will come from both how the brand promotes itself and how it carries out responsibilities and interacts with the public.  Just as people tend to gravitate towards individuals who are responsible and caring, there is something very attractive about a company that works hard to provide excellent service and that values those it serves.  Always treat customers the way you would want to be treated—and strive to exceed their expectations.  Offer customer appreciation promotions.  Give customers the opportunity to give feedback on your service, and address any problems they may have promptly and professionally.  Promote different charities on your website, or support local causes through fundraising events.  Think of some of your favorite companies and the images you have of them in your mind.  Has the way they treat their customers played any role in why you respect them as much as you do today?

JST.B Merry

Need some help making the season a little brighter?
Here is a list we made of 10 acts of kindness you can do in the spirit of Christmas: 

1. Send someone who has somehow made a difference in your life a thank-you note.

2. Take a plate of cookies to someone you don't know well in your neighborhood and start a conversation.

3. The next time you're in a store, ask the clerk how things are going with the busyness of the holidays and tell him/her you appreciate his/her hard work.

4. Help loan money to someone starting a small business in a developing country through KIVA.

5. Give blood or platelets through the Red Cross (NOTE: giving platelets is similar to giving blood.  The donation process does take longer, but you can give up to every 2 weeks and the need is constant.  And yes, you can give both blood and platelets as long as you wait at least 3 days between the two.)

6. If you have young children, have them leave a toy under the tree on Christmas Eve for Santa to give to someone in need and donate it to a local charity.

7. At your holiday or next birthday party, provide stationary and take a few minutes to have everyone write notes for nursing home residents or soldiers.

8. Write lists of some of your favorite things about loved ones to put in their Christmas cards. (or make a video and send it to them saying all the things you love about them.)

9. If people still need ideas for Christmas gifts, ask for donations to your favorite charity as one of your presents.

10. The next time you use social media, take a minute to write a nice message to someone you haven't spoken to lately.

Want some more ideas?  Here are a few links (confession: we did steal a few.)  

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/29-ways-to-carry-out-random-acts-of-kindness-every-day.html

http://www.buzzfeed.com/jessicamisener/101-easy-ideas-for-random-acts-of-kindness#.kxXwy3A5X

Not to sound corny, but kindness doesn’t have to end with Christmas.  As 2014 comes to a close, what are some ways you could bring kindness into what your company does?  Would you agree with us that treating people with respect is a key part of establishing strong relationships with those you serve and drawing more people in? Just a few questions to ponder upon. 

 

All in all, we just want to remind you to JST.B Merry this season!
 

If you have any questions or comments about this post, feel free to comment bellow or tweet us @jstbyoo with the hashtag #jstbmerry. HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!