INTRODUCTION

The Hyman–Brand Building, often referred to as just the Brand Building, is located at the
corner of South Galena Street and East Hopkins Avenue in Aspen, Colorado, United States. It
is a two-story stone building erected in the late 19th century. At different stages in the city's
history, it was owned by an entrepreneur who used the building in a way that redefined the
city for that time. In 1985, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

It was built by David Marks Hyman, one of the earliest investors in silver mining during
Aspen's early years; it is the only building in Aspen he is known to have financed.
[1]
Originally home to a bank, it was one of the largest commercial blocks built during the
city's boomtownperiod. Later it was used for several car-related businesses, including a
dealership and drive-through gas station in the corner where the bank lobby had once been. In
1971 local entrepreneur Harley Baldwin saved it from demolition, and along with the
neighboring Collins Block later renovated it into an area now known as "Glitter Gulch".
Today it is home to some upscale boutiques and art galleries.

Building

The building is located at the southwest corner of the intersection, on the opposite corner
from Aspen City Hall, also listed on the National Register. To the west along East Hopkins is
another Register-listed property, the Collins Block. The neighborhood is urban and densely
developed, with a mixture of historic and sympathetic modern two- and three-story
commercial buildings predominating.

Structurally it has brick walls, faced in heavily rusticated peachblow sandstone.[2] It is two
stories in height. A single-bay clipped corner entrance divides two street facades, 12 bays on
the Galena frontage and 10 on Hopkins.[1]

Two full-height pilasters separate the corner bay and the two-bay portions on either side.
Along Hopkins the next section is a single bay, then two each in the next three sections and
another pilaster at the corner. The Galena facade has three in the next section, above the
Gucci boutique. A narrow single bay is followed by two three-bay sections with the same
treatment.[1]

Most of the street level is devoted to retail storefronts, their entrances covered in awnings.
A Dior boutique occupies the corner space, with Gucci on either side. An art gallery occupies
the space to the south of Gucci along Galena.

Fenestration on the upper story consists of one-over-one double-hung sash windows. The five
on the Hopkins side, and the first four on Galena, are taller and have taller upper panes. The
corner window is topped with a semicircular plaque with "BRAND BLDG. 1891 ASPEN
COLO." lettered on it. Above the second story, is a double modillioned cornice in
three courses, higher in the middle where the roof has a parapet. Behind it is an open-air
rooftop cafe, with umbrellas over the tables. A flagpole stands above the corner.

The interior of the building is given over to the stores on the first floor with hotel rooms on
the second, many of which retain some of the original woodwork. Inside the Dior boutique
the bank vault and door from the bank originally in that space remain. The door has its
original artistic decoration.[1]

History]

David Marks Hyman, a Bavarian-born Harvard-educated Cincinnati lawyer, came to Aspen in

the early 1880s to take more direct control of silver mines friends of his had invested his
money in. He became one of the richest citizens of the emerging community, building a
fortune from the Colorado Silver Boom.[3]

Like fellow early Aspen mining entrepreneur Jerome B. Wheeler, his rival and adversary in a
bitter legal battle over one particularly rich silver lode, he made his statement with large
buildings bearing his name. The Hyman Building was faced in the same peachblow sandstone
as Wheeler's Opera House, brought to the city by the railroads that Hyman and Wheeler had
briefly put aside their differences to bring up the Roaring Fork Valley in the late 1880s.[4]

The Hyman was one of the largest commercial buildings erected in Aspen during the early
mining boom.[2] Built for $30,000 ($837,000 in modern dollars [5]),[1] it rivaled in size and
prestige the Aspen Block to the south, built by D.R.C. Brown, another major early developer
of the city. Both the Aspen and the Hyman shared the same major tenant: the First National
Bank of Aspen. In the Hyman it occupied the corner suite. [4] The bank was known in its time
for serving lavish lunches with fine wines. [6] Other retail tenants included jewelers and a
grocery store.[4] The upper space had some offices but was mostly given over to a meeting
hall of the Patriotic Order Sons of Liberty.[2]

The bank's presence and the building's dominant position within the city helped it survive
after the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act in response to the Panic of 1893brought
an end to the boom years of early Aspen. The metal's price collapsed to market levels once
the federal government was no longer required to purchase it, and the city's population
steadily declined. Many smaller buildings from the boom years stood vacant and abandoned,
their neglect leaving them victim to fire and the effects of Aspen's severe and lengthy high-
altitude winters. The order's former meeting room was a popular venue for local dance
events.[4]

Another entrepreneur, Michael H. Brand, bought the building in the 1920s. He adapted it for
use to serve the growing population of automobile users, a mode of transportation then
making its presence felt in the remote mountain town, its population by then a historic low of
less than a thousand. As in the Aspen Block, the corner space was converted into a service
station. The onetime bank lobbies had the only ceilings high enough for trucks to fit under
and shelter them from snowfall.[4] Other spaces were given over to a dealership and repair
shop.[6]

After World War II, another owner took over the gas station. Aspen gradually became one of
the first ski resorts in the Western United States, and its economy improved. The Aspen
Music Festival used the meeting hall space for orchestra rehearsals in the 1950s,[4] before it
developed its own facilities outside of town. The Hyman–Brand began to feel the effects of
time and its radical conversion several decades earlier. By 1970 the gas station was no longer
a viable business, and the building was condemned and slated for demolition.[6]

The following year it was saved when Harley Baldwin bought it for $170,000 ($1,052,000 in
contemporary dollars[5]). A man in his mid-20s who had driven out to Aspen from
the Eastafter college and established a business selling crêpes which he then parlayed
into real estate, Baldwin restored the Hyman–Brand and leased it out as a retail space.[7]

A few years later, Baldwin returned to New York City and devoted most of his time and
energy to real estate there. In 1988 he returned to Aspen and bought the Collins Block next
door. He began to transform both properties into visible symbols of Aspen's cachet among the
international rich and famous, easing out longtime tenants like a hardware store in favor of
upscale fashion retailers like Louis Vuitton, Dior and Gucci. Baldwin opened the art
gallery that still bears his name in the building as well. The upper story of the Hyman–Brand
became the exclusive Aspen Hotel, where guests had membership privileges at the exclusive
Caribou Club in the basement of the Collins Block[8]

The area became known as "Glitter Gulch", a nickname that soon also came to be used for
Aspen as a whole. Some residents lamented the open acknowledgement of Aspen's
association with celebrity and wealth, recalling the days of the early 1970s when the city's
lack of pretense had so attracted those visitors in the first place, and they mixed freely with
locals. Baldwin saw it as simply inevitable. "Aspen is for the most successful people in the
world. It so happens that they like to wear Gucci. Where's the problem?" he told Vanity
Fairin 2001.[7] When he died in 2005, shortly after Louis Vuitton announced it would move to
larger quarters on Mill Street,[9][note 1] the Hyman–Brand was estimated to be worth as much as
$15 million.[10]

Brand Building

Definition: Brand Building

Brand Building is generating awareness, establishing and promoting

company using strategies and tactics. In other words brand building is
enhancing brand equity using advertising campaigns and promotional
strategies. Branding is crucial aspect of company because it is the
visual voice of the company. Goal of brand building is creating a
unique image about the company.

Importance of Brand Building

Brand building can be initiated with a well thought brand

identity which can help create a strong brand image which goes a
long way in consolidating the brand.
Brand Building comprises of creating value to consumers that how
consumers feel, think and know about your brand. There are three
popular brands known-

• Product brand: A physical product or items or goods are a product

brand. Brand building is ensuring a good quality product is given to
the customer along with good brand visibility, packaging, warranty
etc. All these cumulatively help in brand building. Example of
product brands are Adidas, Rolex etc

• Service Brand: A non-tangible offering is a service brand like

telecom service, ecommerce etc. In this case, brand building is most
dependent on the experience that a customer gets. Example of service
brands are McDonald’s, Starbucks etc

• Retail Brand: Retail brands are a combination of service & product

i.e. products are sold through a service offering. Hence brand building
has to ensure good customer experience as well as high quality
products. Example of retail brands are Tesco, Walmart etc.

Process of Brand Building

There is no definite way of brand building. Brand building requires

innovation, creativity, correct value proposition, constant monitoring
& ensuring good customer experience.
Steps involved in brand building are-

• Describe your brand: The first step of brand building is to describe

the brand. This can be done through product description, packaging,
logos etc. The way a brand is defined builds the brand equity and
forms the foundation of the customer perception.

• Brand Differentiation & Positioning: Once a product or service is

created, it is critical that the brand is differentiated from its
competition with some unique value. Also, positioning the brand
correctly is an essential element of brand building.

• Brand Promotion: Advertising & promoting the brand using TVCs,

social media, print ads, online advertising etc is one of the most
important pillars of brand building as it helps in creating brand
awareness. Correct communication and effective media channels can
help build a strong brand and helps increase brand recall.
• Personalise the Brand: Brand building can be effective is a
customer feels connected to it. Hence giving a personal touch to the
customer, through innovation and customization can help building a
stronger perception in the mind of the customer.

• Evaluate the Brand: It is important that a company keeps on

monitoring and reviewing the performance of its products, services
and brands. Hence evaluation & review of a brand is an essential
element of brand building.

Brand building strategies should be adopted accordingly which helps

in creating and differentiating brand value and developing right
impression for the company for which it truly stands. Depending on
your brand building exercises, your brand may grow, remain stagnant
or recede with time. So in brand cycle there is continuous need of
bringing new strategies, events and activities that maintain the brand
promise. Consumers are co-creators of brand so there preferences and
demands should be meet and strategies should be designed by keeping
consumers in mind. To create a unique and powerful brand there is
need of time and consistency. So brand Building is an integral part of
business development and involves various strategies and tactics over
time.

Hence, this concludes the definition of Brand Building along with its
overview.
How to Start Your Own Brand From Scratch in 7 Steps

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Building a brand from the ground up that stands out is no easy

task.

“What should it look like?”

“How should it make people feel?”

“Will it resonate with my target audience?”

These are questions that inevitably come up when you start thinking
about how to connect the dots between what you’re selling and who
you’re trying to reach.
Whether you've got nothing but a business idea or want to pivot your
existing brand, here's everything you need to know about building a
strong identity for your business.

What Exactly Is a “Brand”?

A brand isn’t just a recognizable name and logo that distinguishes you
in a crowded market.

Your brand is how people perceive you wherever they interact with
your business—both the impressions you can control and the ones
you can't.

When you think about it, people have brands too. We each have a
name, a face, a style, a way of communicating, different impressions
we make on different people, and what they say about us when we’re
not in the room.

Likewise, businesses have names, products, logos, colors, fonts, a

language, and reputations to manage that make up who they are and
affect how they’re perceived.

You can't build a brand without being consistent and maintaining that
consistency as you extend your brand to every part of your business.
But it all starts with establishing what that consistency is going to
look like and the feeling you want it to evoke.

How to Build a Brand

Building your own brand essentially boils down to 7 steps:

1. Research your target audience and your competitors.

2. Pick your focus and personality.

3. Choose your business name.

4. Write your slogan.

5. Choose the look of your brand (colors and font).

6. Design your logo.

7. Apply your branding across your business and evolve it as

you grow.

While you might revisit some steps as you pivot your brand, it's
important that you consider each aspect as you shape your brand
identity.

Let’s start with laying the groundwork to inform the way you go
about building your brand.
Bring your brand to life with free stock photos!

Burst is a free stock photo site powered by Shopify. Browse 1000s of

product and lifestyle images to use across your store and marketing
campaigns.

1. Figure Out Your Place in the Market

Before you start making any decisions about your brand, you need to
understand the current market: who your potential customers and
current competitors are.

There are many ways to do this:

 Google your product or service category and analyze direct

and indirect competitors that come up.

 Check subreddits that relate to your customers and eavesdrop

on their conversations and product recommendations.

 Talk to people who are part of your target market and ask
them what brands they buy from in your space.

 Look at the relevant social media accounts or pages your

target audience follows and are receptive to.

 Go shopping online or offline and get a feel for how your

customers would browse and buy products.

As you go about your research, make a note of:

 1. Who your “lowest hanging fruit” customers are—the ones
you could most easily sell to.

2. Who your top of mind competitors are—the brands that

are established and known in the market.

3. How your customers speak and what they talk about—the

interests they have and the language they express them in.

It’s important to have a handle on this before moving forward as it

will inform what your brand should focus on and how it can position
itself apart from competitors.

2. Define Your Brand’s Focus and Personality

Your brand can’t be everything to everyone, especially at the start.

It’s important to find your focus and let that inform all the other parts
of your brand as you build it.

Here are some questions and branding exercises to get you thinking
about the focus and tone of your brand.

What's your positioning statement?

A positioning statement is one or two lines that stake your claim in the
market. This isn't necessarily something you put on your website or
business card—it's just to help you answer the right questions about
your brand.
Your positioning statement should go something like...

We offer [PRODUCT/SERVICE] for [TARGET MARKET] to

[VALUE PROPOSITION].

Unlike [THE ALTERNATIVE], we [KEY DIFFERENTIATOR].

e.g. We offer water bottles for hikers to stay hydrated while reducing
their carbon footprint. Unlike other water bottle brands, we plant a
tree for every bottle you buy.

Your unique selling proposition is the one thing you're competing on.
Find it, go in on it, and make it a part of your brand's messaging.

Alternatively, if the company you want to start has a cause at its core
(e.g. if you're starting a social enterprise), you can also write this out
as a mission statement that makes a clear promise to your customers
or to the world.

What words would you associate with your brand?

One way to look at your brand is as if it was a person. What would he

or she be like? What kind personality would your customers be
attracted to?

This will help inform your voice on social media and the tone of all
your creative, both visual and written.
A fun and useful branding exercise is to pitch 3-5 adjectives that
describe the type of brand that might resonate with your audience. I
compiled this list of traits to help you get started.

What metaphors or concepts describe your brand?

Thinking about your brand as a metaphor or personifying it can help

you identify the individual qualities you want it to have.

This can be a vehicle, an animal, a celebrity, a sports team, anything

—as long as it has a prominent reputation in your mind that summons
the sort of vibe you want your brand to give off.

For example, if I wanted to create a brand targeting entrepreneurs I

might choose to use the raccoon as a starting point: They’re scrappy
survivors that will do anything to thrive.

If your brand was an animal, what animal would it by and why is it

like that animal to you?

3. Choose a Business Name

“A rose by any other name would still smell as sweet. But Nike by
another name would be seen on fewer feet.”

Shakespeare (sort of)

What's in a name? Depending on the kind of business you want to
start, you can make the case that your name matters very little or it
matters a lot.

As we've said before, a brand is so more than a name. The personality,

actions, and reputation of your brand are really what give the name
meaning in the market.

But as a business owner, your company's name is probably one of the

first big commitments you have to make. It’ll impact your logo, your
domain, your marketing, and trademark registration, if you decide to
go that route (it's harder to trademark generic brand names that
literally describe what you sell).

Ideally, you want a business name that’s hard to imitate and even
harder to confuse with existing players in the market. If you have any
plans to expand the product lines you offer down the road, consider
keeping your business name broad so that it's easier to pivot than if
you chose a brand name based on your product name.

You can use our Business Name Generator to brainstorm some names,
or try one (or a combination) of the following approaches:

 Make up a word like Pepsi.

 Reframe an unrelated word like Apple for computers.

  Use a suggestive word or metaphor like Buffer.

 Describe it literally (caution: easy to imitate) like The

Shoe Company

 Alter a word by removing letters, adding letters or using

latin endings like Tumblr (Tumbler) or Activia.

 Use the initials of a longer name like HBO (Home Box

Office)

 Combine two words: Pinterest (pin interest) or Facebook

(Face + Book)

 Turn a string of words into an acronym: BMW

(Bayerische Motoren Werke)

Since your brand name will also affect the domain/URL of your
website, be sure to shop around to see what’s available before you
decide. Check out this guide for more on choosing a good domain
name.

It's also a good idea to run your name by a focus group of close
people, if for no other reason than to make sure it doesn't have an
unintended meaning or is too similar to something else that you
might've missed.

4. Pick Your Brand’s Colors and Fonts

Once you've got a name down, you'll need to think about how you'll
visually represent your brand, namely your colors and typography.
This will come in handy when you start to build your website.

Choosing Your Colors

Colors don't just define the look of your brand; they also convey the
feeling you want to communicate and help you make it consistent
across your entire brand. You'll want to choose colors that
differentiate you from direct competitors to avoid confusing
consumers.

Color psychology isn't an exact science, but it does help to inform the
choices you make, especially when it comes to the color you choose
for your logo.

This infographic offers a nice overview of the emotions and

associations that different colors generally evoke.
it’s important to consider how legible white and black text will be
over your colour palette, and how colored text might look over white
and black backgrounds. Try using a tool like Coolors to brainstorm
colors that work together, grab the hex codes to keep handy, and
sift through different shades to find the ones you like.

Choosing Your Fonts

At this point, it's also good to look at fonts you might want to use on
your website.
Pick two fonts at most to avoid unnecessarily confusing visitors: one
for headings and one for body text (this doesn't include the font you
might use in your logo).

You can use Font Pair to browse from a wide selection of fonts that go
well together and download them if necessary.

For inspiration, use Stylify.me on your favorite websites to see their

visual style at a glance.

5. Write a Slogan

A catchy slogan is a nice-to-have asset—something brief and

descriptive that you can put in your Twitter bio, website
headline, business card, and anywhere else where you've got very few
words to make a big impact.

Keep in mind that you can always change your slogan as you find
new angles for marketing—Pepsi has gone through over 30 slogans in
the past few decades.

A good slogan is short, catchy, and makes a strong impression. Here

are some ways to approach writing a slogan of your own:

 Stake your claim: Death Wish Coffee—"The World's

Strongest Coffee"
  Make it a Metaphor: Redbull—"Redbull gives you wings."

 Adopt your customers’ attitude: Nike—"Just do it."

 Leverage labels: Cards Against Humanity—"A party game

for horrible people".

 Write a rhyme: Folgers Coffee: "The best part of wakin' up

is Folgers in your cup."

 Describe it literally: Aritzia—"Women's fashion boutique"

Try our Slogan Maker to brainstorm some ideas or play off of your
positioning statement to generate some potential one-liners to
describe your business.

6. Design Your Logo

A logo is probably one of the first things that come to mind when you
think about building a brand. And for good reason. It's the face of
your company after all, and could potentially be everywhere that your
brand exists.

Ideally, you'll want a logo that's unique, identifiable, and that's

scalable to work at all sizes (which is often overlooked).

Consider all the places where your brand's logo needs to exist, from
your website to your Facebook Page's profile picture to even the little
"favicons" you see in your current browser tab.
If you have a text logo as your Instagram avatar, for example, it'll be
almost impossible to read. To make your life easier, get a square
version of your logo that has an icon element that remains
recognizable even at smaller sizes.

Notice how the Walmart logo has both the "sparks" icon and the
wordmark, which can be used

The benefit of an abstract logo is that it has no innate meaning—you

can make this up yourself and bring it to life in your customers'
minds.

Mascot: Wendy’s

Mascot logos are often represented by the face of a character. They

may humanize your brand, but be aware that they are an antiquated
style now and only recommended in certain contexts (e.g. you’re
deliberately going for a retro look).

Emblem: Starbucks
Emblem logos are often circular and combine text with an emblem for
a bold and regal look. If the design is too complicated, however, they
can lose their impact when you shrink them down. But done right,
they can make for a memorable style of logo.

Lettermark: IBM

Lettermark logos turn the initials of your full business name into a
logo. If you chose a business name with 3 or more words, this might
be a style you'd want to consider, especially if the initialism is catchy.

Icon: Twitter

An icon logo is your brand represented as a visual metaphor. Unlike

an abstract logo, an icon logo suggests something about the product
(Twitter's bird is suggestive of the frequent short "tweets" on the
platform).
As an unestablished brand, you should stay away from using an icon
logo by itself. However, if you're not sure about the kind of logo you
want, pairing an icon logo with a wordmark is usually a safe bet.

Wordmark: Facebook

Wordmark logos turn your brand name, colors, and font into a visual
identity. The problem with wordmarks is that they're often hard to
create in a scalable square design and easily lose their legibility when
shrunk.

However, you can fix this problem by simply getting an

accompanying icon logo or turning the first letter of the wordmark
into a separate-but-connected logo, like what Facebook does with the
F.

Combination: McDonald's

Because of the limitations that exist for each logo type, many logos
are a combination of styles.
As a new business, and you don't need to choose an icon over a
wordmark when you can get the best of both. This make it easier to
satisfy the condition of creating a scalable logo while still putting
your brand name front and center. McDonalds, for example, can use
their iconic golden arches wherever the full wordmark doesn't fit.

Unless you've got design chops of your own, you'll probably be

delegating the creation of your logo. You can outsource it for a low
cost on Fiverr or run a logo contest on 99Designs.

Check out Seek Logo for even more logo inspiration or use
our Hatchful logo maker to start generating some ideas.

7. Apply, Extend and Evolve Your Brand as You Grow

Building a brand doesn't stop with creating a logo or slogan. You

brand needs to exist and remain consistent wherever your customers
interact with you, from the theme you choose for your website to
the marketing you do to customer service to the way you package and
ship your products.

You'll continue to shape and evolve your brand as you expose more
customers to it and learn more about who they are are and how to
speak to them.

It's important to appreciate that you will never have

100% control over how people perceive your brand.
You can tug customers in the right direction, make a great first
impression, and manage your reputation, but you can’t control the
individual perceptions that exists in each person's mind (say, if they
had a bad customer service experience).

All you can do is put your best foot forward at every turn and try to
resonate with your core audience. But hopefully at this point, you
have the tools, knowledge, and resources to start.