As I heard a personal branding consultant say last week–branding happens. Question is, are you going to control it?

With that in mind (and really all the time since it’s what I know, breathe and love), I always look to my environment for both lessons and inspiration. Here are three lessons on branding from three totally unrelated sources:

LESSON 1 | Use Your Assets

Walsh Construction is one of the most successful and busy construction firms in the Chicagoland area. While construction and engineering is rarely a source of good branding, Walsh does it right with this subtle stamp of their brand on their project barricades.

 Use your physical assets to strategically expose
your partners, employees and customers to your brand.

 LESSON 2 | Help Your Customers Imagine

Available retail space is as common in up-and-coming neighborhoods as hipsters and coffee shops. What made this one stand apart is that with a clever sign idea it not only invites potential lessees to imagine, but strategically targets those it wants–restauranteurs.

Attract the right customers by investing
upfront in innovative messaging and design.

LESSON 3 | Use Media Right

We see (or not) thousands of trucks over our lifetimes driving on the road. Chances are you’re more concerned with whether they are turning, than how they are designed. This marketing distribution company does it right by using bold colors and very little text so that its brand is captured quickly on the road where no one has time to read.

Adapt design and messaging to the media;
where there is less engagement, keep it simpler.