Ruler Archetype
Conquering Your Market with a Nuanced Confident Brand Identity (with Design Examples)
The Ruler Brand Archetype is one of Jung’s 12 Brand Archetypes.
If you’re wondering, how can you build a Ruler brand that embraces nuance and deeply connects with your people, you’ve come to the right place.
Many of the entrepreneurs and businesses who reach out to me feel confused about how to create a multifaceted, nuanced Ruler brand that feels unique to them.
So I decided to create this guide, just for you.
Ruler archetype in branding: What is it?
Let’s first dive into the Ruler brand persona in its pure, undiluted form.
Ruler archetype symbolism
According to Jung, the main Ruler archetype characteristics are power, control, and authority.
The Ruler archetype values order, structure, and strategic leadership. The Ruler archetype brand exudes authority, confidence, and sophistication.
The Ruler’s…
DESIRE: Control
GOAL: Create a prosperous, successful family, company, or community
FEAR: Chaos, being overthrown
TRAP: Being bossy, authoritarian
GIFT: Responsibility, leadership
STRATEGY: Exert leadership
Businesses that embody a healthy Ruler archetype establish themselves as trusted authorities, reflect impeccable craftsmanship and a sophisticated aesthetic.
In The Hero & The Outlaw, Margaret Mark talks about 5 Ruler Levels:
THE CALL: Lack of resources, order, or harmony
LEVEL 1: Taking responsibility for the state of your own life
LEVEL 2: Exerting leadership in your family, group, organisation, or workplace
LEVEL 3: Becoming a leader in your community, field, or society
THE SHADOW: Becoming a leader in your community, field, or society
“Okay, the Ruler Brand Archetype sounds like what I’m going for. What next?”
If the Ruler archetype feels like a good fit, fantastic! Before we get too deep into the world of Jung and the Ruler archetype, I want to share a little secret as a Branding Expert: Being too tethered to Jung’s original psychology and clinging to one single generic archetype will shoot your brand in the foot.
Why? Humans connect with humans. We are all unique combinations of our innate natures and experiences.
As a result, our brands need to reflect what our businesses bring to the table in an authentic way. We build trust by aligning our presentation with our business experience (behaviour).
I’m sure you’ve noticed many brand strategists insist on a rigid approach to brand strategy. They teach their clients that a business has to wholeheartedly embody one single archetype, perhaps with a secondary support, paving the way for generic sameness.
But embodying one single archetype leads to generic brands that don’t connect with anyone. Especially if you want to stand out from your competitors in a saturated market that is continually growing.
It is human nature to explore and meld ideas together in new interesting ways. Evolution is inevitable!
Yes, we do need to narrow the field to make sure that we have a style and personality to embody. We cannot be all things to all people.
But we can and should create beautiful, unique combinations that allow us to embrace what sets us/our business apart, instead of feeling guilt or shame at not perfectly fitting into the current boxes.
When we begin to think about what drives us, how we approach problems, our unique way of delivering our services, products or solutions… a more fascinating brandscape begins to take shape.
Brand archetypes offer a method to explore your brand, not a dogma to rigidly follow.
The best brand identities, the ones that will feel truly unique, authentic and connect with your audience, are always a multi-faceted combination of archetypes.
A strong brand strategy, rooted in a curated duo or triad of archetypes, is what will give your brand clarity while differentiating you from your competitors.
“Elise is AMAZING! She has an incredible process that really seeks to understand her client and their business. This resulted in a truly bespoke and beautiful identity that really spoke to my ideal customer.”
– Devan King – Ikigai Wealth
As you bring more dimensionality to your brand, you’ll foster more trust because you’re being more human.
Practical questions to help you identify if your brand is a Ruler brand
Is Your Brand a Ruler? Let’s talk about brand values now.
Ask yourself: Is the goal of your company to establish authority and control? Does your company value precision, professionalism, and excellence? If you answered yes, it is very likely your brand has Ruler energy.
To attract the right customers, maintain their trust and get the most from your marketing dollars, you should do all you can to communicate this philosophy to your customers.
“Elise did my brand strategy and visual identity, and what a unique and exciting experience it was! What stood out was the amount of thought and strategy she put into even the tiniest details, and the gentle reminders to stick to the strategy along the way – that was the key for me.”
– Shanley King – Art of Wealth Co.
To diagnose the true motivator behind your brand (which is the crucial first step to discover your most aligned brand archetypes), take my brand motivator quiz.
How to make your Ruler brand identity truly memorable and unique
In my work with my clients, I always work to help them claim a combination of archetypes, rather than a single one. Since Jung’s brand archetypes are naturally fluid and flow across one another, there are endless ways to blend them together.
For example, one wing might look like a Motivator (an archetype that highlights how you want to make people feel) and one wing might be your Approach (how you deliver that feeling). Different combinations of archetypes can create vastly different brand identities.
“Thank you Elise, you really have a gift for creating and connecting our identity with so much of our story.”
– Elise Osborne – Helping Hearts Psychology
If there’s one thing I want you to take away from this article, it’s to let go of your preconceptions about what a certain brand archetype must look like.
Ruler archetype and brand differentiation
Jung proposed a variety of different subcategories for the Ruler archetype, each reflecting a different dimension of the Ruler. We can use these to add layers of nuance to a Ruler brand.
Ambassador
Judge
Patriarch
Ruler
Sovereign
Leveraging these will help you bring more nuance to your Ruler brand identity. Ideally, you will go further than this and blend multiple archetypes together without leaning into cliche characteristics.
Ruler archetype and target audience
A natural leader, the Ruler archetype delivers a customer experience that is authoritative and refined. They thrive with structure and being in control with organised methods, policies and procedures. They project authority with a sense of self-mastery and power over their domain. Naturally, this tends to attract customers who seek reliability, expertise, and a sense of exclusivity.
Ruler brands love to be surrounded by impressive settings and desirable possessions. Quality and quantity are both important. They are drawn to strong, stable aesthetic structures, such as large buildings, big columns and strong, sleek lines. Materials should be high quality and made to stand the test of time.
Ruler energy is expressed in areas of politics or royalty, such as the White House in the USA or Royal Palace in London, England.
Industries like Finance and Wealth Management, Real Estate, Luxury brands and fashion, established tech leaders, executive coaching, and professional services often have Ruler energy. Ruler brands are polished, which can lend itself to luxury offerings. However, they also care about providing structure and empowering people to become leaders in their own lives.
Strengths and weaknesses of the Ruler Archetype in marketing and advertising
The Ruler’s strength shines through when providing polished structure and empowering tools for leadership and gaining the best that life has to offer.
With a Ruler brand, you need to make sure to instil confidence in everything that you do, with well thought out and refined offerings. Offer polished methods and tools, backed by evidence that you know your stuff and can be trusted completely to provide high quality results.
The flip side is that Ruler brands deeply fear and actively avoid chaos, which can make them too rigid or set in their ways. They can be very critical of anyone who breaks out of the norm or disrupts the natural order of things.
They can also be perceived as elitist or unobtainable, or come across as cold, calculating and uncaring. Perfectionism can create problems when nothing is ever polished enough, or there’s no margin for human error.
Ruler branding examples
Here are examples of the Ruler archetype in marketing and design in the wild.
Here are some of the Caregiver brands I’ve had the pleasure of working with.
Designing for the Ruler archetype
Ruler archetype and visual branding
Ruler archetype visuals are crisp and structured. We’ll never see an un-ironed shirt or a hair out of place.
With this aesthetic, beauty is found in perfection. The graphic style is structural, immaculate and strong in its stability.
Details are pared back, clean and curated. Rulers love to declutter! If there is rich detailing, it’s kept to the periphery so it doesn’t clutter up the space. Ruler brands love to be surrounded by desirable possessions and show off what is rightfully theirs. Think high quality furnishings, wallpaper or decorative ceilings that exude luxury.
Work spaces are clean and organised with a curated aesthetic, such as perfectly aligned stacks of books. To create visual interest, use artful cropping and overlap minimal elements.
Here is a curated Pinterest board I’ve created for the Ruler archetype.
Ruler archetype design and colour psychology
Ruler brand colours range from rich and luxurious to crisp and clean. Ruler brands often use rich colours and refined finishes that evoke regal settings. Think polished surfaces, gold filigree, fine jewels, beautiful curated objects, high-quality fabrics, and classic patterns.
Classic Ruler colour combinations include black and white, black and gold beige, beige, pink, white and grey. The overall feeling should be sophisticated and refined with plenty of structure.
On a sensory level, we might feel compelled to connect the dots between the Ruler and Magician brand archetype. For example, they share similar colours such as rich purples and golds, though the inspiration and settings are quite different.
A word on the Ruler archetype design and colour psychology
The use of colour in your brand design instantly affects the emotions and moods of the people viewing your brand.
Planning out your brand’s colour scheme can be challenging. I have two practical tips for you: 1) I recommend using primary and secondary colours that contrast well and 2) not being afraid to break traditional colour schemes in your industry.
Corporate colour schemes tend to be minimal while creative brands can include more colours.
If you know your audience belongs to a certain culture, always consider the meaning of the colours you choose within the context of that culture.
Ruler archetype and typography
The Ruler brand fonts encompass refined serifs and classic script fonts, crisp, stately serifs and the regal font styles used for crests and monogram graphics.
They often have minimal flourishes, with detailing that feels consistent, refined and thoughtfully structured.
Overall, Ruler brand’s typography should produce a feeling of effortless elegance, sophistication and stability. We often see a cropping or overlapping effect to create graphic interest or add a powerful edge.
Ruler archetype and photography
Ruler photography is, above all, strong, refined, and sophisticated. Choose crisp lines, strong framing, and elegant, curated settings.
The goal of this photography is to capture leadership and luxury.
Photos should be cropped to capture both the person and the curated setting. Shots can be taken from below to make them appear larger, more powerful and prominent in the photograph.
Photos can be black and white or texturally detailed. All props, clothing, hair and makeup should be carefully selected to create a feeling of refinement.
Interesting details should be pre-prepared and thoughtfully curated. Take time to preselect beautiful buildings, rooms and objects, rather than adding them as effects in post.
To create a more dynamic effect, consider interesting crops. For example, try cropping the top of the face to focus on the clothing, jewellery and objects. Capture dramatic buildings or spaces with structural beauty and regal architectural details. Arrange a perfectly stacked set of books, then crop them at a dynamic angle. For humans in the photo, seek to add an air of mystery or untouchable quality. For example, a woman might be beautifully dressed with half of her face covered by her hat.
Ruler archetype and brand messaging
The Ruler brand voice is authoritative, confident, expert, proud, and matter-of-fact.
Their voice says: “I know what to do. I’ll show you how by giving you rules to follow.”
Branding with the Ruler archetype – Practical tips
Here are actionable tips to bring your Ruler brand to life with visual storytelling techniques.
Tips for showcasing your Ruler brand on Instagram
- Curate a visually rich and elegant Insta feed that reflects the prestige of your Ruler brand.
- Use high-quality imagery and polished visuals to suggest sophistication. Attention to detail is crucial for a Ruler brand.
- Feature success stories of clients or influencers who have achieved greatness with the help of your brand. Highlight achievements they’ve accomplished with the help of your brand.
- Position yourself as an authoritative figure in your industry. Share valuable insights, thought leadership, and expert opinions to establish your brand as a leader.
Curious to discover your Brand Archetype? Start by taking this quiz to uncover your Core Motivator.
Pass the Salt, founded by Elise Elliott, is a branding studio devoted to shaking up brand strategy, design and creative direction for entrepreneurial dreamers, doers and shakers who smirk at rules and high-five at the adventure of exploration.
Elise’s branding framework helps clients find language for their authentic business identity, connect with their dream audience and find greater ease in their business.
Ruler Archetype
Conquering Your Market with a Nuanced Confident Brand Identity (with Design Examples)
The Ruler Brand Archetype is one of Jung’s 12 Brand Archetypes.
If you’re wondering, how can you build a Ruler brand that embraces nuance and deeply connects with your people, you’ve come to the right place.
Many of the entrepreneurs and businesses who reach out to me feel confused about how to create a multifaceted, nuanced Ruler brand that feels unique to them.
So I decided to create this guide, just for you.
Ruler archetype in branding: What is it?
Let’s first dive into the Ruler brand persona in its pure, undiluted form.
Ruler archetype symbolism
According to Jung, the main Ruler archetype characteristics are power, control, and authority.
The Ruler archetype values order, structure, and strategic leadership. The Ruler archetype brand exudes authority, confidence, and sophistication.
The Ruler’s…
DESIRE: Control
GOAL: Create a prosperous, successful family, company, or community
FEAR: Chaos, being overthrown
TRAP: Being bossy, authoritarian
GIFT: Responsibility, leadership
STRATEGY: Exert leadership
Businesses that embody a healthy Ruler archetype establish themselves as trusted authorities, reflect impeccable craftsmanship and a sophisticated aesthetic.
In The Hero & The Outlaw, Margaret Mark talks about 5 Ruler Levels:
THE CALL: Lack of resources, order, or harmony
LEVEL 1: Taking responsibility for the state of your own life
LEVEL 2: Exerting leadership in your family, group, organisation, or workplace
LEVEL 3: Becoming a leader in your community, field, or society
THE SHADOW: Becoming a leader in your community, field, or society
“Okay, the Ruler Brand Archetype sounds like what I’m going for. What next?”
If the Ruler archetype feels like a good fit, fantastic! Before we get too deep into the world of Jung and the Ruler archetype, I want to share a little secret as a Branding Expert: Being too tethered to Jung’s original psychology and clinging to one single generic archetype will shoot your brand in the foot.
Why? Humans connect with humans. We are all unique combinations of our innate natures and experiences.
As a result, our brands need to reflect what our businesses bring to the table in an authentic way. We build trust by aligning our presentation with our business experience (behaviour).
I’m sure you’ve noticed many brand strategists insist on a rigid approach to brand strategy. They teach their clients that a business has to wholeheartedly embody one single archetype, perhaps with a secondary support, paving the way for generic sameness.
But embodying one single archetype leads to generic brands that don’t connect with anyone. Especially if you want to stand out from your competitors in a saturated market that is continually growing.
It is human nature to explore and meld ideas together in new interesting ways. Evolution is inevitable!
Yes, we do need to narrow the field to make sure that we have a style and personality to embody. We cannot be all things to all people.
But we can and should create beautiful, unique combinations that allow us to embrace what sets us/our business apart, instead of feeling guilt or shame at not perfectly fitting into the current boxes.
When we begin to think about what drives us, how we approach problems, our unique way of delivering our services, products or solutions… a more fascinating brandscape begins to take shape.
Brand archetypes offer a method to explore your brand, not a dogma to rigidly follow.
The best brand identities, the ones that will feel truly unique, authentic and connect with your audience, are always a multi-faceted combination of archetypes.
A strong brand strategy, rooted in a curated duo or triad of archetypes, is what will give your brand clarity while differentiating you from your competitors.
“Elise is AMAZING! She has an incredible process that really seeks to understand her client and their business. This resulted in a truly bespoke and beautiful identity that really spoke to my ideal customer.”
– Devan King – Ikigai Wealth
As you bring more dimensionality to your brand, you’ll foster more trust because you’re being more human.
Practical questions to help you identify if your brand is a Ruler brand
Is Your Brand a Ruler? Let’s talk about brand values now.
Ask yourself: Is the goal of your company to establish authority and control? Does your company value precision, professionalism, and excellence? If you answered yes, it is very likely your brand has Ruler energy.
To attract the right customers, maintain their trust and get the most from your marketing dollars, you should do all you can to communicate this philosophy to your customers.
“Elise did my brand strategy and visual identity, and what a unique and exciting experience it was! What stood out was the amount of thought and strategy she put into even the tiniest details, and the gentle reminders to stick to the strategy along the way – that was the key for me.”
– Shanley King – Art of Wealth Co.
To diagnose the true motivator behind your brand (which is the crucial first step to discover your most aligned brand archetypes), take my brand motivator quiz.
How to make your Ruler brand identity truly memorable and unique
In my work with my clients, I always work to help them claim a combination of archetypes, rather than a single one. Since Jung’s brand archetypes are naturally fluid and flow across one another, there are endless ways to blend them together.
For example, one wing might look like a Motivator (an archetype that highlights how you want to make people feel) and one wing might be your Approach (how you deliver that feeling). Different combinations of archetypes can create vastly different brand identities.
“Thank you Elise, you really have a gift for creating and connecting our identity with so much of our story.”
– Elise Osborne – Helping Hearts Psychology
If there’s one thing I want you to take away from this article, it’s to let go of your preconceptions about what a certain brand archetype must look like.
Ruler archetype and brand differentiation
Jung proposed a variety of different subcategories for the Ruler archetype, each reflecting a different dimension of the Ruler. We can use these to add layers of nuance to a Ruler brand.
Ambassador
Judge
Patriarch
Ruler
Sovereign
Leveraging these will help you bring more nuance to your Ruler brand identity. Ideally, you will go further than this and blend multiple archetypes together without leaning into cliche characteristics.
Ruler archetype and target audience
A natural leader, the Ruler archetype delivers a customer experience that is authoritative and refined. They thrive with structure and being in control with organised methods, policies and procedures. They project authority with a sense of self-mastery and power over their domain. Naturally, this tends to attract customers who seek reliability, expertise, and a sense of exclusivity.
Ruler brands love to be surrounded by impressive settings and desirable possessions. Quality and quantity are both important. They are drawn to strong, stable aesthetic structures, such as large buildings, big columns and strong, sleek lines. Materials should be high quality and made to stand the test of time.
Ruler energy is expressed in areas of politics or royalty, such as the White House in the USA or Royal Palace in London, England.
Industries like Finance and Wealth Management, Real Estate, Luxury brands and fashion, established tech leaders, executive coaching, and professional services often have Ruler energy. Ruler brands are polished, which can lend itself to luxury offerings. However, they also care about providing structure and empowering people to become leaders in their own lives.
Strengths and weaknesses of the Ruler Archetype in marketing and advertising
The Ruler’s strength shines through when providing polished structure and empowering tools for leadership and gaining the best that life has to offer.
With a Ruler brand, you need to make sure to instil confidence in everything that you do, with well thought out and refined offerings. Offer polished methods and tools, backed by evidence that you know your stuff and can be trusted completely to provide high quality results.
The flip side is that Ruler brands deeply fear and actively avoid chaos, which can make them too rigid or set in their ways. They can be very critical of anyone who breaks out of the norm or disrupts the natural order of things.
They can also be perceived as elitist or unobtainable, or come across as cold, calculating and uncaring. Perfectionism can create problems when nothing is ever polished enough, or there’s no margin for human error.
Ruler branding examples
Here are examples of the Ruler archetype in marketing and design in the wild.
Here are some of the Caregiver brands I’ve had the pleasure of working with.
Designing for the Ruler archetype
Ruler archetype and visual branding
Ruler archetype visuals are crisp and structured. We’ll never see an un-ironed shirt or a hair out of place.
With this aesthetic, beauty is found in perfection. The graphic style is structural, immaculate and strong in its stability.
Details are pared back, clean and curated. Rulers love to declutter! If there is rich detailing, it’s kept to the periphery so it doesn’t clutter up the space. Ruler brands love to be surrounded by desirable possessions and show off what is rightfully theirs. Think high quality furnishings, wallpaper or decorative ceilings that exude luxury.
Work spaces are clean and organised with a curated aesthetic, such as perfectly aligned stacks of books. To create visual interest, use artful cropping and overlap minimal elements.
Here is a curated Pinterest board I’ve created for the Ruler archetype.
Ruler archetype design and colour psychology
Ruler brand colours range from rich and luxurious to crisp and clean. Ruler brands often use rich colours and refined finishes that evoke regal settings. Think polished surfaces, gold filigree, fine jewels, beautiful curated objects, high-quality fabrics, and classic patterns.
Classic Ruler colour combinations include black and white, black and gold beige, beige, pink, white and grey. The overall feeling should be sophisticated and refined with plenty of structure.
On a sensory level, we might feel compelled to connect the dots between the Ruler and Magician brand archetype. For example, they share similar colours such as rich purples and golds, though the inspiration and settings are quite different.
A word on the Ruler archetype design and colour psychology
The use of colour in your brand design instantly affects the emotions and moods of the people viewing your brand.
Planning out your brand’s colour scheme can be challenging. I have two practical tips for you: 1) I recommend using primary and secondary colours that contrast well and 2) not being afraid to break traditional colour schemes in your industry.
Corporate colour schemes tend to be minimal while creative brands can include more colours.
If you know your audience belongs to a certain culture, always consider the meaning of the colours you choose within the context of that culture.
Ruler archetype and typography
The Ruler brand fonts encompass refined serifs and classic script fonts, crisp, stately serifs and the regal font styles used for crests and monogram graphics.
They often have minimal flourishes, with detailing that feels consistent, refined and thoughtfully structured.
Overall, Ruler brand’s typography should produce a feeling of effortless elegance, sophistication and stability. We often see a cropping or overlapping effect to create graphic interest or add a powerful edge.
Ruler archetype and photography
Ruler photography is, above all, strong, refined, and sophisticated. Choose crisp lines, strong framing, and elegant, curated settings.
The goal of this photography is to capture leadership and luxury.
Photos should be cropped to capture both the person and the curated setting. Shots can be taken from below to make them appear larger, more powerful and prominent in the photograph.
Photos can be black and white or texturally detailed. All props, clothing, hair and makeup should be carefully selected to create a feeling of refinement.
Interesting details should be pre-prepared and thoughtfully curated. Take time to preselect beautiful buildings, rooms and objects, rather than adding them as effects in post.
To create a more dynamic effect, consider interesting crops. For example, try cropping the top of the face to focus on the clothing, jewellery and objects. Capture dramatic buildings or spaces with structural beauty and regal architectural details. Arrange a perfectly stacked set of books, then crop them at a dynamic angle. For humans in the photo, seek to add an air of mystery or untouchable quality. For example, a woman might be beautifully dressed with half of her face covered by her hat.
Ruler archetype and brand messaging
The Ruler brand voice is authoritative, confident, expert, proud, and matter-of-fact.
Their voice says: “I know what to do. I’ll show you how by giving you rules to follow.”
Branding with the Ruler archetype – Practical tips
Here are actionable tips to bring your Ruler brand to life with visual storytelling techniques.
Tips for showcasing your Ruler brand on Instagram
- Curate a visually rich and elegant Insta feed that reflects the prestige of your Ruler brand.
- Use high-quality imagery and polished visuals to suggest sophistication. Attention to detail is crucial for a Ruler brand.
- Feature success stories of clients or influencers who have achieved greatness with the help of your brand. Highlight achievements they’ve accomplished with the help of your brand.
- Position yourself as an authoritative figure in your industry. Share valuable insights, thought leadership, and expert opinions to establish your brand as a leader.
Curious to discover your Brand Archetype? Start by taking this quiz to uncover your Core Motivator.
Pass the Salt, founded by Elise Elliott, is a branding studio devoted to shaking up brand strategy, design and creative direction for entrepreneurial dreamers, doers and shakers who smirk at rules and high-five at the adventure of exploration.
Elise’s branding framework helps clients find language for their authentic business identity, connect with their dream audience and find greater ease in their business.
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