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Archive for June 2010
Is this not the cutest idea for a birth announcement? Love the originality of the design thinking!
First seen in the French Paper sample room.
This identity for NYC optician Silver Lining is just gorgeous. Elegant, sophisticated and the B&W is just so classic. And look how well it translates into a little icon for eyewear. I would love to execute a script-based, hand-lettered kind of logo… just need the right client! Any takers?
First seen on Graphic ExchanGE. If anyone knows the designer, I’m happy to credit!
Form & Function designs and builds furniture for keeps. Located in my hometown — Vancouver, BC — this retail operation is masterminded by Jack and Susan McCullough. Jack looks after operations and Susan is an incredibly talented designer.
When they contacted me, about a year had gone by after they had lost much of their inventory in a devastating fire. But – they had re-located, re-built and were ready for a visual identity re-fresh! We started off by taking a hard look at their logo. Here’s what they had been using:
And you know, it wasn’t terrible. But it was completely lacking in the qualities they wanted their brand to communicate: custom design, fine manufacturing and style! So we spent some time working on type choice (we went with Bembo, Perpetua and Meta); we gave some thought to harmonious letter spacing, and we chose a colour that reflected Jack & Susan’s love of cherry wood. Here’s the final logo:
Much better! Next we tackled an update for their website. It used to look like this:
Now it looks like this:
We have plans to build it out; but for now it’s a simple landing page that is more effective at describing what they do, and how they do it.
We designed some new business cards:
And a brochure (the first one they’d had in a long, long time! And it’s a tri-fold, so imagine it folded if you please):
We also did some notepads for in-store notations:
And a suite of advertisements for Canada’s leading daily newspaper, The Globe and Mail:
Jack & Susan have been such a pleasure to work with. If you are ever looking for a beautiful piece of furniture made right here in Canada — and built to last — please do think of Form & Function. You won’t be disappointed!
Summer just will not get itself to my part of the world. We are not experiencing June; we are experiencing Jun-uary. Blech. Cloudy skies. Rain. Cool temperatures.
Since the weather isn’t putting me in a summer frame of mind, I’ve chosen to turn to the runways for a little seasonal inspiration. Here are some of the looks that caught my eye from the recent resort collections.
Bottega Veneta (when I win the lottery, I am dressing exclusively in this line — Thomas Maier is a genius)
Rachel Roy
Jason Wu (I pretty much never met a stripe I didn’t like)
Carolina Herrera
Michael Kors
Yigal Azrouel
Stella McCartney
Lela Rose (see? stripes!)
Derek Lam
All images from Style.com.
I’m so excited to tell you about Julie! She’s an Omaha, Nebraska-based photographer who focuses on portraits and weddings. She’s kind of goofy, kind of introspective… and more than a little committed to expressing herself through her photography. She is also committed to helping her clients tell their stories through her images. I guess that’s why we connected so well – we both love to express ourselves visually!
When I asked Julie what she wanted in a visual identity, she told me “I want people to see I love my work, my clients… and to just see happiness. I’m a true romantic and I want them to see love. My work is my art and they allow me to speak through them.”
I always start the creative process by reading every word (and I mean every word) my clients have posted on their blogs/sites… and looking at every image. And I can tell you – Julie is not just a true romantic; she is unabashedly romantic. And that’s the theme we ran with as we developed her new look.
Here’s the logo:
Yep. Purely, unaduleratedly, unabashedly romantic (but not overly Victorian). And of course there is some symbolism in the shapes: a circle (which is all about connection and wholeness but could also give a very vague idea of a camera lens) and a feminine frame (which is bursting from the circle… the way the beauty and emotion of her clients bursts from her images). The colours are inspired by her photography: an earthy, purple-y grey and a golden tan.
Once the logo was final, we could start implementing the visual identity across a whole suite of marketing materials. Here are her biz cards (photo courtesy Julie Branyan Photography):
Her blog “before”:
And her blog now:
[BTW: Julie doesn't have a portfolio site; her blog is an all-in-one, which is a great solution for her. She uses the same ProPhoto WordPress template that many of my photographer clients use. It's great and highly customizable!]
Here is her greeting card:
and her DVD packaging (although she actually uses a square case… so Julie, if this looks a little different it’s just ’cause I had to accomodate the rectangle case of my template!):
And of course we did some brochures! One for weddings:
And one for portraits:
Julie has told me she loves her new look (you can read her thoughts on her blog, here). She has also received tons of positive feedback on the change, which is wonderful. Thank you, Julie, for letting me help you tell your story. I have so enjoyed working with you!
Today I’m grooving to the sweet sounds of Minnutes (thx to a heads up from Josh at Solar Photographers). You can click on the album cover to hear them for yourself, over on YouTube.
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