The moment I sat down with Liz Reed to discuss a logo design for her new venture, I knew this would be a fun one. Liz has an infectious smile, a bubbly personality and the design sense to match. She was looking to have a logo created for her new life coaching business and wanted something that was as personable, approachable and down to earth as she is. Before I even left the meeting, my initial thought was “script.”

Of course I couldn’t do all of the initial designs in a fanciful flowing font, so I crafted a few options that felt really different from each other. Liz liked both the script as well as the speech bubble designs, and after showing a few trusted friends and a good night’s sleep, the script design was the clear winner.

Liz wanted to see her new choice worked in a few different ways. Was there a way to make it a little more gender neutral? I tried a few options, and worked a little logo magic on the script until we were both happy with the design.

We then met in person to decide on the final colors for this peppy design. We picked out a beautiful teal, a sunshine yellow and the perfect grey tone to pull it all together. I love the way this unique logo came together, and I know Liz is thrilled to start showing it off.

One of my very first projects when I joined the team at emilie inc. was the logo redesign for Mark Davidson. Mark is a North Shore based wedding photographer whose crisp images capture the moment perfectly. Mark really wanted to rebrand himself with a more modern mark that embodies his easy-going yet professional personality as well as the seaside charm of coastal New England.

Creating a logo is a process, and one that requires a lot of back and forth feedback. The first round of logos I designed look great on paper, but they didn’t capture the simplicity and candidness Mark was after. Back to the drawing board!

With some creative feedback, I jumped into a second round of logos that felt a little more refined. A few designs screamed seaside charm, while the others merely hinted at it.

In the end, a well thought-out type treatment was the obvious winner. I then sent Mark some Pantone color chips in the mail so we could decide on the final colors for his mark. We decided on a clean khaki complimented by a ocean grey. In the end we attained a simplistic logo that will always allow Mark’s photos to be the center of attention.

Creating an invitation from scratch is always a process, and with Jeanna’s happy spirit and positive energy it was a pleasure working on this one! We went back and forth with a plethora of ideas. We started with toile, and came up with a cute set incorporating the vintage and modern look the couple had suggested they wanted, but it turned out they thought toile was a little too old fashioned for their taste. We moved on to a series of designs ranging from a sea scape with a buoy and seagulls to a simple version with just text and some small motifs. The one thing that remained consistent was the navy and crimson color scheme. We settled upon a nautical theme incorporating stripes, a custom designed logo and a lobster and carried these throughout the whole trousseau. Each piece was letterpressed onto a pillowy paper giving the thick blue stripes a distressed look – perfect for this seaside wedding.

We designed this little tag (my favorite piece of the trousseau!) with their logo that was tied around each invitation set. Each set included an invitation, reply card and envelope and an information card. A correspondence card was also designed – perfect for thank you notes after the wedding!

If this eye candy leaves you wanting more – not to worry! We have yet to print the remaining pieces that will be present the day of and we will be sure to post that in the weeks to come! So stay tuned!

Creating a cool logo and brand, of course, was of the utmost importance so we began by talking about what Emilie was looking for. Her description: something clean, business-like and possibly with a flourish, but not too feminine.

When I start any project, especially a logo, I open a blank document in Adobe Illustrator and I start writing the name of the business or entity over and over, trying new fonts and different spacing.  My ideas usually spill beyond the confines of the page and I sometimes have 3 or 4 pages full of ideas. Each page is usually a mess by the time I am done with this initial process and there may be some pretty ugly designs on there as well! This initial design process can take me a few days as I hash out ideas, thoughts and try to be as creative as possible while sticking with the wants and needs of the client.

Here is a screen shot of stage one of the Studio 227 logo.

I usually try to do all of this initial work in black and white so as not to be influenced by colors that I may or may not like. I also usually present the logo to the client this same way. This usually helps someone look solely at the design instead of what they may or may not like in a color. If you hate the color orange, for example, it may be difficult to look past this when viewing a logo that is mainly orange. I usually will present somewhere between 2 and 4 designs to a client. Once the designs have been narrowed down a bit, then I will start to integrate color to help with the decision process.

I presented 4 logos to Emilie, but she she decided that none of them were perfect. We almost immediately ruled out #6 as it just didn’t get across the feel Emilie was looking for. She loved #7 but thought perhaps it was a little too feminine for the workshop series. #2 was a good option, but we thought that it was a bit dated. #4 was her favorite, but we still felt like it needed some tweaking. We moved the 227 around, changed the font and tried tweaking the letters of studio, which is ultimatly what did the trick! We loved the orange dot for the i as it vaguely resembles the i’s in the emilie inc. brand. #1 was winner after all of that tweaking, moving, resizing and reworking. Below you can see the final stages of the process for the Studio 227 logo, after going through these changes.

It is quite a process but in the end it is worth all of the time and effort to have the perfect logo that represents your business the way that you feel it should be represented.

Here is the final Studio 227 logo.

To see this logo in action or to find out more information about the workshop visit emilie’s blog here.

Over here at emilie inc. we take extra special care to ensure that everything we send out not only fits within emilie’s brand, but is oh-so-cute and fun to receive in the mail. So was the case for emilie’s latest mailing. These fabulous gifts (small folios showcasing two of the couples’ wedding photos) were sent out to all of Emilie’s 2009 wedding clients to say “happy new year”. We all decided that we all would have been have been thrilled to receive one of these gifts in the mail!

The item was great by itself, but we decided to add something extra to make the opening of this gift a little more fun! We started by having some tags custom cut to fit perfectly on top of the folios. Emilie picked a champagne flute design (quite fitting for the occasion) and we stamped it on to each tag in “emilie inc. pink.”

We tied them on to the folios using bakers twine that Emilie found in the perfect shade of “emilie inc brown.” Each folio was then wrapped in vellum and finished with an emilie inc. seal. Perfect!

We certainly hope that the brides who got these were as excited as we were to send them!

I met Jeanna, her mom and Tyler on a chilly winter morning in the emilie inc. studio to discuss wedding details and invitation ideas. Jeanna came totally prepared with magazine clippings for color, fabric swatches for pattern and a notebook full of other wedding necessities! It was a great first meeting and when we parted ways I was more than excited to get to work on their save the date. With their request for a ferry ticket in mind, I started by browsing the internet looking for actual ferry tickets, most of which I discovered, are not that interesting. So from there I decided to peek around at other types of tickets finding particular inspiration for this project from art museum tickets. Once I found my inspirations, I just started to play and came up with several variations to show Jeanna and Tyler. With little delay between correspondence we went back and fourth just a couple of times making small changes to color and wording until we ended with these, and I am in love!

Up next are their invitations which I can not wait to start designing! Stay tuned for all of the yummy details!

For me it means sitting down with a hot cup of coffee and my laptop preferably on a comfy chair, maybe with a cozy blanket and going through my favorite blogs. I have a few friends that keep personal blogs where they share their thoughts and tidbits from their day. I visit these blogs first. Then I check emilie’s blog (blog.emilieinc.net). She is one of the busiest and most talented people that I know, so visiting her blog is always a treat, not to mention inspiring!

Today I thought I would share my favorite design blogs. These are where I visit next and spend most of my time. I find that I can gain inspiration and energy from seeing all the amazing things others are doing all over the world – from photographers to designers and even craftspeople. I don’t always go to the same sites, but pop from one to another depending on the day.

Style me pretty • www.stylemepretty.com

Style me pretty is a fabulous wedding blog that is full of amazing photography, invitations and wedding inspiration. It is one that I frequent and is a great resource for anyone planning a wedding or anyone in the wedding industry.

Design Sponge • www.designspongeonline.com

Design Sponge is a great resource for cool design. This blog features trends in fashion and home design, product and graphic design, plus they also feature amazing artists. It really runs the whole gamut, and is perfect for a morning read or a shot of inspiration.

Oh Joy • ohjoy.blogs.com

Oh joy was started and is run by Joy Deangdeelert Cho – a graphic designer herself. She even has a line of gorgeous stationery! The Oh Joy blog covers inspiration & design with a focus on home accessories, textiles, and fashion. She has great taste and it is always a pleasure catching up on whatever she is writing about!

So these are just a few, that you will likely see me reference  along the way. They are a great way to start the day – especially for me as a designer, but would also provide great inspiration to anyone planning a wedding!  When you get the chance have a visit and Enjoy!