Smooches Gray Scale and Black/White

Here is the Smooches logo redone in Gray Scale and Black/White. I'm leaning more towards the black and white one. The gray scale still kind of throws them the whole dynamic off to me while the black and white one seems perfectly balanced.

Stationary Samples

Over the weekend I took some time to look up some examples of some unique stationary.  Here are some of the things that I found and actually liked.

I also went to Office depot to take a look at some promotional kits and to Hobby lobby to look at scrapbook paper patterns that fell in line with my color scheme.  Thought maybe they'd give me an inspiration for cover letter paper, envelopes, etc.  I was pleased w/ what I found.

Smooches Sweets Logo

The Black/White and Color version

Color Choices

Here are the final 3 color choices. The one I liked the best is plainly circled in green :)

I like the lighter color cupcake and between those two, the lighter colored cherry on top. The contrast isn't too harsh and the chef hat doesn't get lost.

Word Semantics Post

Here are the fonts that I chose to represent the words Shape, Form, Function, Colo, Sculptural, Sexy and Powerful respectively.  I listed  the typeface name either beside or under them.  If an origin is not listed it came standard on my computer. 

Shape: I chose the typeface for shape because I felt like the letters were all fairly geometric in form and resembled actual shapes vs. letterforms.

Form: I chose the type face for form because I felt like as a stencil, the letters take whatever form you put them in. Maybe a little out of them box as far as the thought process but hey *shrugs* I went there. 

Function: I liked this typeface for function because I felt like the little modules in the words were all coming together to help the individual letters "function" and therefore the word function as a unit. It looked kind of sci-fi or like something you'd find channeling thorough your hard drive

Color: The typeface for color looks like it was written with a crayola marker and i can just imagine it being written in several different colors

Sculptural: The typeface just looks like it's shifting from one form to another an has literally been hand crafted and carved.  As a unit it looks like a sculpted piece. 

Sexy: I chose this typeface for sexy because I liked the boldness of the S but the simple and understated-ness of the rest of the word. Sometimes sexy isn't always big and in your face. Sometimes it's just prissy enough to catch your attention and confident enough to stand on it's own and not be overshadowed by everything else around it. I feel like this typeface does that.

Powerful: This isn't a bold Sans-serif, bit an even stroked serif in all caps. Yet it's still loud, strong and (to me) reads power. 

More logo development

Here is my logo as I picked and chose which ones I wanted to use (w/ the help of Stan, Kat and classmates). You can see where I narrowed it down and now where I'm in the final stages and trying to decide which colors I want to use. 

              

The Belk Make-Over

I don't know if anyone shops at Belk department store.  I can't say that I do.  Most of the time I'm tagging along with my mother and aunt on their shopping escapades hoping I'll see something cute in their "wanna-be junior but still kind of teeny-bopper junior section" (and sometimes they have nice accessories and shoes). Well I was riding through Fayetteville Pavillion one day and I couldn't help but notice that the Belk storefront had undergone a change.  This was mainly because the classic Belk logo was no more. It'd been re-designed. 

Here are a couple images of the old Belk logo and some of the new Belk logo.

Belk even adopted a new tagline to match their new sleek, modernized logo.  They kept the blue coloring and varied the hues using even sans serif vs. a varied sans serif. It took me a little getting used to but I like it. It's a good look for 2010.

The old store front vs. The new store front

 

What do you think??

Back to my roots

Before I ever did any graphic design work my heart was in 2D. Here are some examples of some of the work I did. I don't really remember the time frame.

Mood Board

Fonts and swatches that I am considering.

Pictures that I used for inspiration when designing my logo and thinking about future branding aspects and other logos that I looked at to get idea.   Mainly to see how bakery and pastry shops presented themselves.  

        

Creative Brief

Project Overview/Background

The purpose of this project is to re-design/re-brand an already existing and successful company/business. Preferably a "mom and pop" or business that isn't a chain.  During the process of this rebrand, I as a designer will create a new logo for the company, stationary, an  ad to promote their business and whatever other special projects are assigned.  I chose several different places to start with ranging from restaurants, a clothing store, a print shop and a gym, all of which I encountered on a daily basis as I traveled about a normal day.  After doing research on each, weighing pros and cons about how I could potentially expand upon them and which ones actually captured my interests, I narrowed down my decision to two places: Smooches-Sweets by Elece, an in home bakery owned by a friend of mine located in Jonesboro, GA and Maximum Output Fitness a small gym located in Peachtree/Fayetteville, GA.  After conducting further research, I finally settled on Smooches. 

Target Audience

Smooches is  your neighborhood bakery.  It's that place that you visit because you went a birthday party/wedding reception/ or special event tasted the cake (or whatever the particular pastry may have been) and went "OMG! This is good. Where can I order it for my event.  The target audience are your grandparents-- because their 50th wedding anniversary is next weekend, your little sister --because she's turning 5 and adores Dora the Explorer, a Women's Club who needs petit fours and other breakfast pastries for their annual tea.  I want Smooches to branch out to men and women of all ages who simply enjoy (affordable) good, homemade cakes and confections.

Tone/Image

I want Smooches to be warm and welcoming.  Because her cakes are still at the moment homemade I want there to be a soft feel to the bakery but still a flair and sass that will remind you that you've arrived at Smooches.  I know I want to use some pinks and browns, but I also want to use some other accenting colors that will make them pop. 

Messages

 A lot of bakeries that do specialty cakes and special pastries scream "high end" and "expensive".  I want Smooches to maintain and homemade feel that also says that its welcoming and affordable.  Smooches will remind you of your grandmother's kitchen with a slightly new edge flavor to it. The Chef puts a lot of time and effort into all of her confections while maintaining a air of professionalism and sweet sass and  I want that to come across in every aspect of Smooches. Perhaps a tagline like "Sweeter than a Kiss" or something along those lines. 

Work In-Progress

Some of the sketches I've been doing in and out of class

My Client

At first I was going to do Maximum Output Fitness.  Judging by their website I had all kinds of plans to promote ads and gym packages based on their services and the overall benefits of fitness in general.  However, after visiting the gym I discovered the website was outdated and under the control of the previous owner who refused to turn it over (draaama!).  The gym itself didn't seem to have much going for itself and to set up a meeting with the current owner would put me off track.

Soooo, I decided to go with Smooches-Sweets by Elece.  I am looking forward to working with this client as she is a good friend of mine and her business as a pastry chef is very successful and she has a lot good material to work with.  Not to mention I have had the pleasure of sampling her culinary work and she is a very talented.

This is her current logo: 

These are examples of some products she already uses-- pastry/cake boxes and a price list for her cakes, cupckaes, etc...

My friend, the Owner and Chef at a site selling her products.

Some of my Design Work

Here are a couple of things I did last semester that, in my opinion were some of my best work.

Below is the logo I did for myself.  I composed it by writing out my initials in my own unique script and out of all my sketches this is the one hat actually stuck. I like the black (and white logo the best) because visually it is the strongest.  While I do like the color logo, the outer blue stroke isn't quite working for it and I have yet to find replacement colors. A work in progress I suppose. Aren't we all?

Next is my event poster.  I chose to do it on the A3C hip hop festival.  The event was a huge annual hip hop concert that spanned a weekend and featured tons of underground and big name hip hop artists alike.  I am a fan of hip hop so it was a lot of fun to complete this project and it was especially fun to complete it using a picture of one of my friends who is a rapper.  I think it turned out pretty well.  My favorite project of the semester.



Last but not least was the Package re-design project.  A big challenge because my actual product was large and covering it was painstaking, but the actual redesign was cool.  After all, who doesn't love Krispy Kreme.  I liked that I was able to put a modern spin on such a timeless product, and consuming the product didn't make it all that bad either.