Thursday, August 14, 2008

The Journey to a Logo and a New Look  

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Pink and Brown are my favorite colors, so I chose them for my business (banner, avatar, business cards, website, etc)...it was all pink and brown. The problem arose when I belatedly realized that that much pink might be a turn off to potential customers, especially moms and dads of boys, and well, dads in general. And the closest thing to a logo were the hand prints I had put on my banner and avatar in photoshop (I used photoshop, much tears were shed, but they turned out well at the end of it) which I then had included on my business cards and cloth labels for my products. Because hand prints scream baby, right, haha, not so much I realized. It is important to me that people look at my branding efforts and know at least generally what they will find in my shop/booth/website. So the obvious answer became...remodel, intensively remodel.

I made this decision just about three weeks before Showcase Tacoma, where I was to sell my goods August 8-9 (which I did, and had a great time). So, I shopped around on etsy, hired a brilliant designer to do a logo, banner, avatar, business card, etc etc etc. I was super excited...until this question showed up in my inbox: "So, what would you like your logo to be (what main element/image)?" (paraphrased). I had falsely assumed the graphic designer would do it all...but really, my input was needed, which makes sense since a logo is so personal, and also so public (it could, foreseeabley represent one's company forever). So I started thinking and decided to stay with the hand print. Once I received a proof, I realized a hand print was just not going to cut it; it really doesn't represent my products, or my core beliefs about parenting and baby products. She agreed, I gave her an idea, and she was going to work on it. Status: Still no real progress and only a week and a half until the show.

After not hearing from the designer for a while, I asked my husband to doodle some logo ideas and he came up with one I love (the one that now represents CheyLoCreations)! I really liked that he had drawn it too, it fits with our family run business model. So I passed on the idea to my designer, she liked it, and we were going to move forward. More time passes. Several frantic emails later, it turns out she had a family emergency and was unable to finish by my deadline. I totally understood, thanked her for her time, received my refund and began to absolutely panic. Status: Have a handdrawn logo that I have no way to edit, no banner, etc; Sunday the week of the show (Friday/Saturday show), and I need to be able to print new labels, business cards, etc all by Thursday. ANd of course I have my heart set on having it all done by the show.

This has some practical purposes. I did not want to hand out cards in the old style, then get everything redone and have people wind up a site that does not match at all; too confusing. So, I post in the etsy forums in a panic and find a wonderful woman willing to help. Sasserstrom Designs did a beautiful job bringing my logo to life, picked really cool colors, and was super patient, all for a great price and in a serious time crunch! I am so so so grateful!

So, it all got finished, I was able to redo my esty shop, and print the business cards in time for the show. I stayed up until 3am early early Friday morning in order to get my website redesigned and relaunched, and then was able to sleep for two hours, before waking at 5 am to shower and drive from my parent's house in Bellevue down to Tacoma for a 7am setup, with my wonderful husband and oh so helpful daughter, 11 month old Cheyenne.

It was a very stressful couple of weeks, but I ended up with what I wanted with a little (okay a lot) of help from my friends, and I think it turned out well. What do you think?

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