That time you decided to work way over the agreed budget, because art!
The Sumack Loft Studio.
We are very fortunate in our little neck of the woods to have a really great studio tour, The Crown & Pumpkin, which celebrated its 20th year in 2016! I’ve known the organizers casually for years since I generally visit their studios every year during the tour, but this year I decided that it was time to step out of the old comfort zone and participate in the tour myself.
Once I’d met with the group and joined the organizing committee, we agreed that it was crucial to evaluate and update the tour’s brand and marketing materials as things had become a bit disorganized over the last few years. We came up with a workable budget for me to do so, with me offering my standard not-for-profit discount.
Crown & Pumpkin – New Logo (left)
As with most brand updates, we needed to start with the logo, which has always been a pumpkin with a crown for obvious reasons, and we didn’t want to mess with that; but what I wanted to accomplish was to simplify the design, and to blend the two elements in a more cohesive way than was the case in years past. You can see the results in the image above – the new logo on the left and the outgoing logo on the right.
The new visual identity is clean and uncluttered while retaining a better connection with the old graphics traditionally associated with the tour. The crown is still a crown and now appears to also be the vine on the top of the pumpkin. I also helped out by producing a new, more eloquent tagline — Wander, Savour, Collect — which aptly describes what the tour is all about: wandering the back roads, savouring the fall colours, and collecting beautiful and innovative artwork and artisanal wares.
Next up was the complex and information-heavy brochure which gets produced every year; this is the foundational tool for both the tour’s marketing, and for actually navigating the stops in the tour. It’s crucial for tour-goers to be able to find what they’re looking for at a glance while being able to get a quick informative preview of what each stop has to offer in terms of wares.
Crown & Pumpkin Brochure (click for larger view)
A careful grid was developed, clearly displaying every studio’s contact details along with a spot for each artisan’s key information and a photo of their wares, overlaid on an alluring autumnal background to add texture and visual interest. See the image above for a glimpse of the inside of the brochure (and click on it to open up the full page).
The whole project was a wonderful collaboration between myself and the three key organizers, one of whom was nice enough to provide me with a pretty amazing testimonial, which you can see up on my testimonials page.
I went way over budget on this one, but you know what? I didn’t care. For me it turned into a labour of love. I’ve always cherished our little tour and it made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside to bring the look and feel of our promotional materials up a few notches. All for the greater good, right? Oh! I almost forgot! If you want to actually see my personal work, you can see it here on my new fine art page!
Give me a call if you’d like to chat about how we can work together to develop your new brand and marketing materials. I can help make the process simple and effective.
Deely Beloved – Artwork by Auni Milne (click for larger view)
Sumack Loft 