A Dramatic Before and After for Sunbird Spark

Sharon Yeung started Penguin Palace (now Sunbird Spark) as spot to sell cute clear stamps, craft dies, and paper, but in 2020, she launched a unique tool that became the brand’s focus. The innovative Stencils 360°™ line became popular with her customers, and she began dreaming up other inventive products to sell. It became clear that this Vancouver, CA based craft business had outgrown its adorable branding.

“Our original branding doesn’t seem to be fitting anymore,” Sharon told us. “The logo has become too ‘cute’ since the launch of our stenciling 360 line in fall 2020.”

Drag the arrow on the image below to slide between the before & after!

A New Name

We decided that a complete makeover for Penguin Palace was in order, beginning with a new business name. Our copywriter Natalia was inspired by the Stencil 360°™, and more specifically, the way it moved. “The way color and motion came together to empower someone’s creative expression was in turn, very inspiring,” Natalia said. “It made me think of birds in flight.”

“I became curious about what kinds of birds are the most colorful in the world. That’s how I landed on Sunbird, which was so perfect, because the sun itself is all about radiance and energy.“

The idea of pairing the word Sunbird with the word Spark was a team effort. A group brainstorm to generate ideas, well, sparked the idea of using it in the name.

Sharon was looking for a name that was more refined than Penguin Palace, and one that didn’t feel overused with a lot of the words and terms we normally see in the crafting space. Natalia added, “Sunbird Spark stays true to her roots (both her names have birds in them) but it feels more elevated without being pretentious. It’s also so original and memorable that I think it’ll really help her not only stand out in the crafting space, but stand out in the way she aims to. It’s modern and sophisticated, so it’ll appeal more directly to her target audience and differentiate her brand in an authoritative way, which I think is important given she is the inventor and patent-holder on the original Stencil 360°™.”

Branding

Energized by Sunbird Spark’s elevated new name, our designer Christine went to work on creating a brand identity that spoke to the business’s target audience and differentiated itself from its competitors. After exploring several directions, she created a refreshing logo pairing friendly, modern type with an abstract sunbird icon.

Inspired by the act of making something with rubber stamps, the sunbird brandmark was created using simple shapes. The wing shape was repeated in 10-degree increments as a nod to the Stencil 360°™. “This gives the feeling of movement—that spark of an idea that spurs creativity,” Christine said.

The logotype was also carefully considered, Christine noted, combining whimsical curves with friendly boldness that will work well across the stamp and ink packaging and marketing materials.

Sharon fell in love with the logo instantly: “OMG, you absolutely nailed it! I really love the logo! It’s simple, yet modern and creative. I love the unique letters R and K. I especially love what you did with the bird’s wings! I think this new logo can attract both groups of customers that we talked about, it suits the brand well.”

To infuse joy and creativity throughout the rest of the branding, Christine added fresh type styles, a bright color palette, and cheery mid-century modern illustrations and patterns. The result is a modern brand identity that sets Sunbird Spark apart from its competitors who often use wispier, feminine, scrapbook style type and cute iconography. Because the branding is rooted all in simplicity, it will serve the brand well for years to come.

Website

With a shiny new name and brand identity ready to go, it was time to design and build a new website for Sunbird Spark. The old site reflected the brand’s cute aesthetic, but it lacked focus on making the products truly shoppable. Aligning with Sharon’s goal to increase her conversion rate and revenue, we decided to customize a theme with our UX best practices, ensuring that we were making the most of the latest Shopify features.

The homepage is well organized, with highlighted collections and products, client testimonials for social proof, and plenty of opportunities for storytelling. The site is responsive and web accessible. We infused the site with vibrant design details to keep customers scrolling, too.

On the product detail page, we added product upsells that help add to the average order value, shipping and returns information as trust indicators, and informational sections that help tell the brand’s story.

We also designed a page devoted to the Stencil 360°™ line. In this one-stop destination, customers, new and old alike, can shop all the 360 products from this page, learn how they work, hear from customers who have used and loved them, and access downloadable guides to the products.

I had a pleasant experience working with Aeolidia for my store rebrand and website redesign. I absolutely love our new logo! At first, I had to get used to the platform they used for most of the communication, but things went smoothly overall. They offer a support window after the new website goes live, which is helpful. I would recommend Aeolidia to anyone looking for a fresh update on their website.

—Sharon Yeung, Sunbird Spark

Sharon — and our entire team — was delighted with the outcome. You can view the complete case study in our portfolio.