A Cohesive Brand Vision | Gardenstore

I wanted to share some information about a recent re-branding project Mariah DeMarco did for Gardenstore, a retail shop featuring gardening supplies, flowers and plants, fresh-cut flowers, and a few home décor items in the mix. We’re delighted with this cohesive brand vision!

We were feeling unsatisfied with our current logo offering, and after talking it over among the Aeolidia designers, we realized that we would really like to go in-depth and take some extra research time to think about each small business and what could set them apart in the big picture.

Rather than just creating a logo, or designing marketing materials chosen from a list of options, our designers were longing to dream for our clients, coming up with things the shop owner may not have thought of or even realized were a possibility.

We wanted the freedom to treat each client’s business as if it were our own (with the client’s preferences and info in mind, of course) and see what we could come up with to make it amazing! Having the freedom to dream big for our clients is beginning to result in some special ideas that wouldn’t have happened with a checklist of deliverables (such as clients choosing from a list including business cards, letterhead, logo on a roll of stickers, etc.).

Our new Logo With Collateral package is a wonderful plan if you want to communicate a cohesive vision with all you do, especially if you have products that require packaging or a brick-and-mortar shop that could use some ideas that capture your business’ spirit!

Gardenstore logo

Mariah explained very well during the project why to think beyond just the logo itself when branding your company:

It’s important to note the difference between a logo and a brand. A logo is very important and you should love it! However, the logo is only the tip of the iceberg! We will carefully create a beautiful and powerful brand for you that begins with your logo, but includes all elements from the logo to the illustrations to things like the shopping bags you talked about. A lot of people want a logo mark (illustration) and think that they need one to stand out. However, consider Pepsi, Nike or Starbucks. They spend insane amounts of money on logos branding, yet you don’t see a shoe in the logo for Nike or a can of soda in the Pepsi logo, and Starbucks… well, they have a siren as a logo, which has nothing to do with coffee! Each of these companies have built successful brands though… How? By being different, memorable and by offering extraordinary product and service. When you create a logo, it’s not just the logo that customers are going to see, it’s the whole picture, your whole brand that will impact them. It’s a feeling that will be communicated through not only the logo, but the entire design, sense of style, and of course the service received once they contact you or visit your shop.

Logo With Collateral

“Collateral” is the tangible media you use to promote your brand. This package includes an in-depth phone conversation between you and your designer. You will let us know what makes you feel passionate about your business, so we can share in that feeling and create a full identity that will be strong, confident, cohesive, and truly you.

We will also get a feel for how you run your business, and how you interact with your clients, customers, wholesalers, etc., so we can look at the big picture.

Your designer will dream big for your brand, exploring marketing materials and packaging ideas that you may not have known were out there! A truly cohesive identity will be created for you, from logo, to print work, to packaging design, to fun extras.

You will be able to choose the concepts that you’d like to make real, and then we will spend some time researching and consulting with our printers to plan each aspect of your brand, and provide you with a full pricing list. We will place printing orders for you (and prepare files for your future re-orders), and soon your new brand will be coming your way in the mail.

What do you think?

Have you gone beyond your logo to design your full brand? What interesting extras have you included? Do you feel that there’s an area, such as packaging or website, where things are not as cohesive as you’d like? Are there any businesses out there that you admire for their branding?