The Creative Muster Branding

February 11, 2015

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We are so excited to show off the branding project we did for the creative Laura Varsanyi. Laura fantastically coins herself as an “insatiable maker” and is from Australia! And yes, her accent is to die for. When she started having kids, she began hand making lots of items for them during nap time. She realized she had quite the knack for it and she could sell these one-of-a-kind, highly stylized products. That is when The Creative Muster Blog, the Online Shop and her craft supplies on Etsy was born. Her limited edition products are now found in Australian magazines and shipped all over the world.

Laura’s branding was tricky to figure out at first because her product style changes. Her drive comes from the creation of the product, so she only sells a few before she thinks up something new. So the question was, what do we brand?

My initial thought was to brand “her”, and the styles she personally loves, so no matter what product she is creating, the branding will always represent her as a person. We found that she loves everything classical. She wanted her shop to be a modern day, antique shop where you find one-of-a-kind trinkets and treasures. She was drawn to the color navy blue, high waisted pants, wallpapered houses, hand painted floral patterns and tailored dresses.

We loved this look, but found it a little problematic. We felt there was too much of a disconnect between it and her current neon and metallic plexiglass products.

We re-assessed and dug deeper. She was able to convey that it’s the juxtaposition of her classical roots with a flair of futurism that ignites her creativity. THIS was our golden nugget. We had found our direction… now just the challenge of creating something that married the quirky old style with the new and bold.

We started with a traditional color palette of navy blue, off-white, camel leather brown and pink. To add a jolt of opposition, we added a neon yellow for an accent color.

We then went to the drawing board (pun intended) and sketched our hearts out. We had asked her to give us a list of 10 icons/symbols that had meaning to her and her business, that we could possibly use as elements in her logo. Here is her list…

1. Hands 2. Sewing Needle and Thread 3. Light Bulb 4. A flower motif from Hungarian Kalocsa Embroidery patterns 5. Lightning Strike 6. A ruler – you can’t make anything without measuring 7. Creative Spark or Sparkle 8. Magic Wand 9. Treasure Chest 10. A cockatoo – they are really clever, crafty, funny and beautiful.

This gave us so many fun ideas to sketch with. Here are some of our preliminary sketches.

In the end, she was most attracted to the Hungarian embroidery inspired florals. They felt classic to her and we agreed we could simplify and abstract the flower shapes so individually they felt geometric and contemporary. We felt the added dotted bitmap texture was the perfect final touch as it made it feel aged with a futuristic patterning to it.

Ever since seeing the initial sketches, Laura had fallen in love with the idea of a cockatoo in her branding. We assured her the secondary logo was a perfect place to bring him in. She wanted a mark, with no words, that she could use on a sticker for her packaging. Here are the preliminary designs we came up with…

A few rounds of finessing and we arrived at the following for her final secondary logo.

She added on a sticker design and a thank you card to reinforce her brand through her packaging materials (something we highly suggest). This will set her apart from her competition and take her products to the next level.

We couldn’t be more happy with the final outcome of this very fun project. Thanks Laura!

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Morgan is a branding and marketing expert catering to small businesses and creative entrepreneurs all around the world.

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The Creative Muster Branding

February 11, 2015

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