UPDATE: August 2010
Here are a few images from behind-the-scenes to tell the story of how we created a look and feel for a cafe about to open in September in Seattle.
We start with a collection of images to define the “look and feel” in the early stage of the branding process.
A design isn’t complete until it’s worked out at various scales.
A short, concise statement that’s for internal use summarizes the brand essence. Row House is a place where people can “just be.”
Some color selections.
Also fun to try out a few colors, keep things fresh and interesting for different applications.
Original post
One of our coolest projects to date is branding this startup cafe in Seattle.
A dream gig for the likes of Design Kompany, since Akira and I each purchased fancy lattes in the Emerald City daily for six years.
Erin Maher of The Maher Company found us on the Internet, reading this website.
This is the logo design we created after talking with her about the kind of image she wanted her new brand identity to evoke. We’ll have fun with the color palette and arrangements of the typeface, brush lettering, and imagery—they can be applied in all kinds of ways to posters, menus, signage, maybe even t-shirts and mugs down the line.
Our first meeting was through Skype, and many subsequent ones, too, until Akira flew to Seattle to see how the Row House’s construction was coming along. He also got to sit down in person with Erin to talk strategy for social media marketing channels, and what that even means. This icon is for the Twitter feed.
At our first meeting with Erin, we hit it off right away. She was looking for a name and asked us right then if we could throw out some ideas. We chatted a little through our questionnaire about why, how, and what the cafe was going to do, and who it would be for. No one knows this with 110% assuredness when we first meet them, well, with the exception of one person in Ireland who floored us with the depth of marketing research he’d done for his daughter’s restaurant and bar in West Cork. (He worked for a London agency for a long time. He also liked what we made. Two awesome facts.)
Lots of brainstorming on both ends led to “Row House Cafe,” a name we all felt was direct and to the point and not trying to be something smart or fancy. Too much of that happens these days. Everybody knows what I’m talking about if I say, “You know. Those pictures of sunny white people with their laptops on their expensive couches grinning away on those banners.” Ick!!! Who really lives like that! They make me want to throw tomatoes. No, not really. Well, kind of.
Then there’s the ultimate corporate: Starbucks. I only went to Starbucks three times in Seattle. The first time was my first day. The second time was to meet a lawyer whom we never worked with. And the third time was because I had to find a student who wanted to interview DK for her class project and the only place we knew in common at Westlake Plaza was that massive Starbucks (the one I went to on my first day in Seattle.)
No.
No more Starbucks.
There are other options.
Like the lovely, about to open next month, Row House Cafe. Check it out, y’all.
Row House Cafe
Minor and Republican
South Lake Union
Opening in August
http://www.rowhousecafe.com
@RowHouseCafe
A Wordpress blog web site for Row House Cafe.
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