Evolution of a Brand: Cari Hollis

Cari has been a dear friend of mine for more than a decade and, funny enough, we were friends long before we ever met in person. We “met” on an online, wedding-planning forum. We got married within a few months of each other and formed a friendship with a large group of women. She started her photography business shortly after her wedding and she asked me to design a logo and branding for her. We finally got to meet when I hired her to shoot some family photos when my oldest was about nine months old.

The flower motif and colors were inspired by the custom camera strap she found on Etsy. We designed a bunch of logo variations, business cards, website buttons, and more. We even did gift certificates and advertising graphics for social media.

A few years later, Cari was ready to rebrand and she had NO idea what she wanted for her new logo. She had also added the role of a birth doula and birth photographer to her repertoire. We tried a lot of different concepts, color schemes, fonts, and graphics and, after a lot of back and forth, we finalized this design. This is still one of my favorite logos that I created for her.

After many years as an amazing photographer, she decided to hang up her camera and delve into a couple of different direct sales companies and social media consulting, and since they usually require you to use their pre-designed graphics, we went a different direction and branded Cari all on her own.

This way, her brand remained the same no matter what kind of business she was working on. The bokeh backgrounds paid homage to her background as a photographer.

Earlier this year we rebranded again. Cari wanted to keep the gardenia as a graphic element and we kept the typewriter font because it’s a favorite of hers. We went with the same color scheme for the most and will keep the bokeh backgrounds, but added new fonts and a watercolor motif too.

She hasn’t been able to update her website with her newer branding yet because she’s busy running Direct Creatives!

You can watch the TikTok video I made documenting how I created her new logo here.

I love how Cari maintains the same general color palette with the purple and aqua.

I’m curious where her branding will head next!

Flairly Social

My dear friend Cari started a social media consulting business, along with two friends, Britt and Monica, and I was honored to create a logo for them with this new venture. Flairly Social helps small businesses and direct sellers build a social media presence and a brand. Each of the colors on the three, intertwined circles represents one of the members of the business. It’s a simple logo, but I love how it turned out.

Here’s their business cards:

I created a custom, printable calendar that they can give away to clients and fans.

Lastly (for now), I created a handful of backgrounds that they can use on their website and when creating social media posts. Here’s a sampling of what I made for them:

Juliana's 5th Birthday

Juliana had a sweet party at a petting zoo for her 5th birthday. Her mom, Kelly really didn’t want to do a cowgirl or a farm theme, so we created this cute invitation with lots of farm animals and a lovely photo of the birthday girl herself.

I hope your party was lots of fun Juliana, happy birthday!

Bev and Jon

My dear cousin Bev got married to Jon a year ago this week and I was honored to create their wedding invitations. They were planning to use lavender as one of the primary flowers, so we used a lavender design on the printed items for the big day. Here’s their invitation:

They invitations were printed at my local Office Depot and backed with metallic card stock in the color Violette from Cards & Pockets.

Invitations were mailed in metallic envelopes in the Light Amethyst color from Cards & Pockets. As a surprise to Bev and Jon, I had a custom return address stamp made with Kelly from Hello World Stamps. This one got a little smudged, but it was my last of the purple envelopes!

*That’s not their address anymore, which reminds me that I need to have a new stamp made.

We also made a sign for the front door of the wedding venue, it was backed with the same Violette card stock as the invitations:

For favors, they stuck their favorite candies into lavender mesh bags and included mini bottles of liquor, yum! We created a sticker for the tops of the mini mason jars.

Lastly, Bev’s stepdad is a winemaker and bottled a bunch of his Old Vine Zinfandel for the wedding and asked me to design a custom label as a surprise to Bev and Jon. I love how it turned out!

I love how everything turned our for your beautiful wedding, congrats on your first anniversary!!

Charlee's Dinosaur 3rd Birthday

Charlee loved dinosaurs and wanted a dino-themed party when she turned three. Her mom Sarah was more than happy to oblige! This was such fun to work on. Here's the invitation:

The invitation was sized a little short so Sarah could adhere pink sparkly party hats on the dinosaur. I love how these turned out!! 

We also made a map that showed the dinosaur park where the party was taking place and how close it was to Charlee's house. But I'm not going to share that image since it's not something I'm going to share publicly. Trust me, it was cute.

Happy happy birthday Charlee!! 

Katie's 7th Birthday

Katie's mom, Angie and I brainstormed some theme ideas for her 7th birthday party. Katie wasn't really set on a specific theme so it was up to us. Katie loves a group of books titled Groovy Joe, so we decided on a disco dance party. While I couldn't actually use images of Groovy Joe himself, I did use a pretty groovy pink disco ball and we had fun with the graphics. 

Address and rsvp info changed to protect privacy.

Of course, AFTER these were printed, we realized we should have called Angie "DJ Spin Master Ang" or something equally hilarious. 

As a fun party favor, Angie made these VIP passes for all of Katie's guests to wear. I LOVE how they turned out.

I may or may not have been wearing this VIP pass around my house the other day. 

Happy, happy birthday Katie! I hope you disco dance party was a blast!! XOXO!

Halloween Cootie Catcher

Last year I created this Halloween-themed cootie catcher and I put it up on Mama Say What?! as a free download. It's also for sale in my Etsy shop for a few bucks, but if you're a follower of Mama Say What?!, then you know where you can get it for free. 

I wanted to go a little more colorful than the standard black and orange usually associated with Halloween, and I love to find excuses to use purple where I can. 

My seven-year-old was happy to play with it so I could snap a few photos. He's asked if I can create one for his birthday that showcases all of his favorite things. I might just have to do that!

Happy Halloween!!

Emily's Birth Announcement

I had a blast creating the invitations and printed items for my dear friend Cari's baby shower. I also had the privilege of creating a Sip n See invitation for Cari and her husband too. Creating a birth announcement for Miss E after she was born was a real treat.

Having gorgeous newborn photos made it all that much more fun. Newborn photography by Infiniti Foto.

I loved filling in all of the stats and features for little Miss M.

For the back I created this photo collage, inspired by one I saw on Minted.com to showcase all of the great photos. I love how it turned out!!

Welcome to the world Emily!!