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!

Coyote Hills Elementary Logo

A while back my friend, Brandi reached out to me about creating a new logo for the elementary school where she’s a teacher. It just so happens to be the same elementary school where both she and I were students back in the 1980s. The school district made some big changes last year, and one of them included a new name for our old school and I was asked to help them with a new logo.

It has been such fun to be part of the process to rebrand MY elementary school.

They had students submit hand-drawn concepts for the logo and the school committee (made up of teachers and the principal) chose one as a conceptual starting-off point for me. That drawing involved a howling coyote with beams of light in a circle around it. The landscape I created in the background is a portion of Coyote Hills Regional Park that the school is named after. I grew up hiking in those hills and going there on field trips!

It was a fun process taking that student’s artwork and turning it into a professional logo and I’m really happy with the final concept. I sent them multiple versions of this logo in one color, two colors, and three colors. That way they have multiple options in the event they want to print on t-shirts or make stickers.

Thanks so much for this fun opportunity!!

Maryland Oral Surgery Associates - Branding

A while back I got an email from a PR firm that had a client looking to rebrand for their 50th anniversary in business as an oral surgery practice with eight locations in Maryland. They had already been working with a graphic designer who didn’t seem to get the vibe they were going for. They were able to share audio recorded meetings that I could listen to and it was clear to me the designer didn’t understand what they wanted. I don’t mean to bash that other artist. We all have clients from time to time who we struggle to “get”. It’s not always easy for clients to clearly convey what they are looking for too. It takes a lot to admit this and to tell a client that maybe they need to find a different designer for their needs.

I was thrilled to work with this business and I am really happy with how the final artwork turned out.

I created a second version that has the “celebrating 50 years” banner removed for when their 50th anniversary year is over.

New Look!

I mentioned a while back that it usually takes me a long time to design a logo for myself. I think I went six years once with the same logo simply because I didn’t know what I wanted to do next. I made a new logo in 2018, and I felt ready for something new again in 2020.

Here’s my new logo; nice and simple. I’m kind of loving it.

The past few years have brought a little bit of a shift in the focus of my work; focusing more on contract work with companies and branding. I have reorganized the artwork on my website to focus much less on event invitations and party stuff. I am still happy to create that stuff, but it’s no longer my main focus. It turns out that creating a logo for myself kind of goes hand in hand with figuring out what the focus of my work is. I have been tremendously lucky to get to contract with a couple of amazing companies in the last few years and I really love the work.

I printed my business cards with Overnight Prints and I love how they turned out.

In addition to this refocus, I have always had watercolor as a part of my life, so it was fitting for it to still be prominent in my logo. With the Covid-19 pandemic forcing us to cancel travel plans, I took to my painting to virtually escape to the places I had hoped to visit and I built a little branch of my business with it.

I started with creating a YouTube channel (with some serious encouragement from my oldest son) and I started posted timelapse videos of some of my paintings. From there I started having these paintings printed as stickers and, as of last week, they are now for sale. Click HERE to see what I have for sale. I am going to try and get two more paintings done before the end of the year and then I’ll end my Utah’s Public Lands Series and look at starting a different series; or I may just paint some of my favorite outdoor spaces. I already have a finished painting of Delicate Arch from Arches National Park, but I’m not sure if I want to do a series on National Parks. We’ll see.

One thing I do know, I want to eventually have high-quality prints available of these paintings. In January, it’s on my to-do list to research printing options and find out what it’ll take to have a limited number of prints made, maybe I’ll sign them, and what will be involved with shipping them to customers and make sure they make it there in good shape.

If anyone has recommendations on a printer, please share in the comments! Even better if they can print on paper that feels like watercolor paper.

Wild Utah Tours

Back in January, I created this watercolor painting of Babylon Arch for my friend Shanti and her Hiking My Way Retreats. She had it made into stickers and printed on her business cards and it’s a painting I’m still very proud of.

Cut to this summer, Shanti and her husband, Mark have gone full-force into building a tour business in southern Utah. Wild Utah Tours is your go-to for hiking and driving tours that promises to escape from the crowds. This pandemic has forced loads of people to flood our national parks; Zion National Park for sure. But Utah has a TON of amazing trails that aren’t inside Zion National Park. Shanti and Mark have scouted loads of amazing places to explore.

Hike to find millions-of-years-old petrified wood, shimmy through slot canyons, find petroglyphs and pictographs from Paiute or Ancestral Puebloan peoples, look for lesser-known sandstone arches and waterfalls, or run down sand dunes. They can create adventures for all ages and all abilities, half-days or full-days.

I had the pleasure of reworking the Babylon Arch artwork for them and we also created printed promotional materials to share around town. I’ve been told that postcards can be found at River Rock Roasting Company in La Verkin, UT where they have fantastic coffee and amazing pastries.

Two-sided postcards:

Two-sided rack cards. My son was looking for these at a hotel in St. George when we were there in October.

We created a two-sided postcard that fans could send to friends and family too.

Lastly, we created big car magnets for their vehicles. What a view, right?!

In addition to their tours, they also manage a handful of AirBnB properties in La Verkin, UT; which is a very central location to Zion National Park, Snow Canyon State Park, Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, Red Cliffs Desert Preserve, Sand Hollow State Park, and a ton of amazing recreation activities.

To add even more versatility to their offerings, they also have two trailers that you can rent! They’ll drop one of their trailers at one of a handful of local campsites or BLM land and you just show up to camp and explore!

Shanti and Mark are pros at showing off the beauty of southern Utah and doing their best to make it accessible to anyone who wants to visit. Please take a moment to check out their website and consider adding Utah to your list of travels. Even if you don’t consider yourself an outdoor adventurer, they will customize a trip for your abilities. Kids under 12 are free and they offer discounts for anyone who identifies as LGBTQ+ or BIPOC.

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: