BLUSH Cowork is a women-focused coworking space with childcare in Cary, North Carolina. Our FAVORITE part of the story? BLUSH founder, Alison Rogers, was the first employee yellowDog ever hired! Alison wants to create a coworking space that is inclusive and open to all with a focus on creating a safe and welcoming space for women to work, collaborate, achieve and flourish.
We were so excited with Alison called to say she needed help with bringing the BLUSH brand into the space. They had a logo and color palette and a blank canvas for offices and childcare area.
For this project, we made recommendations on paint colors and finishes throughout the space, including carpeting and paint for the door trim. We added paint in shapes that matched the prism in the logo. For the suite doors, we brought that same prism pattern in with translucent vinyl for privacy. Around the space, we installed signage for conference rooms, mission and directions.
It was a fabulous project and we love going to work in the space. We have met some great new work and personal connections! If you need a welcoming place to work AND have childcare, visit BLUSH Cowork. We hope you will love it too!
Packaging.
We were excited when Jessie came to us from Edge of Urge to create a new brand for all of her custom fragrances. I have been wearing Man Man for years, so it was the perfect fit! Getting to package a product you already love and use is a dream project!.
We did research on other fragrance brands and processes for the best way to make the labels work with these natural oils. Jessie loves brush marks so we chose a different mark for each scent. The contrast of the Edge of Urge logo with crisp san serif type makes for a statement package.
The brand has expanded into Jessie’s new stores— Renew and Unlikely Professionals — and also grown into wholesale accounts. We helped to create a system that can grow too. It’s easy to add new scents and products. We’ve translated the packaging to beard oil and jewelry cards for all of their unique finds— always keeping the Edge of Urge brand front and center in the black and gold.
Find your favorite scent at one of her great shops around Raleigh! Many of them are unisex and there is something for everyone.
Space as canvas. Bringing a brand into a space has to be my favorite part of this work. The logo is the brand introduction, the sign the handshake and the space is sort of that big brand bear hug.
I had the pleasure of working with Jeff and Thor as they started *literally* digging in to their project for renovating the space at 201 W. Martin Street in Downtown Raleigh. When we first met, the space was a blank slate with a big hump of cement in the middle of the dining area. Even with all of the dust and dirt, the space was breathtaking. The giant skylight provided the best light no matter how gray the skies or dark the days.
When I came on the project, the guys already had a logo [created by Paul Tuorto] and a solid visual brand on paper. My job was to translate this brand and feeling to the entire space.
It all started in the bathroom. We searched for sink ideas and came back with the same favorite. After that, it was on. Considering the diamonds and angles in their logo, we worked with these elements whenever making decisions — from glassware to table top designs. We worked for months on bar front designs, ordered many chairs for testing and sat at mock up banquette booths.
I worked with the team [including Lucas House from IronHouse Forge and Zach Sunderland from Haven Developers] to complete the project. The final piece, and my favorite part, was the mural that Taylor White created on the wall behind the bar. It’s a gorgeous piece of art that will surprise you with something new every time you sit at the bar.
I love taking friends and clients to the space— it’s a treat to sit inside or out — and they always bring the Brown YellowDog a bowl.
They’ve clearly made it work. Congrats to Jeff and Thor for winning the Restaurateur of the Year award with NCRLA just this month!!
If you haven’t been yet, GO! If you have, keep going!
Once upon a time I got asked to draw confections for a website project. That really DID sound like a fairy tale to me! When Daniel, chef and proprietor of lucettegrace, started his website redesign project, I was thrilled to be included in the design, photography and illustration process. While Sara [a.k.a. Snark Studios] was working in code and programming I was busy sketching on my iPad.
It was a fabulous experiment. Daniel loves seeing his work in sketches and I love sketching his work. As a former baker, I can appreciate these little works of art and the patience it takes for each and every piece. The best part? They taste even more delicious than they look. For the website, we decided to shoot photos that showed how beautiful the pastries were inside and out. That meant we got to try them all— hazard of the job— since we needed to shoot those forks full too!
I’ve come a long way… from the beginnings of our relationship when Daniel and I were in the same small business group and he wouldn’t share a peep of what he was planning… to getting to draw the goodies before they make it to the case! I love being just a small part of this neighborhood staple. And I’m not the only one on the block that loves lucettegrace. The #brownyellowdog is officially trained to look for yellow and gray boxes. No kidding. She knows exactly what kind of goodness she will find in them!
If I could draw food every day, I would. Here’s to making friends with neighbors.
Connecting communities to local food is something that I became passionate about while living in Northern Orange County. Farmers markets, yearly CSA boxes, blueberry picking and growing my own food became part of my everyday life.
When the NC Department of Agriculture and Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau came to me with an idea for an agritourism app — to connect communities to farmers and food right in their own backyard — I jumped at the opportunity.
We worked with Oak City Apps to build an app that featured farms and fisheries, U-pick farms, farmers markets, local goods, local food and beverage, tours and trails and special events throughout Orange County, North Carolina.
Fast forward to four years later and we now have an app that showcases these places in 25 counties across North Carolina. We are excited that during this challenging time we have been able to help even more people connect to much-needed food and resources in their communities and help them support local businesses, large and small.
It’s strawberry season! Download the app today and find a farm near you. If you don’t see your county represented, send us a note through the feedback button in the app. We are working to cover all of North Carolina in the app.
More information about the project can be found at visitncfarmstoday.com >
App is available for iPhone and Android phones. Search Visit NC Farms in the Apple App Store or on Google Play.
#visitNCfarms
Follow Visit NC Farms on Instagram.
Follow Visit NC Farms on Facebook.
Current counties featured in the app include: 52 counties and four State Farmers Markets are currently in the app. Other communities are gathering assets to come online.
Want to see your county or region included? Contact us and we can get the conversation started!
North Carolina. Grown. Raised. Caught. Made. Experienced.
Moving from paper to reality is one of our favorite things at yellowDog. One of our clients was moving on up and headed to Centennial Campus at North Carolina State University. When we first visited the space, we saw an under-construction blank canvas. Many drawing, research and Photoshop hours later, and we had an approved plan for installation.
We recommended paint colors for the entire space and worked with custom exhibit builder NeuConcepts to create a space that was a build out of the LexisNexis brand. The entrance to the space is all windows, so we attempted to use materials and shapes that reflect and change throughout the day. That includes cranberry Plexiglas tiles with mirror as backing and translucent vinyl on the waiting room interior windows.
Getting to work on a brand for someone you already love? The best. I’m kind of particular about who cuts my short, straighter than straight hair, so when Maggie and I met by accident (or not…) I immediately knew I was in good hands.
After writing Maggie’s contact for 30 plus strangers over the first year, I decided to make her life (and mine) easier. I painted her a painting and turned it into business cards. Since we printed them with Moo I was able to make her six different versions of the painting.
We are working on some more goodies. Stay tuned! And if you need a fabulous color and cut expert, contact Maggie! She is truly a genius!
In 2010, Triangle Community Foundation hosted the inaugural What Matters event. The assignment was to build a sub-brand for the Foundation that could be used for years to come. In this case, the tagline for the logo changes for each year they host the event.
One of our favorite things: creating a brand from scratch and applying it to print, web and spaces. We worked with the TCF Communications team to create save-the-date postcards, invitations, tickets, posters and stage signage for the event.
The bonus? We met the winner of the first Innovation Award, Kramden Institute and we've been donating design and computers to them ever since!
Retail store. Community gathering place. Local artist showcase. Downtown Raleigh.
We started this logo with a general feeling of the store's contents in mind and got to work on sketches. But that all changed once we looked at the future store space. We went back to the drawing board and tried to capture the exact feeling that Pam, DECO's owner, wanted. Pam is inspired by 1950s paper and prints and has always had a love for Art Deco, so we worked to combine these loves.
Once the advertising started, we needed a system to showcase all of the varied and sundry items that were in the store. [And if you've been in, you know there are always more and different things every time you go!] We created a black grid layout as a way to make unlike products feel cohesive. In addition, we worked on signage for the store, tags for boxes and bags.
Fast forward after a huge first opening year and social media takes off for DECO Raleigh. People can't help but snap photos and share when they are at the store. This is where we come in again, managing this monster of social media that has a life of its own. yellowDog helps DECO manage online presence. We rebuilt the original website to better suit the photographic nature of the store and really highlight social media and encourage the community feeling to carry through--online and off.
There isn't anything we love more than helping to launch new brands. New brands that mean more art in Raleigh? Even better!
We're excited to be a part of the team that launched the FLIGHT Fund. FLIGHT is a citizen-organized fund designed to propel creative urban projects. The model is simple:
- Private donations fuel the fund.
- Creative people apply for support.
- Grants are awarded.
- Cool things happen.
You can learn more about the FLIGHT Fund at FLIGHTRaleigh.org.
The North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center was created to serve the 85 rural counties across North Carolina. Each fall, the center hosted a forum to bring community leaders together to share resources, build networks and compare notes. We created a new logo and sub-brand for the event for three years.
Reimagine Rural was the theme that focused on youth engagement in rural areas, encouraging young people to stay or return to the places where they grew up to be leaders and involving youth in key community decisions. We created a save the date postcard, folder, youth resource guide by county and a brochure to showcase important data points.
Every year, Girl Scouts North Carolina Coastal Pines celebrates National Girl Scout week, along with Councils across the country. Modeled after spirit week, each day has a special theme and activity.
We loved drawing these icons for each day to be used on Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms. And in 2014, the national group recognized and shared these graphics for all councils.
In the fall of 2015 we worked with the Council to create an infographic to showcase the benefits of volunteering with Girl Scouts. Our client sent over the text and here's what we sent back. Is there a better assignment than drawing a s'more?
Toffee this good deserves the best branding and packaging! People are addicted after just one bite...
The original packaging, a stock label from VistaPrint, just didn't give The Toffee Shoppe the shelf presence that they needed to be sold in upscale grocery and specialty stores. We started from scratch and created a system to name and code all of the products. Tags are color-coded for each flavor and make it easy to restock at a glance. We print these labels on-demand, so it's simple to reorder whichever flavor runs out first.
We really dig seeing the way the colorful tags look lined up on store shelves. And The Toffee Shoppe's master chef Patty is always trying new additions, like popcorn and bacon. Beware! It's a little addictive...
In September, I set up a new yellowDog studio space. I needed a place to create, play and get dirty. No computer work allowed...
Thanks to my Artcraft Signs landlord Jim, I have my own slice of gritty work space and a place to run my sign press. Of course, what started out as ink on paper shortly turned into much more, including an idea for a holiday window.
As a designer who has long dreamed of going to New York City to design windows, the vacant storefront at Artcraft was screaming for a holiday installation. Pedestrian joy!
Plus the election happened and sitting in front of a computer, with focus, seemed to be the hardest thing I'd ever tried to do. So... I assembled a team. We cleaned out the space and set to work creating a holiday window - with - indoor and outdoor scenes.
I was content with a static scene but our electrical engineer/computer/animation expert, Chris, wanted to make things happen. It's been a great collaboration figuring out how to build the cardboard forms, how to make them move and what parts we needed to get the effect we wanted. [Think windshield wiper motor for a dog's tail or modified racetrack for a little running mouse...]
We hope that you were able to go and visit our little experiment at 406 Hillsborough Street to see what happened when you rang the doorbell at sunset! It was set to animate after 5pm since nighttime gave the best view.
#gofetchjoy
_____________________
Thanks to Chris, Jim, Gracie, Mandi, Ellen, Helen, Alex and Brett for your creativity, assistance and moral support [even during ceilings falling] for making this happen. It's been the best distraction yet! And, mom, your marketing and enthusiasm goes above and beyond! Regards. ; )
NavigateCancer Foundation has been a long-standing client for yellowDog. We helped to launch their brand back in 2008 and it has been evolving ever since. The brand started with mostly printed collateral but we have added email templates and other online tools for partners. In addition we've complete a redesign of the website in collaboration with their in-house developer.
Sub-brands have emerged from the main brand, including the blog, Illuminate. We assist with annual appeals and other mailings as needed. As the Foundation grows, we are creating templates so that other partners can use the materials. Shown here are the brochure, rack cards and posters.
It's amazing what a Google image search will turn up. The logo we designed for PEAK Engineering back in 2008 has garnered a little press across the globe. In New Zealand they are redesigning their national flag and one of the designs looks like our version of the peak. They've interviewed our client and yellowDog so we're officially in print and on record in New Zealand.
We worked with PEAK Engineering to create a logo that matched their requirements: Their business was started in Apex, NC where the motto is "The Peak of Good Living." They wanted to speak to this theme in their logo. The summit of the peak of a mountain was also an inspiration which lead us to the triangle. The triangle [the shape and the tool itself] are the perfect symbols to match these ideas. We sketched a few versions and simplified them down to the logo here. As NC State alumni and Wolfpack fans, a red was an easy choice for the color palette.
Once we designed the logo we worked with their web developer to brand the website and have created many tools for the business. We've even been able to expand their brand to Tervis Tumbers and note cubes for client holiday gifts.
We're excited to be a small part of a discussion of design and ideas on the other side of the world. And proud to have client relationships that span years and work that still resonates.
Girl Scouts North Carolina Coastal Pines celebrated the 100th Anniversary of the organization. We integrated the special branding and combined letterpress printing with digital printing.
Shed Letterpress printed the blind embossed and green invitations, envelopes, and covers for the program. We printed the invitation inserts and the interiors of the invitation on a digital press and hand assembled the programs with green ribbon.
And how cool are Girl Scouts? They used iPod touches for their silent auction. They are all about STEM!
Epividian, a healthcare analytics and software firm, has been working with yellowDog since the design of their first market report in 2014. The initial report uses data from their OPERA® (Observational Pharmaco-Epidemiology Research & Analysis) database. OPERA® is a healthcare database containing anonymous patient-level data. Physicians and healthcare workers (400+) participating across the U.S. document the care of nearly 77,000 patients who are HIV positive. Epividian’s OPERA® database is refreshed from all of these locations on a daily basis, making the database the largest continually operating cohort of HIV+ patients in the U.S.
Most recently, the epidemiology and clinical advisory board met in Chicago to review goals for the organization and make plans for their work in the coming year. We designed a presentation for the meeting as well as a book for the members to take away that details specific data points and projects. The meeting was a success and there are some wonderful projects in the works that will help caregivers and patients as well.
Epividian, a healthcare analytics and software firm, asked us to design a market report using data from their OPERA® (Observational Pharmaco-Epidemiology Research & Analysis) database. OPERA® is a healthcare database containing anonymous patient-level data. Physicians and healthcare workers participating across the U.S. document the care of nearly 400,000 patients, including nearly 52,000 patients who are HIV positive. Epividian’s OPERA® database is refreshed from all of these locations on a daily basis, making the database the largest continually operating cohort of HIV+ patients in the U.S.
This 54-page market report presented a few key challenges: present the data and analysis in a clear, attractive way; organize large tables of data; and use the most up-to-date data.
The design began as a build out of the existing brand, with a new color palette established. Epividian provided the data tables and we worked on making callouts that pop so the key information was easily consumable at a glance. The amount of data between sections varied considerably, but the new brand elements tied all the sections together and gave a cohesive look. yellowDog was able to work on the report with existing data through the design phase and then replaced the data with updated numbers immediately prior to printing so the report contained data that had been collected just that week.
Twenty years is a long time to be working with brands. When your business card bucket starts to fill up with projects you've created, you know it's been a while.
We definitely have some favorites.
Gary Phillips wears many hats as a realtor, healer, auctioneer, priest, herbalist, activist and environmentalist. We tried versions with all of these hats, but in the end, decided that Gary's glasses and beard are what really make the man. Sarah at Shed Letterpress printed on 100% recycled chipboard and that seemed like the exclamation mark! You want to see him, don't you?
We think in pictures at yellowDog and love it when our clients ask us to do the same. Spread sheets and Word docs are transformed into images that tell the story. We won't name names, but thanks to a local/global software firm that offers legal and professional solutions, we're able to take these ideas and run with them.
We love any opportunity to draw for Girl Scouts North Carolina Coastal Pines. For their annual appeal we helped brand the campaign "Every Girl Has a Story." After the initial mailing we were tasked with bringing these brand elements into the annual report. This project was a diversion from annual reports in the past. We took on the challenge of integrating original illustrations, photos and creating infographics for accomplishments. Girls are amazing.
"The annual report and theme was a big hit at the annual meeting."
- Happy Clients!
Get yours at DECO Raleigh.
Next up? Hillsborough. Durham. Any requests?
With a successful family photography business going strong, Kate came to us to help launch her wedding photography business. We recommended separating the two brands and focusing solely on her wedding audience for the new business. With a major publication deadline fast approaching, we dug into the sketching process. The best part? Kate came to the studio and we worked to get exactly what she needed. Seeing changes in real time helped us meet that deadline. It also helped Kate appreciate just how much time you can spend on the letter P...
Check out Kate's website (which she did all by herself) for some of the lovely weddings she's captured.
Iron Horse was an idyllic, 12-acre, privately-owned farm located in beautiful northern Orange County. In addition to a lovely home, two barns, goats and chickens they had three beautiful sculptures that stood proudly in the pasture. We chose one of these horses as the perfect symbol to represent the property.
The drawing is intricate and felt like it needed to be printed on chipboard as a way to connect it to the place. We worked with Shed Letterpress to print sets of coasters, which we used as business cards and invitations for a special open house-- an introduction for wedding planners and photographers.
BreakThrough Consulting asked us for a logo that represented breaking out into something new. "Maybe like the sun coming up..." After several variations, we landed on this combination of breaking through both planes.
We created several sets of rack cards for the personal health coaching section, the corporate section and the IT portion of this work. In addition, we tweaked the logo for the IT version and swapped the tagline.
Our youngest (and cutest) client ever. Foster's hat wearing started early-- and we thought he needed some artwork to make it all his. yellowDog drew all things Foster-- his pet pug, his favorite foods and sports team, and crabs, robots and critters from his adorable clothes and toys.
We created the artwork to a template and worked with a local sign shop to make the decal that fit the helmet. It even had his name right across the front. And there may even be a yellow dog or two...