Frond
Experience in One Career Can Carry Onto the Next
This was one of the first projects in which I knew my experience as a hairstylist & business owner would come in handy. To rebrand for a local business, I first visited the store to get a feel of both the environment & the clientele. The rest was reverse-engineering a brand identity to suit the existing market.
When I moved to Austin & sought to rebuild a local clientele, I learned that marketing had less to do with showcasing your personal aesthetic & instead, building a personality around the business you wanted to create. So for Frond, I noticed that a lot of their customers in the store were trendy couples, probably looking to bring home unique plants & pottery to their shared homes. The shop offered a very on-trend selection of understated pots to go along with their unique plant offerings. This was a store that catered to people with interesting home decor tastes, wanting to build a nest with their loved ones.
As a hairstylist, I try to understand who my client is before I ever pick up a comb. It's not just about who I am or what I like, it's about using my skillset to create an intentional style for the person I'm working with. So now that I had an idea of who Frond was for, all I had to do was work backwards.
Project Overview
My inspiration for the logo & branding had everything to do with the Frond customer. I pulled in warm, cozy imagery of planty homes, romantic millennial pinks, couples in love, & Austin itself.
Sketches
I had many ideas of what the logo itself could look like. Many of which were representations of specific plants I saw in the store. Since the business offers unique plants, I was interested in creating a symbol of a leaf, but maybe one that was a little surprising in a way.
Drafts
During this phase I wanted to incorporate color ideas to see how they would affect the feel of the logo. For the logo variations, I was also playing with the idea of incorporating the business name within the leaf somehow.
Final Design
I ultimately decided to use a leaf shape that was a little unorthodox. While monstera leaves are recognizable & trendy, I felt that using a palm frond would not only be more appropriate for the brand name, but also would be a more unique choice that reflected the business's intentions. I created primary, secondary & symbol versions of the logo for different kinds of applications necessary for the business's various needs.
