New Graphics

A couple months ago my husband gifted me with the money to get a custom logo made up. He insisted. I did quite a bit of research and finally went with with Jamie over at Fresh Lavender Designs. Her graphics just seem fun and whimsical plus the price is excellent. So... why would I even want a logo made up?

The new logo. You can see it
better on the blog banner.

I've been considering making up my own patterns and trying to sell them on Etsy. Talking about it off and on, changing my mind and always thinking 'maybe LATER, it's not a good time right now'. I think he's tired of the dithering. Several people have made requests here on the blog too. It's very complimentary, but am I up for that? Me? I'm still dragging my feet, weighing every pro and con I can think up, but trying to be reasonable and logical about this all at the same time. If that's even possible. For sure I'm not in this for money (not that I don't need it), but mostly I really, really don't want to start a cycle of feeling stress and pressure for deadlines or 'new' product. Quilting is my therapy, relaxation and just pure, sheer fun in a oftentimes out-of-control world. I'm scared to death I'll ruin something that's been good to me by turning it into 'business'.

New avatar. So sweet!

Anyway, back to the custom logo. I wasn't sure what to expect when ordering my package from Jamie. I had a few ideas about what I wanted, but nothing concrete, otherwise I would have tried to get my daughter to draw me something! The communication is all pretty brief (through e-mails), which at times was frustrating to me as I'm someone who needs DETAILS. Jamie makes it clear what she needs though, and through a lot of back and forths, mostly me sending links to everything I like from fonts, graphics, color combinations and styles, she managed to work up a set of three logos for a starting point. I'm sure she would have loved it if I had adored a single one and moved on, but really, when you don't even know what you're looking for (yet somehow sure you'll recognize it when you see it) it's just not that easy. I could only wish. And to be honest, the first three logos were not quite what I expected. Maybe even a little disappointing at first as I had been so impressed with Jamie's work on Etsy and figured she'd be brilliant at reading my mind. haha

Okay, not knowing how to handle this made me nervous. After showing them to my daughters and getting their input (which I always value), I made myself step back and very carefully go over each and every detail in the three logos. I carefully picked out all the things I especially liked about each one and tried to think about a combination that would be the very best of all three. This really helped to clear my mind and focus in on what I was looking for in an end product. To be clear, Jamie was great to work with and every time I emailed her back with suggestions or ideas she picked up on my thought and made it even better. She showed me the same logo with two different fonts when I couldn't make up my mind, things like that. Exactly what makes her so busy and successful!

The new business card. So very pretentious. lol

Just so you know, the entire process took several weeks. So... frustrating at times, but totally worth it now! Especially now that I have a very personal, quilty logo! So amazing. Jamie really has a gift at making vague ideas come to life. I can't say how grateful I am that she put up with my pushiness about particular details that probably made no sense to her at all. It makes me smile every time I see the logo and I'm positive it will look wonderful on a quilt pattern. I also have a great avatar, a fabulous Etsy banner (for when and if I do the pattern thing), a business card, and a basic format to play with and/or add pictures to for my blog banner too. I couldn't see having a rigid banner that I couldn't change up the pictures on! The blog banner only took me a day or so to figure out, but that's because I'm so computer illiterate. Whether or not I push ahead with the pattern making, this has been an exciting experience. It kind of makes the quilting blog thing seem 'real'.*wink