Our first ever *brand story*! Over the years, I had the opportunity to work with talented individuals to create their logo for their businesses. Branding is so important; it’s a concise picture of who you are, what you stand for, and what you offer. Good branding allows you to tell your story while distinguishing yourself from others in the market. Whenever someone asks me to help with their logo or branding, I’m always floored; I feel like they are entrusting such a special task to me, and it’s such an honour.
Today I want to share a logo I created in 2018 for a florist in Toronto: Dawndust Florals. Back when Sunny, the founder of Dawndust, first asked me to help her with her logo, she was just starting out. Since then, her business has grown like crazy and she is creating a lot of wonderfully wild and sweet floral arrangements for special occasions and weddings. Her floral style is super organic which pairs nicely with a little calligraphy :)
Sunny gave me a little lowdown on how she named her business “Dawndust”: “dawn” represents the element of light (all flowers need light to grow!) and is inspired by Hosea 6:3b: (“He will respond to us as surely as the arrival of dawn or the coming of rains in early spring”). The second part, “dust” is inspired by God creating man from dust, and Michael Gungor’s “Beautiful Things” song (“You make beautiful things out of dust…”). Her desire to design beautiful flowers reflects God’s creativity and creation. Hence… Dawndust! I thought that was a really nice little backstory.
The final logo turned out to include calligraphy and an illustrative element. The Japanese anemone was Sunny’s favourite flower, and I thought it captured the “organic” and “wild” element of her style perfectly. It’s a dainty flower with tons of movement. Below is the inspiration I collected from Sunny’s own portfolio and the final logo, with a few variations in layout (for different uses).
During the design process, I explored a few options and layouts. We already knew we wanted to go with a serif all caps for the “Florals” component. I like to do rough sketches in my notebook and then do a quick trace of them on my iPad (for cleanliness). From there, Sunny selected the ones she liked and we refined the letters to make them more legible.
For the illustration, I explored a few different angles for the Japanese anemone. I unfortunately couldn’t find the original drawings but below is the final illustration that we selected. We ended up removing some of the details in the petals as well as removing the middle flower. Simple was best, especially since this would be used mostly at a smaller scale (stickers, stamps, etc.).
I love seeing how Sunny is incorporating this logo on her flower bouquets and vases, and especially as a little wax seal! This past Mother’s Day, we actually worked together to create a postcard design to go with her flowers, and we created a little stamp with some artwork to bring her logo to life (bottom right, below). I love seeing how the use of this logo is evolving as the business grows :)
