The Problem: Emily had reached a place in her business where she had some choices to make. Her wedding and event planning business was doing well, and it was time to make some changes. She had been calling her business “Events by Emily” but found that it wasn’t very unique and it didn’t quite have the ring she wanted. Her website and business cards were templates, and she wanted to look more professional.

Scope of Work: Logo, Color Palette, Business Cards, Website

Solution: For our first meeting, Emily had done her homework. She brought me a list of words that described her and her business—words like whimsical, cheery, and light-hearted. I could immediately see how well these words described her. When we talked about the name of business, Emily was a bit hesitant about Particulars. She loved it and was hesitant at the same time.  The word Particulars conveys how detail oriented she is, and hints to ideas of cute little things like buttons and lacy napkins and bows. These are the details, the particulars, that Emily is amazing at thinking about and keeping track of. So I couldn’t recommend it enough.

From there on, the brand came together easily. Since then, Particulars Planning has been featured in The Knot more than once and her business continues to grow.

The Problem: Amanda Griffith, founder of Dolphin Feet called me one afternoon while I was at the grocery store. “I have it!” she bubbled… “THE Name for these things!!” Amanda and I had been working together for a while by then, so I knew that “these things” were not stickers… they were removable, reusable art and marketing pieces that stuck to anything smooth. Stickers often don’t get stuck to anything because people fear the permanence of a sticker and the damage of trying to remove it. Stickers are also usually paper, and therefore easily ruined by a spill or a rain drop. I repeat, these were NOT stickers… but what were they then? That was a question Amanda had wrangled with for a while before that phone call. And then she came up with the name…Dolphin Feet.

Scope of Work: Logo, Logo, Website, Printed Business Materials, and of course, Dolphin Feet-branded dolphin feet

The Solution: When discussing the logo, Amanda said, “You, a foot with a fin…” So I drew what that meant to me, and she loved it. For the rest of the branding, Amanda used words like urban, street-y, and colorful. Well, in her own words:

When it came time to re-brand my company, I knew Christina was the one who could bring me the perfect combination of streety-hippness and iconic-accessability. What I loved while working with her was that she listened to my many visions and requests, and tied them all together so that the end result surpassed all my expectations. As a marketing company myself, it is imperative I get a “WOW” when I give out a business card, and I am so proud and excited show off my DolphinFeet brand! Christina, as usual, knocked it out of the park!

This is a story about re-branding. Re-branding is often more challenging than building a
new brand from scratch.

Dawn Todd, founder of Wildly Successful Women, had a new vision for her business.
After a few good years of watching it grow, this new vision had become bigger and
bolder than she could possibly have foreseen in the beginning.

Dawn’s company was Wildly Successful. Wildly Successful offers a wide variety of
resources for entrepreneurs, male and female, from business coaching to marketing to
venture capital and more.

When Dawn and I began working together on her new brand, we knew it had to scream “Success!” Dawn and I talked about the branding for Cadillac and how it exudes classiness without feeling old. There’s a reason we refer to things as “the Cadillacs” of their industry: “Dyson is the Cadillac of vacuums.”

After studying and discussing Cadillac, along with other brands like Tiffany’s and Chanel, we eventually decided on a crest, a script, and a red/gold palette, and voila! the new and wildly successful brand for Wildly Successful was born.

The Problem: Branding Wine 101 with Joe and Lori O’Keefe was no easy feat, but it sure was fun! We discussed wine, of course! And questions like how literal did we want to be about the school idea? How could we communicate that learning about wine can be fun? Where is the balance between appearing knowledgeable without being overwhelming and pretentious? How could we present the wines so that people who don’t know the difference between “oaky” and “earthy” could still go home with a bottle they’ll enjoy?
Having spent a few years in New York City, Joe and Lori wanted to create an atmosphere similar to their favorite wine shops there—fun, light-hearted and family-friendly, the kind of place you could walk into, and comfortably ask for a great $10 bottle of wine, the kind of place where the owner ran the store and knew his wines like he knows his children.

Scope of Work: Logo, Website, Printed Business Materials, Store Design and Signage

Solution: Before I had any ideas of what the logo and type would look like, I saw the lime green and deep red. These are exaggerated colors of white and red wines. We went through a round of logos that was completely canned, and then waited. A few days went by, and Joe sent me a link to a wine store website he liked for its structure and language. Somewhere on that website was a photo of a big wooden sign in the shape of a wine bottle on its side. “Joe, how about that for your logo?” I said.
“How ’bout what?”
“The wine bottle… on its side…!”
The rest is history…

“From the onset of the WINE 101 concept, Christina has been an integral part of our branding strategy. Everything from the logo, store icons, colors and furniture has Christina’s Midas Touch. Everyone who visits the store responds immediately to the colorful, easy to understand set up of our shop. Christina is easy to work with and always makes a deadline!! Remember, ideas that spread win. Christina’s imprint on out store has people talking!”
— Joe O’Keefe • Owner, Wine 101