It’s been a rough few weeks for everyone, hasn’t it? When our son was little he used to scream this at the top of his lungs, with great joy and excitement in his voice, nearly every day … at dawn. When I’m having a bad day I think about his cute little voice shouting out “BEAUTIFUL,” and it helps get me through. Next time you’re having a bad day try taking a moment to focus on one little spot of beauty in the world. It’s always out there. — xoxo, E.
Cobalt blue always reminds me of the 1980s … in a totally awesome way. Pictured left: the rad ladies’ room at Crust on James Island; right: weekender bag by Kate Spade’s new line, Saturday, customized by me!
I’ve had color, color, color on the brain lately. I’m loving everything chromatic these days. Here are some fun ways to introduce a bit of color into your life. I just bought the 2-tone balloons from Brooklyn Bride’s Pop Up Shop to use at an upcoming party. Love them so much, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to wait until the party to blow them up!
Sources: 1| Two-tone balloons 2 | Colorful packing tape 3 | Brightly colored note books 4 | Colorful Pantone iPhone cases
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Here in Charleston, rainy days abound. Last week, after 3 straight days of clouds, I had had it. To compensate I busted out my brightest shirt. It helped.
//photo by Erika Firm for Delphine
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Here’s another end of summer, faded beach green inspired color palette. My favorite, can’t you tell? This one is a photo my son snapped in the Charleston Harbor. I love the distressed, faded cement grays and sea green colors … with a teeny tiny pop of yellow.
I really like the crisp, clear color palette for Batdorf & Bronson coffee roasters coffee cups. It’s a refreshing change from most coffee packaging, which is predictable brown.
Aquamarines, blues and greens are my very favorite colors, especially when paired with cool gray and whites. Perfect summer color palette! Palette inspired by vintage porch chairs outside Butcher and Bee restaurant in Charleston.
//photo: Erika Firm | Delphine
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Cyclone, a Hoefler & Frere-Jones masterpiece, makes me happy. It’s trendy, I won’t deny it, but also a classic inline font. Super versatile, it’s become one of my favorites.
When Steven and Casey approached Delphine for a brand refresh for their professional organizing business, Organizer Guys, I knew their project would be a dream. There is nothing I like better than a perfectly organized drawer, books aligned just so on a shelf, and spotless supply closets. I was totally right: Steven and Casey are dream clients. They love white space, simplicity and clean lines, and have a less is more philosophy. A match made in heaven!
While the business of professional organizing sounds a little — dare I say it — boring, these guys are anything but!!! So in order to pull their joie de vivre into the brand we used a fun color palette (tangerine, turquoise, crisp black and lots of white), retro fonts with a hint of industrial solidity, and infused a cheeky tone to all the messaging (“your junk drawers can’t scare us”).
The design is restrained and contained … we used lots of rule lines, boxes, and borders so everything is arranged just so, without looking stuffy. The fun colors and cheeky tone are balanced with strong fonts, sober black, and nice bright clean white space.
Read about what makes them cool, who their celebrity doppelgangers are, words they live by, who has slept outside for more than 500 nights (!!) and what makes them laugh. I’d trust these guys to organize my home or business in a heart beat. Right now Organizer Guys is based in the San Francisco Bay Area, but they have big plans to take over the world. Guys … open a satellite office in Charleston, pretty please? My junk drawer(s) need some taming!
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Yay for MAY! One of my favorite months … it’s Stationery Show month, my birthday month, last day of school month, pretty flower month, not too hot month. Happy May, friends.
It has been a busy busy year at the Delphine studio. I’m trying hard to catch up on posts to share what we’ve been up to. Here’s an identity package we did in January for Jessica Davis Photography, a kids, baby and maternity photography studio based in Solana Beach, California.
This project was a rebrand. Jessica “outgrew” her old logo, also a Delphine design. Though her clients still loved her bird logo, she felt that she had moved on to a new, cleaner style, and wanted her brand to reflect the new direction of her business. Her original logo used soft ocean blue and rich chocolate brown; the font and illustrations were playful and cute, reflecting her focus on outdoor photography with a very sweet and playful look.
Jessica felt like the brand didn’t reflect her current style of photography, which is increasingly focused on a “Day in the Life” documentary style approach. Jessica likes to capture the “real” moments in a child’s life. It was time for a brand refresh.
Jessica asked for a more sophisticated, crisp look, one that was a little more “serious” … but one that was still approachable, young, and would appeal to her current customers. We went with a clean, slightly retro font and design style, but kept the look soft and approachable with the ocean and sand color palette. Keeping the ocean ink was a natural way to link back to her old brand.
We letterpressed her business cards, hang tags, buck slips, stationery, and envelopes for a sophisticated and elegant feel. To tone down the starkness of the look, we pulled in textured kraft paper bag style envelopes and added touches of a retro script font here and there. We letterpressed her business cards in ocean and sand inks on extra super thick bright white 100 percent cotton paper, and edge painted them in matching ocean ink.
I just love the look of edge painted business cards. The extra pop of color is the perfect, sophisticated finishing touch.
One of the most difficult business decisions you can make is any sort of change. Jessica told me her old logo was “working,” but she wanted new branding to reflect the new direction and growth of her business. I wholeheartedly agree that in business you have to change, and constantly adapt in order to grow. Because of this, Jessica’s rebranding project was my favorite so far this year.
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It’s hard to believe my little one is already eight years old! This year for his birthday he requested a beach party scavenger hunt at Seaside Beach in Cardiff-by-the-Sea.
The kids got “a little” wet (some of them actually went swimming!) and had a blast searching for treasures like sea anemones, feathers, shells, lobster, surfers, swimming dogs, and whales. We spotted nearly everything on the list (including swimming dogs, excluding whales).
We celebrated with pizza, cupcakes and lemonade for the kiddos … and yummy cheese, warm coffee and cupcakes for the parents. One of the best parts of the party for me is the crazy easy setup and break down … all I brought was snacks, a drink bucket, a rollup portable table and some picnic blankets. I let Mother Nature do ALL the decorating! I did put together some goodie bags for the kids, with custom stickers, candy and a whoopie cushion. They are 8 year olds, after all. What could be better than sugar and a whoopie cushion?!
Happy birthday to my little guppy!
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Last weekend I went to the Gem Faire at the Del Mar Fairgrounds with Mom. I picked up a few strands of crystals and beads. Can’t wait to show you what she makes for me. I’m particularly excited about the big natural crystals (the white ones that look like rocks). I’m going to have so many shiny and sparkly new necklaces that I will just have to find reasons to leave the studio so I can wear them.
I think the vendors at the show (which is open to the public, by the way … you don’t need to have a wholesale license) picked up on the colors of my outfit—comfy jeans, grey sweater, pale green + taupe purse, neutral accessories—and kept showing me strands of the same color beads. It totally worked: I liked their suggestions and they made sales. It’s a great tip to remember when you’re exhibiting at a trade show: make suggestions to buyers. As a buyer, shows are totally overwhelming. A little nudge in the right direction is welcome in my book.
I had so much fun styling Jessica Davis‘s holiday party dessert bar. She thought I was crazy when I asked her to empty out her hutch so I could use it for displaying the dessert goodies (usually it’s full of baby blankets and other kids photography photo shoot props).
The candy bar had a pale blue, white and silver theme. Of course there aren’t too many foods out there that are blue, so most everything was white. We made an exception to the color palette rule for chocolate! I used lots of white candy dishes, bowls and plates to create different heights and layers. Then I threw in some turquoise, white and silver Christmas ornaments and glittery props. Everything shown is from Jessica, her fiancé, or my personal collection.
The party was a great success. Jessica raised well over $1,000 for OMO CHILD, and I am so happy to say that the raffle prizes were a hit. My son won the iPad! He hasn’t put it down since!
//photos: Erika Firm
Dr. Naples, an Austin, Texas based oral and maxillofacial surgeon, wanted to update the logo and identity of his practice, in preparation for his expansion and move to his new oral surgery center. He loved the “N” in a box element from his old logo, so kept that … but ditched everything else (including the 80s era parchment paper and gold lettering). Eeek.
What do you want from your oral surgeon? Clean, professional, trustyworthy, strong … so I chose a nice, solid and strong blue for the brand. I kept all the lines square, clean and sharp, and I used lots and lots of white space.
To keep things super clean, I chose a very bright white stock (everything is offset printed on Neenah Classic Crest Solar White). I kept the same blue and white, with accents of black, color palette throughout all of the branded identity: business cards, appointment cards, we’ve moved cards, letterhead, business envelopes and stickers.
Every dental and surgical office goes through lots of appointment cards, so we printed a ton of them. There is lots of white space on the back, for additional notes.
The main business card has a crisp, clean look. I used the band/stripe as a design element throughout the entire identity package. Dr. Naples is moving to the new building in a few months, and there will be many more elements printed to celebrate the new location! Congratulations, Dr. Naples, on the incredible growth of your business!
