May 7, 2009

Studio Calico Origins....

When Emily and I were planning our blog week, she decided to post all of those awesome tutorials about pleating, but I was struggling to come up with a topic. I'd thought about showing the evolution of Studio Calico. How we have progressed from our very first kit to designing our own papers. After much consideration, I decided that it would be better to put together a series of posts about the origin of Studio Calico instead. It's pretty good timing for a little history lesson since we will be celebrating our 2nd anniversary with the release of the July kit.

Bernadette Peters once said, "You've got to be original, because if you're like someone else, what do they need you for? " I can think of no other quote that better sums up what April and Scarlet have created with Studio Calico. From the very beginning, they set out to be different from the other kit clubs that were out there. Their kit club was going to be cutting edge, with a hint of vintage flair. They met with Stephen, our resident graphic designer, and talked about what had been done by other companies and their brands. They also discussed the personality of the new company, the name of the new company and what they wanted our brand to be. They concluded that they wanted a higher-end product, with a cleaner and less cluttered look.

Their first hurdle was coming up with a name for their new venture. According to April, "We knew from the beginning that we wanted Studio in the title. We tried lots of different combinations, but finally settled on Studio Calico because the domain name was available." They decided right then and there that each kit would include the black, white and Kraft cardstock that has become their trademark. I don't know about any of you, but I'd never even seen a layout on Kraft until Studio Calico came along. Now every time I open a scrapbook magazine, the pages are covered with Kraft cardstock!

Once they had their name down, it was time to come up with a logo....something that would brand Studio Calico and make it stand out from the competition. I knew that Stephen had a big hand in creating our logo, so I called him up and asked him to give me the 411 on how it all went down. Here is what he had to say, "April called me up wanting both a website and a brand in a month. Which is nearly an insane turnaround considering the complexity of the site she had envisioned. So the branding for SC was rushed at the very VERY least. Knowing the clean look was being developed and knowing April's personal style, I wanted a logo that complimented & contrasted that look. I only presented 2 logos to them (Scarlet & April). The first one was a very modern, very clean mark and the second is what you've seen ... stable but playful ... clean but busy ... old but new. They hated the first one (Which was great) because I liked the second one better myself. It was based on the Affair typeface. The swooshes are highly edited to inner-connect. After some tweaking to the original concept ... basically fixing the result of a rushed design ... the logo was approved."

So here they are ladies, the original concepts for the Studio Calico logo. Here is the modern design that Stephen referred to:
And here is the original working layout of the Studio Calico logo that you have all come to know and love:



I thought that you might also like to see a couple of the other ideas that they kicked around. At first, they thought about using April's handwriting as the logo:



I also managed to convince Stephen to copy a page of his sketch book for me. You can see what his doodles looked like from the original brainstorming session.


That is all of the history lesson that you get to see today. Tomorrow I'll give you some more of the goods from my interview with Stephen and show you some of his favorite designs.

Stay tuned......
Lorie

24 comments:

meganklauer said...

Oh, this is so fun! I love to hear the process of "how a design comes to be"! Thanks for sharing and can't wait to hear more!

Joy Madison said...

thanks Lorie!!! What a great history lesson :)

april said...

i don't mean to sound conceited, but i LOVED Lorie's idea for her blog week. And trust, me it's not conceited, because there's some deprecating things about me to come..... heehee

Cynthia Baldwin said...

This is fascinating! "And the rest is history..." :)

Jennifer.T said...

This is fascinating, love this stuff, keep 'em coming!

cannycrafter said...

Thanks, this is so interesting! Can't wait for the next bit!

Anonymous said...

This was so fun to read!!!
Thankk your Lorie :o)

(can't wait to see what's coming next ;)

DonnaBD said...

How cool!

Nicole said...

awesome post Lorie...looing forward to the next!

Kathy said...

This is fantastic Lorie! I love hearing all these stories, especially as I bought the first ever kit. I can't think where I'd first heard of SC - maybe Ali Edwards blog. I know the release date was much anticipated. Then when the time came for the site to go live I couldn't check out...exchanging several panic strickened e-mails with April, begging her to keep me a kit and promising to pay her. Luckily in true SC style she sorted me out and all was well. Aah, and here I am today...happy and loving SC!

kathleen said...

LOVE the "history" lesson Lorie! Looking forward to the next post : )

Karen said...

This is cool! Thanks!

Anonymous said...

For a history lesson that was very fun to read!! I love the SC logo by the way!!

Anonymous said...

cool Lorie!

Emily Pitts said...

OH MY GOODNESS lorie! THIS IS ABSOLUTELY cool. you did it girl! you did it good :)

Carrie said...

this was such a fun read Lorie!
can't wait for more!!

mom2ee said...

awesome post. and just want you to know that my book mark still says"Coming soon Studio Calico". yep bookmarked the site even before the debut!!

Anonymous said...

Very cool Lorie! Thanks and now i can't wait to hear more :)

Anonymous said...

i loved reading this! thanks, Lorie :)

alisyn

Kimberly said...

This is so fun to know the background and history that comes with SC! I LOVE April's handwriting too...may I add...I WOULD totally buy that stamp font! *hint* xoxo
Love you guys! xoxo
K

Emily Pitts said...

still love this. :)

mborrero said...

cool I love from concept to conception

Sandy said...

very cool to seee how it all came about!!

Stacey said...

Being a little bit of a newbie here I love a good history lesson! Thanks so much. I can't wait for the next one