We are excited to have our good friend, designer Maggie Putnam, contribute this fantastic guest blog post about the development and process of her typeface Monocle which was selected as the primary typeface for Coastal Financial.
Monocle is a contemporary serif typeface. It was developed to provide a clean, crisp nod to the past and infuse a dose of personal spirit. Ultimately, a digital design, the concept was to retain the quality of individuality and warmth of the hand. Read more →
We recently had the opportunity to discuss our story, work, and future plans with the Martha’s Vineyard Times. You can read the full article on their website here.
“They have Island accounts as well as accounts in Boston and Hawaii and from all over. He likes to quote Thomas Watson of IBM who said, ‘Good design is good business.’ Mr. Scott adds, ‘If you do good work, do good things it will come back to you in positive ways. We are fortunate and happy with the way things are going and ready to move ahead.’”
Design is the language that a brand speaks to the world. Each project requires us to thoroughly understand our client’s goals and how their brand communicates. When we began working with Nic Turner, the owner of Honeysuckle Oyster Farm, we knew that in order to design his brand we had to get out on the water with him and experience his operation from the bow of his boat.
We recently had the opportunity to work with Boston-based musician Jared Seabrook. The former drummer of Hey Mama, Jared exhibits exceptional power, technique and feel on a drum kit. When he told us that he was recording a debut album that infused punk and jazz—called Motivational Speaker—we jumped at the chance to work with him and help create a visual package that felt true to his sound.
Saltygirl Jewelry, an ocean-inspired jewelry company based out of Honolulu, Hawaii, was ready for a brand identity that really represented who they are. We collaborated with Amber Chesebro, Saltygirl Jewelry’s founder and metal-smither, to create a logo and brand that is as beautiful as her jewelry and rich with hidden meaning and detail. The logo works on many levels of design goodness (yes we said it). We took inspiration from the beautiful forms and patterns found in the Hawaiian landscape from the fruits of the rainforest to the shells and surf of Waikiki Bay. We perfected the logo with nature as our blueprint.
We’re really excited about the work we’ve been doing with the Seaworthy Gallery located on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachussetts. Tucked near Five Corners and a short walk from the Steamship Authority in Vineyard Haven, the gallery features the photography of Jeffrey Serusa. He shoots with 8 x 10 and 4 x 5 wooden field cameras and works from huge negatives to create dramatic, oversized prints. Using a fluid scanner at a very high resolution, Jeffrey generates a file between 3.5 and 5 gigabytes. So large that it allows for printing at sizes over ten feet without loss of detail. All of this from a single 8 x 10 piece of film! Try that with your iPhone.
Twitter unveiled their new logo this week. Over at Bluerock, we got a bit nerdy over the refresh. They decided to get rid of the bubbly wordmark and “T” and focus solely on the bird. Taking elements of the previous logo, the updated new bird feels relevant, fresh, and just plain classy. The bird was slimmed down, and probably the most notable change is the bird’s movement. Before the bird was hovering above the ground, horizontal and relaxed. Now the bird soars into the sky, with such confidence. Overall, the update is highly successful. Twitter has now joined the ranks of brands who have enough confidence in their logo that they don’t even need a wordmark to define them. Fearlessly feisty and worth Tweeting about!
Check out this video of our friends at Gotham Machine milling the logo we designed for them into a recent project.
We recently completed Gotham Machine’s new identity, launching them on their journey to industrial design stardom. Take a look at the brand identity we established with them, along with some materials we created to help propel their brand.
View the entire project here.
Friends and family have asked me to explain the basics of photography to them in layman’s terms. There is a lot of technical terminology that goes along with an endless variety of equipment choices, and the learning curve appears steep. Here is a simple comparison that should help make the ascent a little easier.
Think of your camera as your eye.
Imagine you walk to the kitchen for a midnight snack. Even though the house is dark, your eyes are adapted to the dark and it seems easy to find your way. When you open the refrigerator, you are suddenly blinded by the bright white light beaming back at you.
