Caged Bird Designs

Ben Neufeld, custom metal artist!

heidim — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 03:24:52 +0000

This month I had the pleasure of working with Ben Neufeld, a talented young man who creates custom metal art. Ben was looking for a logo as well as a business card and this is what we came up with through a series of drawings by the metal worker himself!

Ben, you were a joy to work with and I wish you much success. You are so talented and I can’t wait to see your pieces all over Chilliwack, congratulations on this first step!

Pinball Photography = branded

heidim — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 04:35:28 +0000

Awhile back my husband’s lovely cousin, Kyla, asked me to design a logo for her photography company that she was starting up. She had a new baby and a company that might have been growing quicker than her newborn. We took a break from the logo design due to her full plate and I am happy to say, 9 months later or so, that Pinball Photography has an official logo!

Voila:

Kyla, I am so happy for you. You deserve all of your success and more. You are smart, funny and oh so talented. I am excited to see where this dream is going to take you! Thank you for the opportunity to work with you.

Matters of the heart…family

heidim — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 05:44:58 +0000

Recently I was asked by my church, Central Community Church, to design a logo for a new project they are hard at work on. The project is called Family Central and it is going to be good! Family Central is curriculum designed with families in mind. Young, old, newly married, new parents, empty nesters, grandparents, you name it. My church is passionate about their people and the people of Chilliwack. Their goal is to equip us with the resources and tools we need to become authentic followers of Jesus Christ.

Amen to that, glad I could be a small part of the big picture on this one!

Here is the logo:

Harrison Brothers Contracting

heidim — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 23:18:47 +0000

Recently I had the pleasure of working with three local contractors specializing in: renovations and new construction including concrete, framing, finishing and project management.

Marc, Matt and Mike are three brothers who love working together and are passionate about what they do. High quality work and satisfied customers are equally as important to these three men. After our first meeting I was so excited to work with them and to come up with a logo that would do their company justice. A logo that would say, “yeah, we are family, but we know how to work and we mean business”.

Here it is:

These guys were a joy to work with and I would like to give a special shout out to their dad who actually took the pictures in the logo above. It was so fun for me to create their logo out of his photography and I think it makes the logo super special because it’s actually them!! Very cool if you ask me.

Harrison Brothers Contracting’s contact information:
Marc: 604.991.1602
Mike: 604.316.7090
Matt: 604.701.2652

Happy Monday.

If it ain’t broke don’t fix it…oh wait

heidim — Sat, 14 May 2011 06:21:22 +0000

So, I have been thinking a lot about branding lately and the pressure that comes along with it. In my humble, designer opinion, a logo is one of, if not the most, important piece of the puzzle when launching a new company. Or a new anything for that matter. It is the first impression maker. The money maker.

Our society lives for the visual. We turn to the physical representation of a company or product first rather than reading the manual or heaven forbid seeking out a human to talk to about the company/product. If we are lured in by the visual we may take the time to dig deeper and invest a little bit of ourselves into the product. Whether it be a $4 cup of coffee or a $1000 purse, something made us dig into our wallets and invest.

Obviously a great concept, well thought out business plan, and blood sweat and tears also add to the potential success of any business venture. But potential clients/buyers cannot see behind the black curtain, nor do they want to. They will give you 2-3 seconds to show them what you are made of…and it better be good.

The brilliant thing about logos is there is no method to their madness. A yellow, lowercase ‘m’ has earned McDonald’s something money can’t buy. Money. Oh yeah, and worldwide recognition. They also created a super creepy mascot and gaggle of characters to lure in the kiddies. Genius or just plain traumatizing?

Starbucks on the other hand decided to go with this two tailed, leaving nothin’ to the imagination sea vixen in 1971:

Gotta love it!

Since then Starbucks has had quite the logo evolution as shown below.

I have often wondered why they chose to do this. Recently the Gap did a complete redesign of their logo and it DID NOT go well.

But once again Starbucks has proven that not only are they unstoppable, but that they are consistently redefining success. No other coffee anything (brand, store, shop…country) stands a chance against the green, green, green Starbucks.

Not only do they love to switch up their game, but they are intentional about it. I love that. I don’t drink coffee, but I love that. I could go on for hours about their genius marketing strategies, do you remember what they looked like at Christmas? Santa’s Workshop (yes I just capitalized workshop) had nothing on your local Starbucks. Nothing. Special drinks, special cardboard displays, special gift cards, special mini mittens to hold the gift cards, special cups, special mugs, special everythings. Sigh.

What is the point of this REALLY long post you ask? Well, basically it is to shine a light on the power of design. The importance of design and effect that it has on you, your society and your world. I also wanted to research Starbucks a bit more and to really figure out why they keep changing their logo and how on earth it is always better than the last. The last which still made them millions of dollars.

So hold up your green and white cardboard cups and toast the company that has spoken to this freelancer sitting at her kitchen table in Canada and dreaming of being a part of a marketing strategy as revolutionary as theirs one day.

Cheers!

The Ultimate Designer

heidim — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 01:13:28 +0000

Happy 2011 everyone! May you already be feeling the joys of this new year.

I started off the year by hunkering down and happily working away at a logo for the lovely Jennifer Penner of Jennnifer Leigh Design. Jen is a designer specializing in new construction/renovation, interior design, design consultation and retail. I wish I had a quaint little shop in downtown Chilliwack that Jen could help design and decorate. But alas…I have a quaint little office in the basement of my lovely home.

After a few meetings and a few samples later this is what we came up with for Jennifer Leigh Design…drum roll please:

Jen is awesome; she is smart, funny, fashionable, dedicated and oh so capable of turning any space into one you would want to live in…happily.

Jen and I not only share a passion for design and all things creative, but we also share a passion for God: The Ultimate Designer as Jen alludes to here on her site. He is who we have to thank for our gifts and talents and He has created all that inspires us in this world.

Amen.

Merry Christmas

heidim — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 07:37:22 +0000

Merry Christmas, from my family to yours.
May 2011 treat you well.

Valley Carpet Binding

heidim — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 07:37:13 +0000

So…a few months ago I was approached by Calvin West of Valley Carpet Binding. Calvin owns and operates a carpet binding business on his property and he wanted a logo design that he could make into a sand blasted sign to put out front of his home.

This was the first time I had been asked to design a sand blasted sign and I was very excited for the challenge! The logo turned out nicely but the SIGN is amazing…kudos to Calvin who did all of the “blasting” himself. He had a final template printed of the design and went to town on a piece of wood, what a crafty guy!

Here is the final logo:

And, here is Calvin’s contact information for all of your carpet needs:

Calvin West
604.316.1198

Thanks for stopping by!

Until next time…

Fall 2010…seriously?

heidim — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 02:28:58 +0000

Okay, so I was walking through the grocery store today and I was stopped dead in my tracks by a magazine, now this is not unusual for me, but this magazine was featuring Halloween on it’s cover. Already. I was wearing flip flops and dreaming of the pool I had just spent the afternoon in…and Fall had to go ahead and knock the sunshine out of my swagger.

Now, I could tell you what I like most about each season, but frankly that is probably boring to most and I have a different intent for this post anyways. (With that said my absolute favourite thing to do in Fall is to crunch leaves—the bigger the better.)

The magazine that halted my sunshiny steps was none other than “Martha Stewart Living”. I am not a crafty person, one might think I am because I am a designer, but quite frankly scrap-booking, knitting, sewing, gluing, beading, etc. all sort of freak me out. I am 100% intimidated by all things crafty. That is not to say I don’t drool over beautiful scarves or handmade head bands and jewelery, I just wouldn’t know where to begin. Perhaps when I get older I will hire a craft mentor.

Okay, back to the point of this post. Martha Stewart. I am not a huge fan, I don’t watch her show (does she still have a show?), I have never bought her magazine and the whole jail thing was disheartening. All that to say I LOVE every October issue that she does. I am talking the covers, they are rad. They are such a departure from all of the other issues each year and I get a kick out of them. So kudos to you M. Stewart. You gave me my first shiver of the Fall.

Here are a few of my favourite “spooky” covers and behind the scenes shots of “Martha Stewart Living” October issues:

Now go crunch some leaves!

~ H

Sevenoaks Walking Club…who knew?

heidim — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 22:45:42 +0000

Last month I was contacted by the Sevenoaks Shopping Centre, more specifically the Sevenoaks Walking Club. Did you know that they had a walking club?!!? Neither did I, but it is a pretty darn cool idea if you ask me. Anyways, they were in need of a new logo and thus began our design journey together.

I thought it might be fun to give you lovely readers a small glimpse into the design process. So, basically what I am going to show you are a few initial proofs that were just not right and then the final product. Enjoy!

Sample 1: version 1

Sample 1: version 2

Sample 2: version 1

Sample 2: version 2

Sample 3: version 1

Sample 3: version 2

Okay, so those were the initial samples that I had sent them. They chose the brown and blue scheme for their corporate colours, but didn’t love the images on any. They wanted more movement and softness to the logo.With their feedback I went back to the drawing board and came up with this…drum roll please…

To which they happily approved. I had a great time working on this logo and I highly recommend checking out the Sevenoaks Walking Club.

Thank you for stopping by!

Until next time…