The Story Garden is an independent children’s bookstore and programming space providing beautiful and meaningful stories, both bound and unbound, for the community of children and families.
Discovery
Audit, research, and build a theory. Create the brand language document that is used as the guiding force for creative executions—voice, values, product and service positioning, culture, promise, and future vision. Understand what the brand stands for, what it offers, who its customers are, how it is different from its competitors, and its competitive advantage. Create discovery boards based on these findings and begin to form a vision. These visual boards are conceptual, experimental, free form, and inspirational. Focus on the high-level concept and not nitty-gritty design details. Contents include but are not limited to: concept statement, type, color, imagery, inspirational images, sketches.
Develop
Developing concepts based on discovery and the mood board ideas. Three concept sketches and their corresponding iterations were delivered.
Concept Two: Welcome In
Sense of place, home, and community. A welcoming center, a refuge, a place of solace, connection, learning and growing. Using the image of the/a building to evoke this feeling. To make space for in-person connections within the community and between children and adults, through story, art, and nature.
Concept One: Open Book
Growing ideas and planting seeds of knowledge. Sweet, charming, and unique. An open book invites you in for knowledge.
Concept Three: Pieces of a Whole
A careful curation that is released freely for nourishment and organic interactions. Exploring nature play and the arrangement of organic shapes. Connection with nature, nurturing early childhood, nourish the spirit and spark imagination, unplugged, organic.
Design
Blending two concepts: during the discovery phase two concepts were speaking loudly and were worth exploring. In this case, “Welcome In” was the strongest concept but the “Pieces of a Whole” stood out as a better execution. We moved forward with these two and began more exploration and then refinement.
Design Solution
Chosen Concepts
Refined Logomark
Deliver
The brand guidelines book keeps you “you”. The book is referenced throughout the life of the brand to maintain consistency, establish credibility, and increase efficiency.
