Over the last year, Petite Poppy Designs has gone through some transformations. Not only in the products and services that I offer, but also in the overall brand aesthetic. I’ve been working for a while now on my brand refresh. And I’m so excited to finally share the behind the scenes of my brand design process!

Petite Poppy Designs offers design services for fine stationery and thoughtful branding. I originally started this little business as a small stationery shop focused on high quality everyday stationery. And I’ve slowly expanded my services to include more stationery for life’s special moments (think weddings and babies). Along that journey, I’ve found that I really love the hands-on design process. This is what led me to begin offering brand design services because that is where my passion is!

My goal for the new Petite Poppy Designs brand is to feel approachable and fun with a whisper of elegance. I love love love surprises in small details, so I’ve really tried to incorporate that into my branding as well.

The motive for this little refresh was two-fold: to create a more cohesive identity for my brand, and to change the layout of my website to highlight the additional services I offer.

 

The first thing, as with any brand identity refresh, is to identify your brand voice and who you serve.

I envision Petite Poppy Designs to be a chic, creative, and welcoming brand. And I love to serve thoughtful couples and creative businesses who cherish the small moments.

 

Next up is the moodboard or style inspiration board.

This is basically to translate the overall identity into a more visual guide for the brand. Not only is this helpful in the initial branding process, but it’s also a great resource to refer back to as the brand develops over time. This is also where I tend to create the color scheme, pulling from the moodboard as inspiration. Usually for me, the color selections and moodboards influence one another. Sometimes I start with colors, grab inspiration images based on those, and then tweak the colors again once the moodboard is in place.

 

Once the moodboard is in place, it’s time for the main logo.

I went through many variations before I landed on one (or two) that felt right. I really love beautiful and delicate serif fonts and think this is a great fit for my brand. But, I also really love hand written elements as well. So when you really can’t pick just one, the logical thing is to combine the two! Of course, this only works if the two styles are complementary. I also really wanted to create a more friendly variation of my logo (see alternate logo) that I can use for my blog and eventually my shop. I love the handwritten parts because it feels much more personal to have my own handwriting as part of my brand. Almost like you’re getting a teeny handwritten note from me.

 

 

 

 

When the logo was finalized, I moved on to other parts like submarks, alternate logos, variations, etc. to create a cohesive and versatile library of design elements. It’s great to have this collection for different uses such as product packaging, emails, mobile vs. desktop web design, social media, and even something like your favicon!

In the end, I’m happy with the new branding and excited to see where this next year takes me!