It's not often that I do an identity redesign before a new business even opens. However, that was the case with the retail operation originally named Peggy Sunday's. Peggy Seaman, owner of the store that Portland Picks has referred to as "an ultra-girly housewares haven filled to the brim with fabulous finds," found me just over a decade ago by way of an article about my business that appeared in The Oregonian.
For the purpose of getting the store together, dealing with possible vendors and coordinating work with contractors, a temporary business card had been created (below left). The name Peggy Sunday's had evolved from a childhood nickname of the owner.
A more sophisticated and customer-friendly identity was desired for business cards, stickers, hang-tags, rubber stamp imagery, signage, ads and more. When Seaman herself mentioned the rubber-stamp need, the concept that would become the final logo started percolating in my brain. I immediately thought of a hand-cut circle with a sun element.
During the design process it was decided to drop the apostrophe in the name - to eliminate any confusion about the proprietor's last name possibly being "Sunday." I chose the font Caslon Antique for the name to tie-in with the rough-hewn appearance of the other design elements. The sun element was adapted from an old dingbat I had come across - with a bit of a facelift suggested by the store owner's sister.
With the simplicity and strength of the final logo design (above right) it was determined that the logo would remain in one color. In most applications it is black on sage paper stock. In some cases it has been produced in metallic gold. A decade after being created the identity still represents the store very well.
The logo for the high-end gift and home furnishings store is featured in the books The Big Book of Logos 3, New Logo & Trademark Design 2 (Japan), Letterhead and Logo Design 7 and The Big Book of Design for Letterheads and Websites.
(Note: My book, Identity Crisis!: 50 Redesigns That Transformed Stale Identities Into Successful Brands, contains case studies from 35 designers and firms located around the world. Learn more about the book on the Identity Crisis! blog.)
© 2008 Jeff Fisher LogoMotives.
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