the Bb blog.

I love hand.painted, hand.made signs! I found a treasure when I found Mike who still hand.paints & builds his signs. He was able to take a Bb design for The Willows Lakehouse in Downing, Missouri and create a work of art that will last for years to come. When I met Mike he told me that the majority of his customers will make many times more than what they will put into one of his signs. Sometimes we look at the initial cost and forget how long the sign {logo, website, business card design etc} will actually last. Especially if you hire someone who cares just as much about your business as you do and puts that into their work.

Signage is just as important as your logo, business card, website etc… when someone walks or drives by your shop you want that sign to reach out and grab them, draw them in. “Ohhh… that is a beautiful, cool, amazing sign, I need to see what else is inside.” Some of the shows on HGTV might call it curb appeal… if we don’t put much into the outside why would someone want to come in and check out the inside. Anyway… you get the idea.

See a couple pics of The Willows sign below… now, you cannot tell me that this sign does not make you want to know more about The Willows. And it definitely gives the feel of a Lakehouse Retreat. The secret is getting out about the Willows… your own private lake and lakehouse with a full kitchen all to yourselves… you gotta check it out. {www.thewillowslakehouse.com} For those of you that live in NEMO… it is perfect for a weekend getaway, think ‘save on gas’, amazing sunsets & rises, fishing on the lake and for those of you who need it they also offer a bigscreen with satellite, there really is something for everyone.

We also had Mike build a sign for the Red Rooster, all I can say about that one is WOW! … so come back soon for that post. And if you are interested in getting a quote for a hand.built, hand.painted sign give Bb a jingle {509.429.1989} or shoot me an email {design@brittaburrus.com}

Thanks for stopping by…
–Britta

Bb design had a great opportunity to design and program a website for a Department of Energy National Laboratory – Future of Instrumentation Workshop (FOFI) that will take place at Oak Ridge National Laboratory {Oak Ridge, Tennessee} at the beginning of November. Who would have thought that I would get an opportunity like this way out here in Bible Grove. God is so cool!

Thanks to Peter Fuhr for sending it this way… I have had the opportunity to work with him on several projects and I am so thankful for these… as they are not Bb’s typical websites or projects. Sure has been fun to get outside of my design box and work with people that are in fields totally different than mine. I think we have made a pretty good team thus far… check out the snapshot below… and visit the site {www.futureofinstrumentation.org} for more or if you are interested in attending.

Since it’s Friday, I thought I would share a fun baby announcement I got to do a while ago. Our dear friends, Nate & Jessi, had one of the cutest little babies ever. Her name is Anne… I had the privilege of designing her baby announcements. Nate & Jess pretty much gave me freedom to do whatever I wanted… Jess does love flowers & one of her favorites is the daisy. So, I took that and ran… of course I found the cutest pink envelopes with a string to close it & added some coordinating thank yous! When you have such a sweet face to design around… you really can’t go wrong. See pics below.

Thanks for stopping by & have a great weekend!!

As a designer when I look at a logo I always wonder how many steps it took them to get to the final. I am sure that others go about getting there in a different way than Bb design, but this is how it works around here. {As all designers will know, not every story goes quite this smoothly… sometimes it might take a few or several more steps to get to the end.}

Step 1. Initial meeting with client — in real life or virtual — get any ideas client might have, colors, style, what they want their logo to say about their business etc.
Step 2. Dream, pray & think about ideas. Seriously, praying for me is a big part of the story. After all God is so big and look at His creation… talk about a creative! His supply of creativity is limitless and He knows my client even better than I do! Ideas and concepts sometimes come at funny times, while I am supposed to be sleeping or while I am out on a run. I love this part of it!
Step 3. Research — see what’s out there for the client’s profession or business. How can we stand out from the crowd? Get outta the box, yet still remain professional & true to their profession or business.
Step 4. Concepts — Depending on the package we come up with 2-3 concepts for the client to choose from. This is always fun, cause I get to work with fonts, colors and the mark.
Step 5. Client chooses one or a mix of all the concepts and it is revision time.
Step 6. Present final logo to client & it’s time to use the new logo in all promotional materials!

Benefits of a custom Bb logo: a.} You will get what you want. b.} Each logo is a custom design. NO clip art here. c.} You are part of the team, it is important for Bb to get to know each client and from there build the logo they want & need. d.} Each logo is built as a vector-based file, so you will get all the file formats you need whether for a website, billboard, tshirt, business card, signage etc.

The latest logo project Bb got to work on was for the Scotland County Pharmacy. This is the story…

Client said he likes old time apothecary, blue, and mortar and pestle, but maybe the mortar and pestle was used too much? { Do you know how excited I was when I heard old time apothecary?? }

After the initial dreaming, praying & researching Bb presented 3 concepts to SC Pharmacy… and we mixed a couple of them to come up with the final logo. Even if other pharmacies are using a mortar & pestle as part of their logo I haven’t seen it used quite like this and we added an old time apothecary bottle to make it stand out that much more. One of the fun parts of building a custom logo is reinventing an idea. After all … there isn’t anything new under the sun, but it sure is fun trying to present it in a different way!

Check out the images of the initial concepts, final logo & business cards below… we were all very happy with the end result! What do you think?

Well, I just had to take a moment to post pics of these business cards. I made them for a friend who has an antique and craft business… if you are in the Yakima, WA area you will have to stop by her booth and see what treasures you can find. { Memories on the Ave, 509 West Yakima Avenue, Yakima, WA }

These cards were a birthday surprise, so I had to be sneaky. I couldn’t ask her what exactly she wanted, good thing I have known her for a few years and she posted some pics of her booth on facebook which helped inspire. She loves color, texture, old things, nature… I printed the colorful design on cool textured paper, gave the edges a bit of a vignette and roughed em up to add to the whole effect.

I am just so excited about these cards. They were almost too hard to give up, I wanted to use them for myself… hehe. It was really hard for me to wait til she received them to blog about them… I did it though, couldn’t ruin the surprise. Hope you ‘likes’ them Nik! Check out the pics below to see what I came up with.

I just finished updating the website of vagabond photography. I recoded a bit of it to make it easier to update in the future, cleaned it up some and re-organized. Guess you could call it spring cleaning. Then for the fun part, I got to add more of her amazing pictures to the photography page and vagabond has reduced the prices of her belts!

Did you hear that? You can get your very own vagabond belt with reduced prices!! You’ll just have to check out her site for yourself and find your belt. A vagabond belt seems like a perfect gift for mom too, after all Mother’s day is just around the corner! If you don’t find that perfect one, you can always go for vagabond custom… contact her for more info photography@vagabondstyle.com. See some pics below and to get the whole story check out the site. { www.vagabondstyle.com }

I recently had the opportunity to work with Matthew 25. They are all about helping & meeting the physical needs of people and showing them who Jesus is, He is good, faithful, full of grace, He loves each one of us just as we are. Matthew 25.40 says… I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me. — These folks are doing a lot for Jesus! They wanted a site that would be informative of how others can get involved to help our ‘neighbors’, but making sure they show the heart of their ministry which is the people they can & do help.

I think we came up with the perfect site. It is a custom designed WordPress Site… that way they have all the wonderfulness of wordpress, but a custom Bb site design that sure does stand out from the crowd. {A little bit of that WP wonderfulness = CMS (Content Management System – they can login and update or add new pages), blog or latest events, plugins galore}. Taking it to the next level we added a transitioning slideshow showing the people of the ministry.

Check out their site {http://www.25matthew.org}.

If you have visited the Bb blog lately you have probably seen some of the other projects that I have done with Oakwood. Everything from logo redesign, photoshoots, catalog design&layout, table tents, DVDs & more. It has been such fun working with them.

One of the latest has been these billboards that go on either side of their building on Hwy 136, Memphis MO. I am loving how they are realizing the importance of branding their biz. I think we are doing a great job of letting folks know that there are some changes going on at Oakwood. They have all kinds of ideas up their sleeves…

Anyway… check out the billboards below… if you live in NE MO, maybe you have noticed them as you drive through Memphis coming in from the East or the West. My guess would be… it would be hard to miss these new billboards. And if you have a minute stop by and talk to the Oakwood guys, they are very helpful and I have never caught them without a smile. Ask them about their latest collections…

Once in a while I get to put on the hat of photographer. I don’t claim to be a photographer, but I do have fun with it and sometimes you gotta get creative and use what you have. So, I lugged an old, yellow chest that I have out to the deck, brought a couple props and took advantage of the natural lighting.

These are product shots for Red Rooster Trading Company. The Camano Coffee Mill & Mabana Pepper Mill: they are not only beautiful but functional too. If you love coffee you have to try out the Camano Coffee Mill… it adjusts to consistently grind from coarse to fine. So, not only do you get an even better cup of coffee, but it looks great sitting out on display. They both make great gifts too!

The first few shots were taken today and the one with the beautiful blue sky was taken a couple days ago. I might have to try it out on another sunny day… that lighting is much nicer. But I don’t think they turned out half-bad and will def use some on the Red Rooster site {www.redroostertradingcompany.com}

Check out a few below and see what you think…

Since I was a little girl I have always wanted to have a shop. What would that shop have in it? Cards , hand made stuff… but not the crafty stuff that you regift or put on a shelf and never think about again. I wanted to have stuff that would be cool, beautiful… yes mainly decorative, but that you would be excited to display in your home. And of course there is the idea that things being handmade in the USA is a good thing.

Well, recently Justin & I have had this great opportunity presented to us! Out of the blue a dear friend of ours, a lot of you might know him as Nate, contacted us with a proposition. The first emotion was excitement… what fun… Justin could take care of the hand.built part, I could handle the design & marketing and ‘they will come’, right? Well… we were still excited, but it took us a little longer to take care of the details and there were more of them than expected. We finally got our end of it figured out and viola! Red Rooster Trading Company was born.

Justin is now in the shop quite a bit building ‘The Camano Coffee Mill’ & ‘The Mabana Pepper Mill’ and I have had such fun in building the logo, website & some online ads. Nate has been so patient and kind in training us in the biz. We are keeping the same ‘hand.crafted quality’ of the original Mills and we have some ideas up our sleeves for some other hand.built goods. And not only are these mills cool, beautiful, they actually work and work well. The Camano Coffee Mill will make your morning cup even better! We have even had several orders for each, yahoo!

You know that saying? ‘Things just aren’t built the way they used to be’ — well our goal with Red Rooster Trading Company is to ‘make things the way they used to’. Missouri is known for its quality hardwood. We travel North of us to Amish country to hand.pick the hardwood that is used for the mills. A food-grade stain is used to finish the wood so you don’t have to worry about harmful chemicals. Justin builds each mill with care. And have you seen them? They would look great anywhere! Even if you don’t drink coffee you will want to get one of your own for display.

You might have noticed while reading, but we are still really excited and can hardly wait to get some other things added to the shop. Check out the pics below of the logo and website. And be sure to check the store often for our latest arrivals. You can also find Red Rooster on facebook here {http://www.facebook.com/pages/Red-Rooster-Trading-Company-Handbuilt-Goods/108355095853363} and visit the site here {www.redroostertradingcompany.com}

Thanks so much for stopping by! And come again soon…

On a side note: Nate had actually hired me a couple years ago to do some of his marketing materials… logo, mailers, labels & online ads for Camano Coffee Mills. What fun!