Evolution of a Brand: Cari Hollis

Cari has been a dear friend of mine for more than a decade and, funny enough, we were friends long before we ever met in person. We “met” on an online, wedding-planning forum. We got married within a few months of each other and formed a friendship with a large group of women. She started her photography business shortly after her wedding and she asked me to design a logo and branding for her. We finally got to meet when I hired her to shoot some family photos when my oldest was about nine months old.

The flower motif and colors were inspired by the custom camera strap she found on Etsy. We designed a bunch of logo variations, business cards, website buttons, and more. We even did gift certificates and advertising graphics for social media.

A few years later, Cari was ready to rebrand and she had NO idea what she wanted for her new logo. She had also added the role of a birth doula and birth photographer to her repertoire. We tried a lot of different concepts, color schemes, fonts, and graphics and, after a lot of back and forth, we finalized this design. This is still one of my favorite logos that I created for her.

After many years as an amazing photographer, she decided to hang up her camera and delve into a couple of different direct sales companies and social media consulting, and since they usually require you to use their pre-designed graphics, we went a different direction and branded Cari all on her own.

This way, her brand remained the same no matter what kind of business she was working on. The bokeh backgrounds paid homage to her background as a photographer.

Earlier this year we rebranded again. Cari wanted to keep the gardenia as a graphic element and we kept the typewriter font because it’s a favorite of hers. We went with the same color scheme for the most and will keep the bokeh backgrounds, but added new fonts and a watercolor motif too.

She hasn’t been able to update her website with her newer branding yet because she’s busy running Direct Creatives!

You can watch the TikTok video I made documenting how I created her new logo here.

I love how Cari maintains the same general color palette with the purple and aqua.

I’m curious where her branding will head next!

Cari's Holiday Card & Moving Announcement

Cari and her family moved last year and it was fortuitous timing that a holiday card and moving announcement could be sent together. She snapped some great photos of her kids in matching Christmas PJs and then we put the moving announcement on the back.

Using the same fonts, we added their address to the back. And don’t worry, that’s not their real address.

Congrats!!

Holiday Cards 2018

Holiday cards are up in my Etsy shop and will be available until December 14, 2018. If you don’t have any Etsy account or would prefer to place an order outside of Etsy, you’re welcome to send me an email and I’ll get your holiday card made.

Here are some of the designs I added this year. Click on the images below to link to the listings on Etsy.

These two designs also have the option to showcase one portrait photo instead of two landscape.

This one below can be done with either a blue, red, or green background.

I also added our holiday card from last year. You can choose between a green, red, or blue faux knitted sweater background.

I added two background variations to my popular Santa’s Most Wanted holiday card.

The design below is a variation on the Santa’s Most Wanted Card that I created for a client a couple of years ago. This one really cracked me up! Through the listing you can choose from three different chalkboard background colors: red, green, or blue.

If you’d like to customize any of these designs with different colors, fonts, or layouts, it’s totally doable through a custom order. Just shoot me a message or email with any questions you may have: alextebowdesigns@gmail.com

Happy Holidays!

Our Las Vegas Vow Renewal

My husband and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary last month, and to commemorate, we renewed our vows in front of a couple of friends and family members in Las Vegas. 

Back when we were planning our wedding in 2007, and kind of over the craziness, we joked about flying to Las Vegas and eloping. My husband confessed that he'd LOVE to have our ceremony officiated by none other than Elvis Presley. We agreed that day that we'd renew on our 10th anniversary with Elvis. And we did!

Even though we weren't planning anything extravagant, I still wanted to create an invitation for the occasion. 

I was going for fun, but not cheesy, and I wanted to slyly put Elvis in there somewhere. The skyline of Las Vegas and a bokeh background worked perfectly to convey the mood I wanted to.

I mailed these to friends and family in metallic red envelopes that I ordered from Cards and Pockets; the Jupiter color. They coordinated beautifully with the invitations. I printed names and addresses on each one with my laser printer. 

We renewed our vows at the Graceland Wedding Chapel, Elvis sang a few songs and performed the ceremony. It was cheesy and so much fun!!  So many thanks to everyone who has supported us over these last ten years.