New Look, Same Heart: The Story Behind Our Delightful Rebrand

Hi lovelies! I am back today with a wonderful behind-the-scenes interview with Caroline Frett, a super talented illustrator from Berlin, who is the heart and and hands behind the new look we've been sporting for a little while.

Caro also has a shop for her delightfully cheeky and (sometimes brutally) honest T-Shirts, postcards, and mugs. (I am particularly fond of this T-Shirt and this postcard!)

I am so excited Caro agreed to an interview to share her thoughts and work process, and what she especially loves about our rebrand!

Hi Caro! It’s a pleasure to have you on the blog today! I have been loving your work since we met - what, eight years ago? -, and I was so excited to get to work with you on our new branding. Before we dive into that, could you tell us a little bit about yourself and your work?

Hi! Thank you for inviting me on your blog! I have a degree in textile design, but now I work as an illustrator and pattern designer. I have my own business, where I sell prints, postcards, home goods and apparel with my illustrations - you can see and buy my work at carolinefrett.com.
I also do client work - like I did for you! I’m also a knitter, but luckily that’s not my job - luckily because this way I get to thoroughly enjoy it as a hobby. It did certainly help me to get a good feel for your brand though, and thus definitely informed my work on this particular project.

I really loved the organic approach to our new branding. It felt like it grew in a very natural, gentle way. Could you take us through the process we went through in our project?

I believe we started with a chat about what you were looking for when you visited me at my shared studio space. I remember you told me something along the lines of you being “one of those horrible clients who don’t really know what they want yet”! You did communicate the feeling you wanted the branding (and especially the logo) to convey very well though, and you seemed confident that I was the right person for the job - so I actually felt pretty free to experiment, which was cool!

After that I sent you a range of rough sketches (basically a visual brainstorming session) for the logo. I believe if you get to design an entire new branding, you have to start with the logo, because that’s the key piece which then informs the rest. 
The arms “holding” the MAKING STORIES lettering were amongst those sketches, even though they didn’t have any tattoos yet… ;) Those were added later, together with the finalized hand lettered text in the middle. Icons, fonts and colour palette followed after that.

Let’s dive into the different aspects a little deeper. When you were developing our new logo and the icons to go with it, what was your goal and how did you get there?

I remember you saying you wanted the logo to convey warmth repeatedly, so that was what I tried to hold onto while sketching. I think I had several hands in there, like a hand holding the lettering for example. But the hug-sketch worked best in my opinion, and you instantly picked it as your favorite as well, even though I hadn’t mentioned it to you. So we went from there. The tattoos were added because you felt like the logo needed a bit more. And it’s true! This way we got to show much more of what Making Stories is all about at first glance!

The icons were an easier task because many of them were quite straightforward to illustrate. And by then we had already decided on the style, since the logo was fixed. Obviously the sheep, alpaca and goat icons were my favourite to draw! :)

I adore the two fonts you picked for us, Supernett (that name alone!) and Rasa. How did you pick them?

I will admit that the fonts were the part that I was most nervous about when we first talked about the re-branding. I personally almost exclusively use my own handwriting in my work - I embrace it now, but it sort of just happened because I felt like I didn’t have a good eye for fonts.

When we had decided on the logo it became clear that we would need a hand lettered font because of the hand lettered MAKING STORIES text. For a while we even debated whether I should make one myself. But before diving into that project - which would have taken a lot longer! - I had a good look at hand-lettered fonts that were already around. The name “Supernett” definitely made me smile, too, and it was a very good fit.

I then went for another quest for a “quieter” font that would be easy to read and work well for both print and online use - and Rasa just appealed to me right away! There wasn’t much more to it than that I’m afraid. :)

The third part of the branding project was the new color palette - and for me, it was love at first sight when you sent over your suggestion. Tell me - how do you pick colors for a project like ours? 

I had asked you how many colours you needed and what else was important to you - again, that feeling of warmth came up. In my mind I immediately jumped to a pale pink - I just have a thing for pink. Many people do not though! I remember asking straight away if pink was a no-go for you, and you denied - yayyy! So I picked a pink and went from there. Two neutrals to use as backgrounds and a brighter pink to use as a pop!

What are your two favorite things about the new branding?

I love that the logo is essentially a hug! :)

Is there anything you wish we would have done differently?

Actually, no! I think this was a very organic process and I have no regrets or hang ups about it!

Thank you so much for your time, and your insights. I absolutely loved working with you on the rebranding, and I hope that we have a lot more projects coming up in the future! Make sure to check out Caro's work over at carolinefrett.com!