In the fall of 2019, we partnered up with local lover Luck Davidson to brand her new blog. Named “SoLocal Life,” her new platform focuses on highlighting local people, places, and indie businesses. With a home-base of Greensboro, Luck builds community while eating, drinking, shopping, dog walking, and asking lots of questions.

We set out to help her build her community with a brand she could be proud of. Before we could start designing logos, we needed to narrow down the feel of Luck’s brand.

The best way to do this? Setting forth a series of five mood boards that all demonstrate a different feel and energy.

The winner? The below mood board… but with one request — we incorporate even brighter colors! Less earth tones and livelier hues.

Once we got to the logo development stage, we kept Luck’s preference for brighter colors in mind. But first, we had to narrow down a concept. We toyed around with a variety of fun fonts, organic elements, and playful ideas. Here’s a sampling of some of the black & white concepts we considered:

Ultimately, we ended up with a seal logo that incorporated the tagline “All Things Local.” Our final logo incorporated a bright pop of pink, a saturated green, and a vibrant blue. Deep grey and a soothing tan ground this color scheme.

Four variations of the logo ensure that there’s a mark to fit every space!

SoLocal Life launched earlier this year into — and while COVID has thrown many local businesses into flux, Luck’s support and online presence haven’t wavered. With local businesses working to make it through the pandemic, there’s no better person to follow for updates on all your favorite Boro businesses.

Follow Luck + SoLocal Life on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. And, stay up to date with her website here!

It's been a little while since we've spotlighted our work on the blog -- which makes it the perfect time to tell you a little about Motown Memories, a fundraising event to benefit Rise & Shine (if you haven't heard of Rise & Shine, check out this post). 

We've done a number of projects for them in the past -- including a colorful anniversary campaign -- but our latest project has a whole different feel. Rise & Shine was looking for an upbeat design that would fit in with the colors and style of the Motown era. 

We started by putting together a moodboard to make sure we were evoking the right feel.

After the Rise & Shine team signed off on the moodboard, we dove right in and designed a coordinating poster and e-vite. Take a peak at our work below, or give them a call at 828-883-2295, ext. 15 to purchase tickets to the event. 

View fullsize

Click to see the full e-blast!

If you live in the Brevard or Asheville area we encourage you to attend Motown Memories and see what Rise & Shine is all about!

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Hue & Tone Creative: Non-profit Graphic Design

Is your non-profit looking to build a relationship with a marketing firm? We'll be more than your marketing team -- we'll be your community partner. Working together, we can create the social content, graphic design, and marketing plan to help you increase your local reach.

I've said this before, but one of my favorite parts of being a business owner is the opportunity to be involved in the community. With that in mind, I want to occasionally take some time on the blog to highlight great things going on in Greensboro.

The Renaissance Community Co-Op is a response to a need: residents in Northeast Greensboro needed access to fresh, locally sourced food. No one was stepping up to fill that need -- so the community took it upon themselves to solve the problem. 

Here's some history of the co-op, via their website (emphasis mine): 

In 1998, the Winn-Dixie grocery store on Phillips Avenue in Northeast Greensboro closed, despite being profitable. ... Since that time, the community surrounding the Bessemer Center remained without a full service grocery store capable of meeting its needs. At the request of the community, the City of Greensboro tried its best to attract a full service grocery to the location, but without any luck.

After nearly 15 years of searching for a grocery store to locate in Northeast Greensboro, community residents took action themselves.

And here's the RCC's mission statement: 

To create a democratically owned and controlled grocery store in Northeast Greensboro that provides all of Greensboro with healthy foods at affordable prices and has a commitment to locally sourced foods, community education and dignified jobs.

RCC gives supporters the opportunity to become owners -- able to vote and participate in the decision-making process -- for $100. I just became an owner this week and I'm proud to be a part of this effort to make a better Greensboro.

If you're interested, you can find more information here, volunteer, donate, or become an owner.

I'd love to know about the great things going on in your community, too! Tell me a story about a project improving the place where you live in the comments below.