Lauren Stubbs, Owner of Stubbs Mobile PT

For our first client spotlight of the year, we’re excited to share a fresh branding project for a brand-new business. We partnered up with Stubbs Mobile Physical Therapy in late 2020 to develop a custom logo and corresponding visual brand elements. Owner, Lauren Stubbs, recently started this mobile concierge physical therapy practice as a response to COVID-19 pandemic. Many outpatient physical therapy practices pivoted to include telehealth and some started offering PT at home, but Lauren jumped at the opportunity to make a fully mobile and telehealth practitioner available to the Triad for years to come.

Stubbs Mobile PT brings physical therapy to your home or private workspace to save you time and unnecessary hassle – all while keeping you safer than a traditional office setting. Being outside of insurance, Stubbs Mobile PT also offers preventative physical therapy services including an Annual Wellness Visit, Health Coaching, or Evaluation and Treatment before you have an injury (i.e. if something "just doesn't feel quite right"). Their goal is to provide top-quality service with longer appointment times and one-on-one individualized care so that you are feeling, moving, and living your best as soon as possible. 

We connected with Lauren while teaching Launch Greensboro’s Marketing 101 class. After discussing the importance of marketing and branding, she wanted to start things off strong with a bold and eye-catching brand. Knowing that a standout look would be crucial to marketing her business, we wanted a logo that would translate flawlessly to polo shirts, sprinter vans, and client swag. 

In the initial branding stages, it was clear Lauren was looking for a pictorial mark to accent her logo type and wanted to emphasize a feeling of movement and energy. Friendly, attentive, trustworthy and proactive are just a few of the words that were used to describe the desired look and feel of Stubbs Mobile PT’s future branding. 

One of our favorite stages of the branding process, a mood board helps ensure we’re on the same page as our client. By assigning visuals to the words we’ve been using, we can begin to home in on a feel for the future brand. 

After presenting three mood board options, we refined Lauren’s favorite to have an even more high-energy and vibrant feel. Lauren had mentioned aquas and blues during our initial branding kick-off, and we ended up tailoring her favorite option to include two shades of blue. The final product? A look that hinged on vibrant colors and energetic scenes. Healthy eating, movement, and the outdoors are central to Lauren’s business and we wanted to reflect that from the very early stages of the process.  

After narrowing down Lauren’s favorite mood board concept, it was time to move on to the logo design phase. Ultimately, we went through 4 rounds of initial concepts, and four rounds of color options to narrow down the exact look and feel. 

Many of the initial concepts incorporated kettle bell imagery, hearts, play or motion. After some brainstorming, we landed on the wording concept of “pressing play.” Used with various action phrases, this tagline could be targeted to a wide range of clients. You’ll see the main logo incorporates the phrase “Press play on being pain free.” 

The final logo uses pops of bright oranges, aqua, and yellow – all anchored by a deep blue. These colors pop on any timeline, and the graphic mark adds an element of action. The graphic mark is a take on a press play symbol – which ties into the tagline and lends itself well to use on social media. When working in tandem, all these elements create an action-packed look that’s sure to be eye catching and memorable. 

We’re thrilled with how this rebrand went, and we’re not the only ones. Hear firsthand from business owner, Lauren Stubbs, about the process: 

“I really enjoyed the entire process of working with Hannah at Hue & Tone Creative. Being a first-time entrepreneur, I knew little about the branding process. Hannah guided me through it with confidence and understanding... even when decision-making was tough because she had created multiple amazing logo options. If I could have two logos I would, because that's how great both of the final options were. Despite the Hue & Tone office and my home office being less than 1 mile apart, we went through the entire process virtually (due to COVID-19). The virtual experience didn't detract from the branding process, but I loved knowing we were both members of the same community. Knowing our proximity, ties to Launch Greensboro, and both being women business owners, gave me a sense of connection even though we never met in-person. Supporting small and local businesses, whether walking distance in downtown Greensboro or in the greater Triad area is a central tenet of Stubbs Mobile PT. Being able to work with someone locally yielded excellent results and I'm extremely excited about launching my new look. In fact, in the few weeks since we've unveiled our new logo we've already received positive comments on social media!”

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Want to learn more about Lauren’s business? Head over to her website to learn more! Or, follow her on Instagram here for regular PT, fitness, and movement tips!

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 easy to spot a bad logo once it’s been created, but what should you be on the lookout for before the design process even begins? 

We see poorly designed logos every day – sometimes as a result of shoddy design work and sometimes as a result of miscommunication between client and designer. No matter what the reason, it’s important to know what makes a good quality logo before the design process even begins. 

If you’re just beginning to consult with a designer – or, you’re a novice designer just getting into brand design – we’ve got 7 common mistakes for you to look out for. 

1. Not considering black and white

If your logo relies heavily on gradients, 3-D effects or a specific color then you’re setting yourself up for failure. No element of your logo should only be distinguishable or in context when the logo is in full color. A properly designed logo will have a strong form and be recognizable as your brand even when printed in black and white. 

You don’t want to embroider your logo on hundreds of shirts only to find that it’s no longer identifiable. If you make sure to create a black and white version of your logo in the very early stages of the branding process, you’ll save yourself from any unhappy surprises down the road.

2. Not designing for all formats 

Every good logo needs to work for something as large as a billboard, but should also be able to printed on something as small as a lapel pin. 

Your logo should be future-proofed – meaning that no matter where it needs to be printed in the future, it will still work well. If your business needs a new branded product, you shouldn’t need to engage a designer to update the logo to make sure it works well on a new product. 

 However, designing for all formats may mean that you have multiple variations of your logo. That doesn’t mean your main logo isn’t effective, it just means that your designer has thought through all the possible applications and designed something that will work for every medium. 

3. Getting too trendy 

A properly designed logo might not look exactly like everyone else’s – and that’s a good thing. Your designer should be creating an original graphic based on your business and it’s unique appeal to customers. 

While you might want an ultra-sleek mark that mirrors what you see Google or Facebook doing, that doesn’t mean it’s the right look for your business. Your logo should be distinct and unique to your business and you shouldn’t get caught up in what everyone else is doing. If you do, chances are you’ll have to update things a few years down the road when the rest of the design hivemind sets its sights on a new trend. 

4. Utilizing raster images 

A professional logo requires professional software – any logo you’re able to create using freeware or that is delivered to you in a JPEG format isn’t going to work down the road. 

When you engage a designer be sure you request your logo in a .EPS or .Ai format – these are vector file formats, meaning they can be scaled to ANY size down the road. Beware, a Photoshop file is a raster image, meaning there’s a limit to the size it can be scaled. 

5. Tacky symbols and excessive inclusions 

There’s no need to include copyright symbols, “LLC”, “Inc.” or registration symbols in your logo. They clutter up the final design and are often distracting from the rest of the logo. Other than on tax forms, you should leave these designators out.  

6. Not investing in a quality designer

Whether you hold a contest, ask a friend to design your logo, or utilize somewhere like Fiverr, you can expect to get what you paid for…. or didn’t pay for. 

Logos are important, which is why they typically cost thousands of dollars. If you don’t budget accordingly, you can expect to cost yourself money down the road when you run into problems with your file formats, scaling… or even issues like plagiarism. 

7. Creating a logo, but not a brand 

While your logo may be a crucial building block for your brand, it’s not your whole brand. Don’t make the mistake of stopping the design process after your logo has been created, because it’s just one piece of the puzzle.

A well thought out set of brand colors, typography, alternate marks, and brand symbols are all crucial to creating a full brand identity. Before you engage a designer, make sure they can help you with the whole branding process and don’t intend to send you on your way with just a logo.  

We suggest asking for a brand guide or brand sheet that outlines all the elements of your brand and how to use each. 

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Hue & Tone Creative: Your logo and branding partner 

Your logo is a major investment – so pick the right design firm to invest in. Hue & Tone Creative is a boutique design firm specializing in all things visual, and we would love to partner up with you on your next big rebrand. 

Your logo is an integral part of your brand. It identifies you. It distinguishes you. And it creates consistency across everything you do.

Anybody can design any old logo. A professional can design a logo that has meaning, purpose and power. So, without further ado, here are our top seven cases for putting some investment behind your business’ logo.

1.  First impressions

You only have one shot to make a first impression, and a shoddy logo could shoot you in the foot. Put yourself in consumers’ shoes. If you’re looking to purchase a product or service and you stumble across a brand that has a logo that looks like it was made on Paint, it doesn’t set a very good tone for what’s behind the scenes.

2.  Relevancy

Telling a story through design takes a certain skill. A skill that not everyone (understandably!) has. From the colors, icons, images, fonts and sizes in your logo, to be truly impactful, every single element needs to have a purpose. And that, readers, is what a professional is paid to do.

3.  Trustworthy

The quality of your logo says a lot about you as a business. A poor logo can be construed as a poor brand, and we know that’s not the outcome you’re after.

Whether it’s a misaligned character, pixilated border or crazy color scheme, below par logos look inferior. High quality logos, on the other hand, give you an ora of professionalism, value and authority - all of which can give you one up over your competitors.

4.  Memorable

A strong logo is instantly identifiable. Whether it’s placed on a billboard, letterhead, social media or paid advert (and everything else in between!), it pulls peoples’ eyes to it, and it’s easily recognizable.

Professionals know that less can be more. That outrageous colors aren’t needed to attract attention. And that designs have to gel with a variety of settings. And they incorporate all of that into your finished product.

5.  Evergreen

As with almost everything in life, logos evolve. What might be spot on for your brand right now might feel slightly off in a few years - but that’s okay. You’ll not find many businesses out there that haven’t adapted their logo over the years, but the key is that they’re adaptable.

Entirely revamping your logo can damage your business’ brand awareness, which is why it’s more about continual tweaks than a complete do over. With a professional by your side, you’ll get a solid logo that’s designed to stand the test of time - bar the potential small touch ups now and then.

6.  Showcases your brand

Your logo is a pivotal part of your brand’s story and values. It’s your chance to let your personality shine through and showcase what you're all about! As an example, here are some of adidas’ logo milestones:

Same brand. Different logo. Completely contrasting messages.

7. Adaptable

Logos are needed left, right and centre. What might work perfectly fine on your website, might not necessarily sit right on your business card. That said, you absolutely don’t want two completely different versions that aren’t in-line with one another.

What you want, and need, is a few variations that fit in any given placement - for example, one that’s for a black background and one that’s for a white background - that are instantly associated with one another.

We could go on and on, but we’ll wrap it up at number seven. If you’re interested in sprucing up an existing logo or are a new brand starting from scratch, why not get in touch to see how we could help?

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Hue & Tone Creative: Logo and Branding in the Triad

Are you now convinced that you need professional help with your logo design? We think we might just be the perfect people to help you out. From logos to branding, and everything in between, we can help you create a lasting impression. But if you're feeling a little unsure we'll let our design work speak for itself.

When the term branding enters a conversation, the word logo usually isn’t far behind. The words have become almost synonymous. Of course, branding is more than the creation of a company’s logo. So, what does branding really mean?

The Definition:

The term changes definitions depending upon whom you consult. For discussion’s sake, we’ll use the Business Dictionary’s version which states “[branding is] the process involved in creating a unique name and image for a product in the consumers' mind, mainly through advertising campaigns with a consistent theme.” Branding is the personality of a commodity. It’s the feelings and expectations that are connected to goods, services and even people based on lived experience and marketing efforts.

The Purpose & Importance:

Businesses use branding for numerous reasons including attracting new customers, securing loyalties, that result in repeat and longtime patrons, and to differentiate themselves from competitors.   

If a business is able to accomplish the above list, it’s safe to assume that it’s at least competitive. With effective branding, it may even be positioned well enough to charge more than market rivals. This increase in value is based largely on consumer perception and is referred to as brand equity. Judging a book, product or service by its metaphoric cover can be extremely advantageous for a company when public opinion is favorable.

How it’s Done:

Going back to our working definition that branding is the process involved in creating a unique name and image for a product, person, or service, keep in mind that there are aspects of this cultivation which are entirely controllable. These include, but aren’t limited to, logos, color schemes, public statements, written communications, social media, packaging, websites, and advertisements. Marketing, public relations, and design firms spend their time becoming masters in these areas, so you may consider using a professional here. So often, companies with quality commodities and excellent reputations find themselves in with injured brands do to ill-advised marketing moves.

The Fairy and Cautionary Tales:

Most people are familiar with the controversial Pepsi campaign starring Kendall Jenner. During a time where clashes between Human Rights protestors and police were constantly in the media and the topic of much debate, Pepsi wanted to weigh in with a message of collaboration. Unfortunately, concerns of police brutality and violent discord were seemingly solved by Jenner handing an officer an ice-cold Pepsi. People were outraged for many reasons. Some felt Pepsi had made too light of serious matters, others railed against Pepsi using a national crisis as a means to sell more soda. Pepsi soon pulled the ad, apologized, and certainly learned from the branding debacle. The lesson here may be to align your brand with matters in the proximity of one’s wheelhouse.

Contrarily, one can take a devastating and embarrassing event like infidelity and use it to boost a brand. Beyoncé, upon discovering her famous husband was allegedly unfaithful, created an album cathartically working through her personal issues. Lemonade went on to become the highest-selling individual album of 2016 globally, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. The admission helped Beyoncé’s brand by reinforcing her image as a smart and incredibly powerful female force.

Questions to ask Yourself:

• What message do you want your product or service to convey in the public’s mind?

• What distinguishes your product or service from anything or anyone else on the market?

• Are you consistently stacking up to public expectation?

• In what ways (beyond performance) can you demonstrate that you are what you say you are?

• Are you choosing marketing opportunities and strategies that align with your current brand identity?
  

These questions focus not only on what businesses say and do, but also on how people respond to those messages. In this way, branding is quite interactive. It’s not a business cultivating images of self that customers credulously accept, but a continuous dialogue between consumers and companies.

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MARKETING & GRAPHIC DESIGN IN GREENSBORO

Starting a new business? Don’t dive in without a little help from the creative experts. From business card design and logos, to social media marketing, Hue & Tone Creative can help you connect with your customers and creating a lasting impression.

The New Year is all about making positive changes: taking up a new hobby, improving your exercise routine, or embarking on another personal journey. Something else you might want to update? Your logo. As your company’s primary visual symbol, your logo is one of your brand’s most important assets. If you haven’t changed it in a while, here are a few signs it’s time for an upgrade.

It was a DIY project.

It’s no secret that fledgling businesses are strapped for cash, and it’s not uncommon for startups to hand the logo design to an artistic friend or family member. Now that your business has had a chance to grow a bit, it may be time to enlist the help of a professional graphic designer. A professional designer will have the best skills and experience necessary to create a modern, polished design that can compete in today’s marketplace.

It was designed for print media.

Ten years ago, company logos were most likely to appear on stationery, in newspapers, and in yellow pages. Nowadays, most consumers are squinting at websites on their phones. If your logo was designed for other times, certain details might not have been taken into consideration.

Ask yourself the following questions: is your logo still legible when shrunk to fit a smaller screen? Does it mesh well with your website design, colors, and fonts? Does it still command attention when placed on a web page with competing information? You might also want a logo that makes an appealing mobile app—think of Apple, whose infamous logo doubles as a desktop icon.

Your business has evolved. Your logo hasn’t.

Almost all businesses grow and change with time, adapting to different marketplace demands. For instance, you may have started a bookstore ten years ago, and expanded to offer coffee and small gift items. Does your logo reflect what you now offer? If not, it may be time for a logo that better represents your current services.

It uses dated design trends.

Many graphic design elements which were once extremely popular can now make a logo look dated. Color gradients, drop shadows, and “glossy” buttons are all design features that are—for lack of a better word—so 1990s. If your business is spelled out in Papyrus font or, heaven forbid, Comic Sans, it’s probably time to refresh.

Your company has made, or is making, significant changes.

Moves, mergers, and acquisitions: there are countless huge changes which can affect businesses. If your company has undergone a huge identity change, a new logo can deliver brand clarification that signifies new, better things are happening for your company.

It’s never been changed. Ever.

Many business owners worry that once their logo changes, their business will lose its brand recognition. But these concerns never stopped Starbucks, Google, or countless other popular brands from pursuing a change. A skilled graphic designer will be able to keep your brand’s core identity while still polishing the logo for a modern audience. A sleeker, more refined logo will signify to the marketplace that your company is present, relevant, and not afraid to embrace new challenges and new techniques—while retaining the core values that it has always held.

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Greensboro Graphic Design Company: Hue & Tone

Looking for a graphic designer in Greensboro, Winston Salem or the surrounding areas? Hue & Tone is a creative graphic design agency specializing in logo design, web design, social media management, and more. Be sure to check out our design portfolio to see clients we’ve helped in the past, and give us a call if you’d like us to build you a custom, modern logo that truly tells your story.

I've mentioned our work for Revolution Mill, a historic redevelopment site in Greensboro offering office and event space, a restaurant and (soon) residential.  Here's a look at the print and web collateral we created for Creating Community Week, a series of events aimed at sharing the vision of Revolution Mill with the public.

A few notes about the work: 

• The design needed some visual and textual continuity, which is why we developed the seal-style logo you see here.
• A consistent (but not rigid) color scheme of red and teal adds to the continuity between each piece.
• The look here is consistent but not uniform, as the audience for each event varied -- from residents of the surrounding neighborhood to creatives/ad agencies to CEOs and community officials.

Let us know what you think! We'll be back tomorrow with a few links to end the week.

Hello, Friday! I'm currently in the office wrapping things up for the week...which usually means scheduling social posts, wrapping up larger projects and a few last client phone calls and meetings. I won't say I never work on the weekends (if I said that, it wouldn't be true) but I do try to reserve some weekend time for recharging. 

As another weekend begins, here are a few links I've been loving this week...

Hue & Tone: Links to end the week part two

One | I've mentioned this before, but I'm really interested in creativity and how it works when you need to be creative on a regular basis -- not just after sparks of inspiration. I loved this article explaining how Pixar fosters creativity and good ideas among its staff. 

Two | There's a lot of great advice out there to help you harness social media for your business...there's also a lot of really bad advice, something this article sums up well. (You REALLY don't need an account on every platform. Or a post with 15 hashtags.) 

Three | This is a great roundup on apps to boost your productivity as a freelancer. We'll definitely be trying a few of these.

Four | Finding the best creative solution to a problem definitely requires a lot of brainstorming. If that's not something you're used to, this is a good way to get started. 

Five | You need a brand, not just a logo. Here's why.

Wishing you all an excellent weekend! We'll be back here on the blog next week.