Small Business Identity
The Vintage Shoppe in Muncie, Indiana is local business that sells vintage clothing, accessories, gifts, art and some select trendy items at low prices. Jasmin Shopp opened the Vintage Shoppe in 2014 after moving to Indiana from Austin, Texas. If you visit the store anytime from Wednesday through Saturday, noon to six, you’re likely to meet the members of Shopp’s growing family. The store is overall trendy, warm and inviting.
Many small businesses don’t make well-designed identity, websites and stationary a priority, often because of a small design budget. When looking at The Vintage Shoppe’s social media pages, there is no apparent cohesive design identity. The current logotype displayed on the shop’s Facebook page is dark and I believe non-representative of the bright, inviting nature of The Vintage Shoppe. I enjoy the trips I am able to make there and I’m delighted to support the small and ever-changing store. I wanted to create a design identity that was more cohesive and representative of this wonderful local business.
After sketches and exploration, the identity design I elaborated on referenced the idea of recycling clothing. The main logomark I created is a simple triangular recycling sign topped with a hanger hook, making an overall hanger shape. The capital sans-serif text is in DIN Condensed Bold, with secondary information in DIN Alternate Bold. I made several horizontal and vertical lockups of the signature with/without the logomark and secondary information. I also made one, two and three color variations for different web and stationary uses. The color scheme consists of three shades of green, a shade of orange and black. I used clockwise arrow strokes to compose the graphic identity. Examples of possible graphic elements would be a heart, peace sign or t-shirt composed of the arrow strokes.
I chose to emphasize recycling because it plays off of the trend of environmental awareness that the college-age clientele of The Vintage Shoppe would appreciate. The green and orange color scheme is earthy, yet bright. The colors further emphasize environmental friendliness. The hanger best represents that The Vintage Shoppe is mainly a clothing store and creatively uses simple imagery. Other graphic images can easily tie into the identity by having the same stroke as the logo mark. The example graphics I created all tied into the theme of recycling clothing equals a peaceful and loving earth. I chose a bold sans-serif to reflect the simplicity of this young business and bold style of the clientele.