My niece, Genevieve Richard has begun a jewellery workshop. She is based in Hereford and is currently doing a cherry blossom series. She asked me to design a logo with some hand lettering on it. Here is the result.
This is the ethos behind the logo: Somnio is a word that means to dream. WE felt that the logo should be something modern, sophisticated, understated, feminine, have a sense of flow and be handwritten.
The S can also be used on its own and it suggests earrings.
Here are the questions that I asked before beginning the design:
- What type of jewellery does Gen make and what is the feel of it – is it chunky or delicate, costume or metal etc?
Her jewellery is delicate and her forms are based an natural forms and she sometimes has a tracery effect e.g. a dragonfly’s wings. - Where will she sell it and what backdrop will she use to present it? She’ll sell at fairs and art galleries as well as online. I loved her coral background and we tried the jewellery on various patterned and plain backgrounds before deciding on framed scrim (mull); a light coloured carved wood and an embossed surface.
- What would the colour scheme be? She wanted to include at least one colour because so many jewellers only use neutral backdrops. She decided on sea-greens, turquoises, teale as well as the natural calico, light woodcarving and black fabric.
- What structure can be used for presentation? The backdrops we chose work really well as the tops of rectangular cubes as snugly fitting lids.
I drew the S in Illustrator and did the hand-lettering using a Brause Ornament nib – with a round tip. We cna use colour in the business card and in small quantities on the packaging.
Really interesting to read about how you went about this Lin, so many thanks. I can understand why you left the S separated but I would have been inclined to link the last letter o. Did you think that was too obvious a decision?
Hi Jane
I kind of liked it as I had hand-scribbled the initial idea where the o was separate and I thought about it. If more people say it should be joined, I could do so…
Lovely design Lin – look forward to checking out Genevieve’s jewelry too.