Elegant Avenue Beauty Salon

During conversation to my nail technician I mentioned what I did at uni and what I would do after with this degree, in which I told her branding of shops etc.... She then went on to ask me if I would like to brand her salon when she finds a permanent unit, as at the moment she has a room in her family home for her salon.

So I asked her if she any name thoughts to call the shop and she hadn't thought about this although, once we got speaking about her moving into a permanent unit it became quite apparent that she knew how she wanted the salon to look. So I mentioned that we could work on a name from her aesthetics she would like the shop to be in. So I gave her the idea of been Avenue but then including another keyword to bring in the notion of Beauty Salon.

I mentioned my concern maybe if she kept something to do with Hannah because at the moment she is called Hannah's Nails. This also can be overcome by changing her photo on Facebook to the logo so people recognise her logo & the change in name and then people will ask questions and then pass the word on.

So we decided to meet over a coffee so I could take more detailed notes etc... Through this meeting I found out that she wanted it to look very clinical and wanted block sofas with a blocky desk. Which I thought personally was quite strange. So therefore she said she didn't like script fonts and that she wanted it to be in capitals. She also told me that she is currently taking more courses so she can do more treatment when she opens the shop rather than just the 2 she does at the moment, although, she is very established within these two treatments as she has been doing these for 7 years alongside a part-time job. Closing this meeting I told her to send me an email with her colour choices, name of salon, contact details & her price list.

We also talked about what she would like designing:

Business Card
Loyalty Card
Gift Voucher
Price List Big & Handheld
Appointment Card
Disclaimer


We have decided to send information over email due to the distance and due to our difficult schedules. Although, this might not be as beneficial as meeting up in person I think this is going to be more beneficial to us rather than waiting for the time we can both meet up, therefore wasting substantial development time.

This is the email she sent me... So I replied saying that I think elegant avenue due to the avenue is very vague and although from the outside you might be able to tell that it is a beauty salon, on your business card you might not know what it is from first glance and just pass it off. So she agreed with this and told me to pursue the design with elegant Avenue.

I then also asked Hannah if she would kindly fill out this blank brief for me so I can get a further understanding into her needs and what outcomes she would like, incase there is any vital information she has left out within our chat. Then she sent me in back through email, and here it is...

So I then started designing logos for the shop as a starting point as this is going to be on all the stationary etc..

So I decided to work on the word avenue first to get this American & New York theme across. I chose to minus the cross-bar from the A to match the V. This is connoting the avenues that are next to each other in New York as they are parallel streets that are long & thin. This was straight forward and I was very happy with this quick turnaround. 

I like both of the above, it will just depend on which one to what font I use for the elegant.

Now I need to work on the Elegant, which I think is going to be the hardest part due to the word itself been quite scripty and with Hannah not been keen on the scripty fonts I think this is going to be hard to make it work.

 I think this is very formal and that does work but doesn't have that wow factor.

 From viewing this with the Elegant title also, this is very overpowering & too much for the logo of the salon. Therefore this avenue has now been eliminated.

 Here I have tried to add a little elegant touch to the title without been too scripty but it just doesn't work. I am going to try a script font and see what Hannah thinks as she might turn to like it... But I will also give her other choices when I present her with them.

 I think the X high for the script font on this one is too low and the kerning is very wide..

 I think this one is too child like. Like the lines they follow when they are first learning how to join up their hand writing. I think the viewing of the elegant in grey is giving me more of a better outlook as I am think of foiling the elegant on the business cards.

 Now I have decided to create my own script to go with the Avenue. I have refined this to this final product and I think this is the strongest one! I am now going to send her the logo ideas and see which one she likes. I am also going to mention that if she uses my font I have created she will not have to pay for font licenses etc.. Although, it has the script font the block avenue balances it out and doesn't look too girly.