OVERVIEW
LOGO
Playing With Sparks
The Challenge
Playing With Sparks is a business built around Jennifer Davis, an Expression Coach. Jennifer needed a logo and wanted it to symbolize her work. As an Expression Coach, Jennifer encourages people to view their life challenges using the art of “play.” The challenge – how to capture play in an authentic way to tell her brand story.
PROCESS
Listening for the Key
Jennifer shared and Adri listened. A collaboration began.
As an Expression Coach, Jennifer’s work is built around her insights and attracts clients that are similar to her own personality. She was having trouble finding the right imagery to visually tell her company story.
Finding the Story Essence
For each meeting, Jennifer arrived carrying a colourful bag with lots of texture. As Adri heard Jennifer describe her story, a theme started to emerge that echoed Jennifer’s personal style. Jennifer loved tactile, authentic, and colourful visuals. She also uses a lot of symbolism in her work.
Unlocking the Solution
Jennifer’s personal style opened up the design process.
A logo style emerged:
- Authentic
- Playful
- Colourful
- Texture
- Symbolic
- Professional but personal
RESULTS
The Solution
To keep the element of playfulness, hand-drawn elements were used. Watercolour painting added texture. While computer-generated type resembles handwriting. The result is a cheerful, vibrant, playful, and symbolic logo showing the visual story of Playing With Sparks. A second logo uses many of the elements of the first one, but changes some of the elements to represent another side to the business.
Helping you express what matters,
in your words,
your work, your world.
Early on, Jennifer knew she wanted a second logo which would be an evolution of the first. It is used for another part of Jennifer’s business.
Butterflies replace the flower in the first logo, and evolve from the hand-drawn star “sparks.” A painterly effect on the butterflies softens the look.
Supplemental Imagery
The flower with a heart in the centre sums up Jennifer’s philosophy well. It is important to her that care is at the centre of her business.
Continuing with the symbolism, there are “sparks” scattered over the flower alluding to the Playing With Sparks company name.
This version of the flower is used on her website cover image, and is one of the first images that you see when you get to the site. It begins the visual story.
Another version of the flower is used in the Playing With Sparks logo & on its own to outline Jennifer’s coaching process in more detail (right).
More flower variations visually explain the different company offerings in the promotional brochure (see below).
Watching my inner vision and wisps of ideas come into a visual form was the most amazing experience. Working alongside Adri as she listened deeply, offered perspective and options (but not too many because she learned quickly that I can get overwhelmed) and gently guided me through a process I knew very little about made the incredible results the icing on a very well-baked and personalized cake.
Colour Palettes
Adri has the skill of capturing the essence of my needs and wishes and then delicately balancing that with what is possible – and then taking the whole thing to a new level I didn’t even know existed! I thought marketing and branding were not “my thing” based on some past experiences but the process I went through with Adri helped me realize that it’s all just about revealing what I want the world to see about myself and my business.
Credits
Creative Direction: Adri Spyker
Watercolour Flower Petals & Butterflies: Adri Spyker
Additional Material: Hand-drawn stars, flower with heart, baseball, butterfly concept, photography- Playing With Sparks Team
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