Last month my friend Collette and I went for a run. Collette is an equestrian, a Dressage rider to be exact. I am an artist. I quickly realized that Collette who also happens to be training for her first ultra marathon, runs much faster when she talks about horses. So we talked horses, well, she talked horses and I listened. During this running conversation about horses we talked about her plans for the future and those plans of course involved horses. By the end of our run I had her convinced that she needed a website with a blog to showcase her talent and growing career in Dressage.
The inspiration behind the Collette Zimmer Dressage Logo.
A website can be quite an investment of both time and money so I only half expected that I would be building a website for Collette. However, a few days later, Collette was at my kitchen table eager to get started.
Collette was so sure of what she wanted for her website that it only took me a few days to get it built and launched. Realizing the potential that comes with an active blog, she began blogging right away and of course that got her thinking about the next step- an identity for the brand that she now has thanks to the website. She sent me an image of a 17th century painting and asked me to create something similar. At first I didn't notice that there were actually 4 horses interlaced so my first attempt was a flop but not a bad flop and she almost settled. As a designer, I don't like the idea of settling so I had her over for breakfast one morning to have an extended conversation about what she was looking for. During our conversation she pointed out what she had been trying to explain over text messages. Collette's idea came to life as I did a rough sketch over the painting and made adjustments with her input. Soon enough, the lines all fell into place and after a few hours of digital tweaking, the logo for Collette Zimmer Dressage was complete.
The logo works nicely as a stand alone or it can be used in one of the three variations provided. For the font I chose Julius Sans One and thanks to google's font pairing guide I discovered Sacramento. These two fonts look lovely together and are in perfect harmony with this logo. All of this carries over to her website as well as the other business materials that are next on the list of items to create for Collette Zimmer Dressage.
I'm very excited for my friend, she has a lot of knowledge and experience with horses. This is her life, it's her career. Now she has a place to put all of her information, share her stories and attract potential clients who I hope will be wowed not only by her knowledge, but also by the presentation of her brand.
To learn more about Collette Zimmer Dressage visit www.czdressage.com and be sure to like her Facebook too.