Welcome to TART 2.0

✨ Part 3/3 of our rebrand story: final reveals, lessons learned & a playlist to celebrate

🍋 Welcome to TART TIMES, our studio dispatch on branding, culture, and the art (and business) of showing up. This is Part 3 of a 3-part series on the TART process—and how we followed it ourselves in our own rebrand. (How meta!) Catching up? Part 1 & Part 2

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Phase Three: Refine (Setting The Table)

After Phase One: Discover (putting into words who TART is and where we’re headed), and Phase Two: Define (starting to translate that essence visually), it was time to step into Phase Three: Refine.

Visual identity direction created during Phase Two

A screengrab of my art boards during an early explore 🌀

This is the part of the makeover that typically gets sped up during the montage. But behind every brand identity and website is weeks, if not months, of iteration. That means screen time spent drafting logos, tweaking type, testing color palettes, building wireframes, refining copy, clarifying positioning, and downloading dozens of trial fonts that don’t make the cut.

💌 Shout out to Heather-Mariah, Holly, Lauren, Dina, my partner, parents, and brother for the early eyes, good ideas, and pep talks.

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Phase Four: Launch (Serve Up Flavor)

Before we get to the fun part, let’s bid adieu to TART 1.0.

Goodnight, sweet prince ♡

“Sourness has always been part of TART.... It wakes up your palette. It’s distinct. Charged. A little unexpected.”

That’s the tone I chased for the brand identity and website: punchy but warm, playful yet precise, a little unexpected. Here's where I landed:

For clients, Phase Four wraps with a Brand Guide that shares the identity, along with guidelines for applying it. If we created a website together, typically we’ll walk through how to maintain it and raise a virtual glass to celebrate launch.

For me, it’s time to break in the brand and toast the moment with a margarita.

How’d I do? Would love to know what you think!

You can count on ABBA, Barry Can’t Swim, Talking Heads and Magdalena Bay to usher in a new era for TART.

Takeaways

• (Re-/)Branding is vulnerable
  Being the client reminded me just how personal and uncomfortable this process can be, especially when you're evolving.

• The process works
  Even with the messiness, I came out with more clarity around my approach, values, and creative direction. I feel a bit like: “why didn’t I do this sooner?” But mostly, I’m just glad I finally did.

• I feel proud
  Revisiting the past eight years of work and translating it into a new home filled me with gratitude for the folks I’ve collaborated with. <3 Now I finally have a virtual home that elevates and celebrates those partnerships.

Thanks for riding the wave with me!

isabella

☀️ See you next month! I'll be back discussing what Romans do during August and how taking a "sabbatical" in 2022 changed my creative life.