We’re excited to add two completely different — yet completely fantastic — new clients to our roster. Historic Rock Hill and Falcon Motorcycles couldn’t be more different but our excitement for both is the same.
Historic Rock Hill is a 501c3 non-profit organization located in, you guessed it, Rock Hill, South Carolina. Historic Rock Hill’s mission is to preserve and protect the historic resources of Rock Hill and enhance the livability of its historic areas. Historic Rock Hill is currently involved in the renovation of the Historic White Home located at 147 White Street in the Old Town district. We’re excited about the opportunity to bring Historic Rock Hill into our family of clients and help them grow.
Falcon Motorcycles is in the business of motorcycles and business is beautiful. These folks create some of the most finely crafted machines you’ve ever seen. They are truly works of art and we’re humbled by the opportunity to work together.
“Falcon motorcycles are totally modern in execution, but harken to an age when a bike was a metal machine, hot and dangerous, meant to be straddled, its mechanicals visible, leaving a tang in the nose and probably a drop on the ground to remind you that there was in fact something moving around inside which needed oil, but would give its best with a little careful attention.”
As with all of our clients, we are grateful for the opportunity to work with such amazing people and are curious where the work will take us…
Our new cards came in the mail today. We all haven’t been so happy to see the FedEx lady in some time. Props to Copperdog Press for the classy packaging as well.
The cards are letterpressed on 220lb Crane white stock. We had planned to use a light gray paper but had an impossible time finding something that was even close to affordable in the weight that we were looking for. We did a bubble gum pink painted edge on all the cards which is a neat process in it’s own right.
Here are some photos of the unboxing and the cards themselves. Let us know what you think.
Over the weekend Social daytripped to Lexington, SC for a press check of our business cards at Copper Dog Press (well, maybe not so much a “press check” as an excuse to see a vintage letterpress in action.)
Owners Donna and Jeff were super gracious as we shot photos, video and asked tons of questions. They were kind enough to let us rummage through boxes of old lead type as well as gorgeous plates that came with the press itself.
It’s amazing to think of how the industry has evolved with the introduction of desktop publishing, and hard not to mourn the craft that is getting lost in the translation. It feels good to support the artisans who are preserving letterpress printing and know that the process is also gentle on the Earth.
Big thanks to Copper Dog for providing their expertise and a perfect solution to our desire for a tactile, yet understated, business card.
Stay tuned for the unveiling of the final cards in our next post. In the interim, enjoy the footage!
With the logo finalized, we needed a defined color palette to work with for our business cards and full blown website (yeah folks, this blog thing is only temporary).
We used Adobe’s Kuler to help us find a good starting point and modified from there. Here are a few of the colors that we were fond of but didn’t make the cut:
Here are the final colors that we decided to roll with. What’s more social than Bubble Gum pink, right? We’re excited to see how these colors will influence all of the work we do for ourselves in the coming months.
While we were developing the logo we had pages and pages of sketches. We took a few photos of our iterations and explorations. You can see the beginnings of the final logo in some of the earlier sketches as well as some of Tamara’s great hand drawn type which may eventually become shirts.
A big thanks to Paula Scher and Jim Houser for directly inspiring our final direction. We scoured our favorite designers and artists books to gather some inspiration but these two folks really put us on the right path. If you haven’t heard of either, do yourself a favor and google them.
Every identity project is going to have it’s rejects. Here are a few of ours.
The final logo ended up coming from some hand drawn cursive that Tamara did. She took a tiny little bit of handwriting, enlarged and tightened it up into a more geometric and structured form. You can see some iterations in the earlier sketch photos above. Zan took it from there, bringing it into Illustrator, tracing it and making sure all of the points were perfect, widths were uniform and corners were oh so slightly rounded. Below are two versions of the final logo. Next step, color.
We believe in working hard and eating at local dives. Every Tuesday is Social lunch so we took a trip with the Gallery Up crew to the Ebenezer Grill, known by locals as the Big Weenie.
I believe one of the most difficult tasks for a creative person is creating something of significance for yourself — whatever it’s ultimate purpose. Options are endless and direction and guidelines are self-imposed. There are no clients or editors telling you to make the logo bigger or to give the layout more “pop”. While being a designer is a selfless profession, doing work for yourself is, in a sense, selfish.
As Tamara, Zan and I began to talk about naming our new studio, we quickly realized we had no limitations and, without them, the idea of coming up with something filled with any kind of meaning seemed daunting. We might as well open up the dictionary, close our eyes and point.
After countless conversations, a few ideas kept rising to the top. They had nothing to do with the way we kerned our letters or how strict our grid was, but rather the experience we wanted others to have when they worked with us. As Milton Glaser said in his “Ten Things I Have Learned” talk:
“I discovered that all the work I had done that was meaningful and significant came out of an affectionate relationship with a client. And I am not talking about professionalism; I am talking about affection.”
I want to do work that is meaningful and significant. Tamara and Zan want to do work that is meaningful and significant. So, that was it. Plain and simple. Find people we like, become friends, give a handshake or a hug when we see them and produce meaningful and significant work for them. All we needed was a word that represented that.
Introducing Social Design House — the lovechild of partners Tamara LaValla, Zan Maddox and Ben Visser.
For those of you keeping track, Social is what you get when you mix two parts print design and photography (LaValla Maddox) with one part web firm (Nice Outfit.) After collaborating on design projects for years, we officially emerged as Social on April 1st.
We’ve spent the last few weeks deciphering legal jargon, opening new bank accounts and wracking our brains for “strong” passwords. While we juggle these new tasks, along with our combined roster of clients, we’ve managed to begin the process of creating our own identity. Consider this blog your way to share in both the trials and jubilations of “being Social.”
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