It has been almost three years since I launched Studio 9 and, like any new business finding their feet, I have gone through a number of business changes. For the time being, I have decided to put the educational aspect of my business to one side and embrace the design element, wholeheartedly. Whilst I have always had a sense of what I wanted Studio 9 Ltd to be, it is only in recent months that things have become clearer.
Whilst design is technically my "thing", decision making, just isn't! I had a million ideas for the rebrand but for some reason couldn't commit to something for myself. After various toing and froing - sketches, pinterest boards, reading various design-related literature and blogs, even more sketches... it came to me, in three words, mentioned (in passing) by a very dear friend - "Dare to Change".
Over the summer, I had an offer accepted and moved into my very first home. A couple of months in and I have gone from not really being all that great at making decisions to make a million decisions in a short space of time - some small, some not quite so small and I'm okay with that.
The dust settled somewhat and one evening I drafted up an email to another NOTHS partner and design aficionado, Heidi Nicole. After a flurry of excitable emails, Heidi agreed to work with me on the new branding for Studio 9. I would like to think that I very much practice what I preach, gave a clear design brief and it was all plain sailing... Heidi might tell you otherwise.
I initially wanted to keep the hand-drawn element of my original logo and the grey colour scheme, but make it a bit more friendly. Image boards were created and within a few weeks, the first drafts pinged into my inbox. She nailed it. 110%. A couple of tweaks to the main logo, a couple of secondary options and the addition of a deep inky blue to bring out the detail and we are just about there.
So here we have it... our new brand styling courtesy of Heidi Nicole Design and boy do I LOVE it.