“Brass Egg Studio is fiercely feminist, fiery and wise, with a warm heart of gemstones, and the mouth of a sailor.”
Jane and I met at a Dane Buy Local Networking Happy Hour at our local charitable law offices, BoardmanClark. With Ian’s pizzas galore, of which I was stuffing my face, we had a quick conversation that lead to an exchange of cards, which lead to a meeting in a Barriques, a local coffee shop.
Jane, a self-proclaimed bead stringer, owns Brass Egg Studio. She’s a one-woman show, passionate about her craft and her love of semi-precious gemstones. You can see it in her eyes and feel it in her voice when she tells you about her work.
That meeting lead to a lively conversation that included Jane’s clear opinion on the trendiness of the color gray, accentuated by endearing expletives. Although I am always flirting with painting my house gray, in many other ways, we were soul mates. We like a little bit of everything (except Jane doesn’t like gray). We love the beach. Her favorite color is aquamarine, and I find peace with all colors of the ocean. We are both artists and Pisces. And f-bombs, whether we like it or not, are fixtures in our vernacular.
When I asked Jane, “Why Brass Egg Studio?”, well, that revealed another kindred connection and ignited an “ova-ture” to creating Brass Egg Studio’s new brand identity.
Her answer went something like this…. “I guess when I was naming my business, I was thinking back to my feminist activist days, marching, and I was thinking, ‘there should be another name for when a woman is tough. And I thought, well, we don’t have balls. What do we have? We have eggs!’” I imagined this woman, with the soul of a carnivorous butterfly and the mouth of a sailor, marching for woman’s rights as I reflected on my feminist art pieces and term papers of the early 2000s.
I realized quickly that Jane marched to the beat of an internal, tough, unconventional drum at those feminist demonstrations. She marched into the coffee shop to that same rhythm. As an artist, she, her jewelry, and her business, are one. Her brand needed to reflect her dichotomous identity.
What happened next was a terrific artistic collaboration. I had my computer and started sketching concepts. We were buzzing from colors, shapes, lines, and fonts. In a whirlwind of less than an hour we created a fresh new look for Brass Egg Studio. We looked at each other with huge smiles, recognizing the canon of creative confetti that just exploded between us. We hugged before we parted.
Small businesses don’t necessarily need to spend thousands of dollars and weeks of research to come up with a brand identity. I am passionate about giving small businesses the tools they need to make strong, clear, consistent messages. With the logo and creative guidelines Jane created business cards for herself along with stickers for packaging. Mission accomplished.
I love working with small businesses because of the passion and connection individuals and families have with their work. As a former artist, and growing up in a small business family, I get it. Brands evolve over time, and if you intend to grow, your brand and logo can change with you. However, you are never too small to have an identity that resonates with you and your target audience. It will only help you stand out and stand proud.