Project Brief
Marcy Carriker Smothers is the author of Eat Like Walt, Snacks: Isle by Isle; A Walt Disney and Disneyland historian; A TV and Radio personality; and a lifestyle influencer. I designed a new logo and brand guidelines for Marcy. I applied the new branding to a set of business cards, and a WordPress website.
I was the lead designer, project manager, web designer, and developer. I worked directly with the client. I had support from marketing managers on content.
Design Discovery
After sifting my way through Marcy's books, website, and interviewing her I was able to start a few wordplay lists. These lists explored Marcy's industry, what exactly was her niche in those industries, and then a few descriptors to identify aspects of her future brand.
![design discovery details](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/656a2ef5f1342e494d73e34e/65814447a05b97035863659d_foodwinemarcy-01-discovery.png)
Competitive Audit
I surveyed a few figures within Marcy's industries to gain an understanding of how I might approach a professional personal brand. There were some take aways regarding color use and typography. I even noticed that some professionals seemed to correlate their outfits with their branding elements.
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/656a2ef5f1342e494d73e34e/6581445fa8f20e02e69d7c42_foodwinemarcy-02-research.png)
Typographic Survey
I searched a few different font banks for potential typeface candidates. This would be the basis of the logo design, so it was important to do a proper search and experimentation. Once I had a large collection I started sorting them into categories such as: Elegant/Refined, Personable/Charismatic, Energetic/Playful, and Periodic. I tried to stay in categories that corresponded with the wordplay descriptors to retain creative boundaries.
![typographic survey](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/656a2ef5f1342e494d73e34e/6581446ba8f20e02e69d865e_foodwinemarcy-03-type.png)
Iterations
Once typefaces were narrowed down to a few I started playing with them to see where they could lead me. I worked with the typefaces in black and white experimenting with arrangements and trying variations on name. At a certain point in this development I moved into color exploration and continued to push the design.
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/656a2ef5f1342e494d73e34e/6581447712ef3814031bc2ef_foodwinemarcy-04-iteration-01.png)
![logo design iterations](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/656a2ef5f1342e494d73e34e/65814483b4f818e36722c18b_foodwinemarcy-05-iteration-02.png)
Final Logo and Brand Guidelines
The final logo utilizes both Marcy's online personality "Food Wine Marcy" and her full name. The typographic set includes a display font, geometric heading font, and sans-serif body copy. While the logo remains simple with just two colors—a full set of colors were carefully crafted incase designs needed to be expanded in other media formats.
![logo design](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/656a2ef5f1342e494d73e34e/6581449b555f4fef9c8fc15d_foodwinemarcy-06-final-logo.png)
![typography and color styles](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/656a2ef5f1342e494d73e34e/658144a50583e429584b2c72_foodwinemarcy-07-final-styles.png)
Marketing Assets
With a final logo, type, and color I created an email signature and business card design for Marcy to use when communicating and promoting herself.
![marketing assets mockup](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/656a2ef5f1342e494d73e34e/658144b128ecd57f80658d54_foodwinemarcy-08-final-collateral.png)
Website Design
The website design was based off of Solopine's WordPress theme. I changed out the typography and color to follow the branding guidelines.
![website design mockups](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/656a2ef5f1342e494d73e34e/658144ca3fe416ed11c237a8_foodwinemarcy-09-final-website.png)
Conclusion
After the creative process was complete we arrived at a new collection of branding elements: bright warm colors and trendy typefaces—all which summed up Marcy's personality concisely.
I pulled together samples of typography, color, and imagery to compare the branding before and after the project:
![old brand styles](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/656a2ef5f1342e494d73e34e/658145239cc4953e3fc00598_foodwinemarcy-10-old-brand.png)
![new brand styles](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/656a2ef5f1342e494d73e34e/65814532864d9b8b826aa53b_foodwinemarcy-11-new-brand.png)
![Portrait of Jacob McAdam looking into the distance with cubes of light behind him.](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/656269160c4cc472bab6e273/66723ac04d4fe62124e3360d_jrm-design-headshot-4-sm.jpg)