Photo Credit: Joann Arruda

Jonathan and Whitney Speir are the owners of Brown Sugar Design Studio and collectively they are one of our 10 branding specialists.  I know these two personally and have always appreciated their kindness and openness.  In Seattle, we were technically “competitors” but I never felt anything but mutual respect and appreciation between our businesses.  And, their work is simply divine.  Learn more about these two fabulous designers and what inspires them to create such lovely branding identity…

Jonathan and Whitney Speir
Brown Sugar Design Studio
www.bsdstudio.com
Established 2002
Designing since 1998

What is your design specialty?

Brown Sugar Design is most known for design for special events – our specialty is working with brides and grooms to develop wedding stationery that reflects their individual style. We {Jonathan and Whitney} both have years of professional experience working as designers for various companies. We have found that our involvement in the design field combined with our exposure to the wedding industry gives us a unique perspective when designing for event professionals.

Describe your design style. How do you get inspiration?

Whether designing wedding stationery or designing and executing a brand for a professional, we like to make sure all the details coordinate, serve a purpose, and work together for the overall success of the design. It’s the details that are the most fun, which is why we love getting to know our clients as we work with them. The individuals and the passions behind the brand really serve as inspiration!

We both find inspiration from various sources that we pull into our design work. It’s not uncommon to find Whitney bookmarking pages from the latest Vogue or Jonathan coming home with a snapshot of a vintage chair he saw at the flea market. Inspiration can be found anywhere we see good design – in nature, in interiors, in fashion, in personal style – these things influence our own design process.

What is the process like to work with you?

Expect a lot of conversations – we love to get to know our clients since it’s from them that we draw a lot of inspiration! We ask a lot of questions, in person over a cup of coffee, or over the phone (still with coffee in hand, usually), to get to know the client and their goals for the brand and the business itself. As the process goes along, the communication continues – we like to keep an open and direct line with the client throughout the process – from conception to implementation – so that the client feels comfortable and confident along the way.

Give 3 tips on what a small business should do before they hire a designer.

1. Know thyself. I can’t emphasize this enough. Know your target market and your business goals. Have a solid idea of where you’d like your business to go and how you intend to get there.

2. Have a general idea of budget: long term and short term. A solid brand can have lots of components and will evolve over time. Don’t be overwhelmed thinking you need everything at once; design for various items can be completed in stages. When we know your budget, we can help you prioritize which items should be started immediately, which projects might be best worked on in six months, and so on.

3. Be prepared to share what you like and don’t like about your current marketing materials and about other brands out there. Being able to discuss successes and missteps of your own materials and in the brands of others can open up the dialogue and often helps us get a firmer visual grasp on your own personal style.

Featured Work from Brown Sugar Design Studio…

Woodland Flowers
Woodland Flowers is a Seattle-based floral design company that came to us for refreshed marketing materials. They’ve had the same logo for a long time and wanted to stick with that logo, but they worked with us to help them define their brand with an updated color palette and fresh imagery. We started with business cards, and since, they’ve worked with us to create promotional pieces, advertisements, mailers, letterhead, and the like, all of which continue in the same thread.

Paprika Event Design
We worked closely with Heather, the event designer behind Paprika, to create a logo that encompassed her vision for an eclectic event company with a heavy focus on environmentally friendly design. We went on to work with her on business cards and blog design.

Panache
The Columbia Tower Club, at the top of the iconic Columbia Tower in Seattle, came to us when conceptualizing plans for a different kind of bridal show. We worked with them to create a brand that was fun, elegant, and eye-catching. We worked together on a logo, vendor invitations, promotional pieces, magazine advertisements, and tickets.