I’m so happy to announce the new look of Irwin Street Mercantile – an up & coming, soon to be PowerSeller out of Hanford, CA.

After having her store open for 5 years, Kathy Frappier, Irwin Street’s great owner, decided to take her store to the next level.

She started by enrolling in the success classes offered by Janelle Elms and decided it was time to get serious about her business & update the look.

While she had a step-up on the average seller with a unique color palette & logo, Irwin Street was in need of a make-over.

Knowing that Kathy wanted to keep the vintage feel, my approach to her design was the rustic appeal of the old-time mercantiles – creaky wooden floors, bushels & barrels of produce for sell with products crammed in every nook & cranny of floor to ceiling shelves. We even incorporated a picture of her grandmother to help convey the sense of family.

We played-up the mercantile theme by using custom graphics to showcase her current sales, promote her newsletter & highlight her combined shipping policy.

Kathy’s response to this initial concept was,

“WOW!!!  You have exceeded my expectations as I knew you would!  I think you’ve done a fantastic job of capturing the Mercantile feel. My first thought was that I’m going to have to get better stuff to put into my store to match how cute my design is!”

I couldn’t be more proud of the design & I’m so thrilled to know that Kathy loves the new look so much.

Best wishes to a wonderful & dedicated eBay store owner! Be sure to visit her site at:

http://stores.shop.ebay.com/Irwin-Street-Mercantile

Posted in Client Spotlight by Jennifer | No Comments »

Three years ago today, Boo left my life.

It was the most difficult decision I’ve ever had to make, but her organs were failing & I couldn’t watch her continue to be in pain. She had battled illness for the last year of her life & the time had come.

She was just a lazy house dog…

…who loved to run on the sand…(she was allergic to grass).

She loved to snuggle with stuffed animals…

…and cuddle with Kitten…

and go anywhere & everywhere with me….just to be with me.

I miss my sweet girl.

Posted in Memories by Jennifer | No Comments »

One of life’s quirks in Korea is no hot water. Nope, no wonderfully warm water to come rushing out of the faucet the minute you turn it on. No warm water for your bath, to wash your face, do some quick dishes, nada.

Here you have to push a button.

They don’t use hot water heaters – although I’m not exactly sure what the process is called. All I know is that it takes oil. Oil we just paid $216 US for last week that’s supposed to last us 6 months.

So in order to take my morning shower I had to walk downstairs & push the little button our real estate agent labeled in English for us. (I don’t know what the other buttons are for – I don’t think she ever told us.) I’m sure they’ll be important come winter because if I remember right this place has heated floors – our only source of heat.

Then it’s walk back upstairs, wait for the water to get warm & climb in the shower.

The problem with this process is remembering to go back downstairs immediately afterward to push that little red button. I just noticed (at 2:30pm) that we never turned it off this morning. Crap!

Maybe I should put a sign in the bathroom to remind us, or at the bottom of the stairs.

The irony to all of this is that when we do turn the faucet on & realize there’s hot water coming out of it, we immediately remember we should’ve turned it off before.

Korean Life Lesson #1: Always turn the hot water off.

Posted in Daily Life, Korea by Jennifer | No Comments »

Here is a perfect example of excellent brand management.

Coca-Cola has had the same logo since 1885. Did you know that?…

Because they invested in a quality logo from the start – and kept with it, even when the fashions changed - it’s become iconic. Sure, the advertising campaigns may have changed over the years, but the logo hasn’t.

And that’s why no matter where you go, a Coke is a Coke…even in a tiny teriyaki shack in little-bitty Anjung-Ri, South Korea.

Posted in Branding, Logo Design by Jennifer | No Comments »