Rock N’ Roll Bride Brand Refresh
To finish off the week, I thought I’d contrast the angular, masculine identity of Josh Fassbind with the pink, super girly look of Rock n’ Roll Bride.
Kat, who runs Rocknrollbride.com contacted me with the intentions of giving her blog a slight facelift. She’s friends with another of my clients, wedding photographer David McNeil and after deciding to run her business full time, she felt that it was time for a more polished look.
I love Kat’s infectious attitude, bright pink hair and penchant for Vivienne Westwood for Melissa shoes. Her look screams pure rock and roll but with a feminine twist. I wanted to translate that into some fresh graphics for her blog. (To be clear, I didn’t do a full blog redesign, just a new header, colors and menu / navigation bars — she did the install).
Kat specifically requested branding that looked like my The Week in Pictures header; flowy, with serifs. And, as we got started, I noticed that it also has a slight Rolling Stone magazine vibe — classic rock and roll.
Kat liked the pink-haired girl illustration in her old header but the second I saw her photo galleries and started digging, I encouraged her to showcase them instead. To me, they summed up her style perfectly. I wanted to keep the playful side of Rock N’ Roll Bride but at the same time, I wanted to give it a more mature feeling since it’s growing so much.
Kat loves pink but I wanted to narrow it down to just key elements instead since too much of a bright color has the ability to distract from the content. Because of that, I changed the top navigation bar as well as the headers for the right columns to a solid dark gray. The gray anchors the pink while being less harsh and contrast-y than straight black.
The Rock N’ Roll Bride tagline is “Your Big Day the Rock N’ Roll Way” which I love! I set the tagline in Gotham Bold since it has a simple, elegant feel when a lot of tracking is added.
Though this header concept was not used, I wanted to show it to point out what the logo looks like when used without the tagline.
This is another header that was not used but shows what the tagline looks like when set in white. Kat wanted the focus to be more about her blog and brand instead of having her face front and center and chose a beautiful photo featuring a gorgeous wedding dress and bouquet of flowers. It’s just enough to give you that classic bride feel.
As we were moving along in the process, Kat started tweeting about it and Charlotte Gamble of Restoration Cake jumped in and offered to make her a custom cake.
Wow! How awesome is that?!!! It’s so….Rock N’ Roll Bride! It’s been a blast working with Kat — her excitement is infectious and that same uplifting, inspiring attitude can be found on her blog. Check it out!
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18 People have left comments on this post
“I set the tagline in Gotham Bold since it has the look of a timeless fashion brand and a simple, elegant feel when a lot of leading is added.”
I think you mean wide kerning. Leading is the space between the lines, not the letters, isn’t it?
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Nubby Reply:
July 16th, 2010 at 12:52 am
Jay: My mistake. I meant to proof this again before it went live, oops! I meant tracking.
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So coool! Good work!
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thanks so much for featuring me. it was AWESOME to have you re-brand me!
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LOVE the re-brand. It has a super epic, and timeless feel. Love the font. Great work.
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WOW, what a sleek step up! Thank you for sharing these projects with us. I find it hugely inspiring. In fact, your blog motivated me to go back to school for design, something I had been wishing I had done from the beginning. I’m loving it. So thanks again for giving us a peek into your process.
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The old design was super cute. But your design KICKS ASS. And I immediately made the Rolling Stone connection!
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Oola: Thanks very much.
Kat – Rock N Roll Bride: It was so much fun to work with you! You’re so on top of things and knew exactly what you wanted and I really appreciate that form a client.
Wedding Blog: Thanks! In the last few months I’ve had at least 3 new clients who are in the wedding photography field so it’s been a huge crash course and I’ve learned so much from them.
Beth: That’s great to hear — I wish I’d had similar encouragement 10 years prior to when I finally decided to go back so I really appreciate that sentiment.
Sally: Thank you!
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So excited you gals got to work together. Kat’s blog is a recent addition all my wedding reading (I wish I was as rock n roll as she … I miss pink hair). Definitely a classy, yet punk overhaul – totally appropriate for the blog content. Nice work!
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This revamp is gorgeous! I love everything about it. I really wish Kat would’ve used the photo of her on the grass. My eye immediately went to that image – it’s beautiful and edgy at the same time.
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Nubby Reply:
July 16th, 2010 at 4:36 pm
Sandra @ DebutanteClothing: I love that image too but I totally understand why she wouldn’t want her face splashed across the header. I feel the same way about my blog — while I don’t mind showing my face in posts, having it front and center every time someone clicks into my site seems a bit much! Kat’s got a broader perspective beyond just herself when it comes to content so the more abstract image makes sense. But I would love it if there was a way to rotate different headers — she has so many awesome pictures!
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love it! so fun and whimsical yet totally rock n’ roll!
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RockNRoll Bride = Brilliant! i love it
by the way, i guess you don’t respond to people you don’t know on twitter so i’ll try here.
1. what server is your website hosted on? just wondering because i need something new
and 2. i thought you might like this…biggieee supernikkidee. blogspot.com/
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Nubby Reply:
July 17th, 2010 at 9:09 am
Nikki Dee: Sorry about that my sweets, sometimes I get busy and ignore Twitter for big chunks of time.
I use Dreamhost and am extremely satisfied. I’ve heard that it is one of the best by far from my web designer friends.
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ooh Nubby a header rotate thing would be awesome. i’ll have to look in to that!
Sandra @ DebutanteClothing – yeah i love that photo but as Nubby said i didnt want it to be too ‘me me me’ as my blog is about other people’s kick ass alternative weddings really!
i love my sleek, grown up, rolling stone make over! working with Nubby was AMAZING!
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I love rock n roll bride and the new look is so sophisticated and beautiful and fitting.
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Nubby, just.. wow. The new design is amazing! I love how simple and sleek it’s turned out. Great job!
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