A Case Study: Polished Prints
March 20, 2024
Category: recent work
a case study: polished prints
create an elevated yet feel-good branding experience that’s versatile as heck — we’re on it.
Polished Prints started in 2018 when founder Leah struggled to find simple, cute graphic wears for her daughter that she resonated with. So she did what any creative mom would do, she started designing her own prints and began printing them herself. The brand organically grew after she started sharing it online and within three years Polished Prints had outgrown both the guest room Leah started in and her home garage. Cut to today and Polished Prints has a 2,000-square-foot warehouse where they fulfill orders for customers all over the world, a brick-and-mortar store in St. Louis, and a partnership with Nordstrom.
Okay, so where did we come in!? Leah reached out to us in 2021 to elevate Polished Prints while still maintaining the feel-good vibe she’d curated. She’d outgrown her DIY brand and was ready to create a timeless brand that still felt relatable and fun as she was scaling her business to be in larger retailers such as Nordstrom. She wanted the brand to feel relatable, inspiring, and purposeful and needed it to be timeless so it could serve her well long-term.
Through branding and packaging, we created a clean and modern branding experience that evoked a sense of good vibes and connectedness for the Polished Print customers all while having the strength to stand alongside the many graphic tees the brand was known for selling.
The Struggle
Leah had more than just a solid customer base, she was excelling! What started in her 8x8 guest room had transformed into a business running out of a large warehouse thanks to organic growth alone. With that growth, she knew she needed to invest in branding. After all, she didn’t even have a true logo design or any brand elements to work with. She needed a primary logo plus versatile logo variations that could be used across mugs, notebooks, clothing tags, packaging, and more. She needed brand elements to create a full branded experience that elevated Polished Prints and took the brand to the next level. She also needed a color palette she could stay consistent with while complimenting the variety of designs she was selling. At the same time, she wanted something versatile and that would work with a variety of seasons and trends for years to come.
The Goal
A modern, organic, and feel-good branding experience that makes the Polished Prints audience feel empowered and uplifted.
The solution
While alllllll aspects of branding are SO important, when it comes to branding a business that’s going to be using their elements on merch or sewing branded garment tags into their product putting a strong emphasis on typography and color palette selections is crucial. When it came to Polished Prints, who sell a lot of graphic tees, we wanted to make sure that we used a modern yet timeless serif that would work organically with a variety of styles and designs. To customize the primary logo further, we added curves to the type to make it feel more relatable and personal.
To further create a modern yet timeless brand, we focused on a neutral color palette. Not only did this help achieve the feel we wanted but it also worked SO well with the products Leah was selling. With seasons and styles changing, we wanted to make sure we used colors that would work well for a long time hence neutrals baby! We leaned into warmer tones overall to create a more welcoming and approachable vibe and then used a charcoal, near-black gray to further create the timeless feel.
The Results
Since we worked with Leah on her branding in 2021 she’s opened a brick and mortar, has numerous stockists carrying Polished Prints all around the US, and came back to us for presentation help to pitch to Nordstrom where Polished Prints has been sold for several years now.
“AHHHH!!!! I LOVE IT! You took my rough idea of where I wanted Polished Prints to go and turned it into something beautiful. I’m blown away. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I can’t wait to share this with our community and put it into play. You’re AMAZING and your work is unlike anyone else. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.” — Leah, Polished Prints
Let’s uplevel your brand and #allthethings that go along with it! We’re here to help you with your website design, custom packaging and collateral, and SO MUCH MORE.
So reach out! The magic is waiting.
