Brand + Website Launch | The Dusty Baker

One of my dear friends is a wonderful baker. She’s constantly blessing others with her delicious baked treats and everyone raves about them. For the past couple years, I—and several others—have been telling her she needs to open a bakery and sell her goodies.

This friend is also a huge baseball fan (all the more reason why we’re friends). She particularly loves the Washington Nationals and their head coach—Dusty Baker.

So when she mentioned her dream bakery would be called “The Dusty Baker” and would be located right in our neighborhood, I thought it was genius. I knew I had to create a branding package for her.

No, this isn’t an actual business, bakery, or website, but it sure was fun to create the brand + website design for when she does decide to make it happen!

The words I chose to describe her company were: Bright, Joyful, welcoming, homey, and vintage.

I knew I wanted to incorporate flour and a “dusty” feel, while maintaining the nostalgia associated with the game of baseball. I wanted to incorporate the color red, to tie into the National’s team colors, while maintaining the crisp, whites and creams of a bright, joyful atmosphere.

Here’s a look at the inspiration board I put together for her project:

To brainstorm logo concepts, I always put pencil to paper and sketch ideas. It’s the least organized part of my design process, but it’s an important step in getting my creative juices flowing.

Once I felt like I have several good ideas, I used Adobe Illustrator to flesh out the ideas and create digital designs. I always start the design process in black and white, and then move into color. In this case, I wanted to stick with classic black and white.

Here are the 3 logo concepts I came up with:

We decided to go with the top option, which also included a font from option 3 as a secondary font.

Once we had chosen a definitive logo, I created a secondary logo, a sub mark, a color palette, and patterns. I put all the pieces together in a style guide. While designing these items, I always keep the inspiration board handy to make sure I’m staying on brand with the original vision for the project.

The final style guide is a great resource for the client to reference moving forward. Here’s the style guide for The Dusty Baker:

After I completed the style guide, I moved on to create social media branding and collateral items. I put together banner images for Facebook and Twitter as well as profile images and app icons. I also created business cards, a menu, and packaging.

I wanted The Dusty Baker’s website to be simple, clean and efficient. We didn’t have a large amount of content, but we had great images to feature, so I chose to use a scrolling page style. It helps keep the focus on the amazing baked goods this bakery offers.

Again, this is not a live website. It is simply a concept for a friend who loves baseball and baking. 

I had so much fun creating this brand and website for my sweet friend. I love being able to bring to life the visuals and emotions associated with a business.

Do you have a business in need of a new brand or website? I’d love to work with you! Visit my services page to learn more about my packages, pricing and design process. To view more of my work, visit my portfolio, and if you’d like to chat or learn more, feel free to contact me here!