Welcome to the CME Blog! After months of working on this sucker, we have launched! Today’s post is all about how travel inspired me with the design of my company’s logo and website design.
If you had seen my first design back in the Fall of 2006, you would die! My logo was a pineapple. Yep, a piña. The pineapple is the symbol of hospitality, so at the time, I felt it was the perfect fit. What was I thinking? Everyone just smiled and told me it was “cute”. I had the pineapple (along with many pineapple accessories – paper weight, desk lamp, notepads, thank you cards, etc) for five months. And then I came to my senses.
In February of 2007, I traveled to New Orleans for my cousin’s wedding. I stayed at the oh-so- beautiful Ritz Carlton in a room with toile wallpaper, fleur de lis, and gorgeous damask fabric. That night I emailed the fabulous Nick Maggio – our handsome and charming graphic designer – and the CCE logo and wallpaper were born! But it wasn’t so easy for Nick to work with me!
Nick’s first stab at my design:
very cool, huh? But didn’t feel like me. we kept trying. I used this for inspiration:
… and Nick turned it into this:
A year later, Sarah and I had “the talk” and our name changed. We were back at it again,
redesigning this logo. Poor, poor, Nick. See below… what a good sport.
He kept sending. We said no. A lot.
So here is where my travel comes back into play…
I traveled to London and stayed at the Grosvenor House. I stared at the hotel’s logo and realized it was perfect!
A name change, a color change and countless logos later, we ended up with what you see today:
You never know what pops up to inspire you when you are taken out of your day-to-day
routine, so keep your eyes open and save the pineapple for your piña colada.
Safe travels,
Courtney Caplan
