Our official logo reveal went live two weeks ago on our social media pages. If you happened to miss it, stick around. In this post, I will be discussing my passion behind this company, the process of creating this logo, and then show you the result.
The Passion
I started Cherished Chapters Tutoring after having freelanced my services for about a year. Tutoring came as an unexpected but pleasant surprise. I've always been a people person, but I didn't realize how much fun working with students could be. I've met some kind, smart, and delightful students through tutoring, and I've learned from them as well. I have had a surplus of people who positively impacted me throughout my academic career and I want to be able to give that back and do the same for others. Every student deserves to have at least one educator in their corner. They need someone who encourages them to be and do their best in all aspects of life, not just when hitting the books. The positivity and joy from succeeding academically gives students the motivation and confidence to succeed in other areas too.
My goal with this business is not to limit myself as far as age groups. My preference is vpk through 3rd grade. I think they are the most fun and interesting to watch develop, especially as they grow a passion for reading. This passion usually comes as they grow the self-confidence and realize they are capable despite the struggle. I am also an editor at heart and would love to be able to work with older students if any ever need assistance writing papers or drafting up ideas for things to write about.
The Name
Naming a company is way harder than most make it out to be. The name has to be something that isn't too long and it needs to be catchy, memorable.
Disclaimer!
Don't be fooled... It took me maybe two or three weeks to go through this process. Originally, I just wrote down a whole list of random names that I thought sounded nice or were relevant to tutoring. They didn't necessarily tap into the heart behind my motivations, but it was a start. From that list, I had to really think about how the name reflected my personality. Then I had to run the names I'd come up with through the database of businesses already existing. (Hello avoiding copyright infringement!) After going through all of those names, checking which ones were available and which were not, I realized none of them really spoke to me. I wasn't sold. That's when I knew I needed to go back to the drawing board and try a different process.
Being the English nerd that I am, I tapped into the literary device of alliteration and used my thesaurus of a brain. I knew the name of this company needed to be something that reflected the subject I teach (English), the phases of life, and the importance of both... and they both had to have the same beginning sound so that the name could roll off the tongue. I thought of a word that meant important to me, and important to others: Cherished! What is relevant to the subject of English? Books! What is a word that connected both books and the phases of life, or the phases of learning? Chapters! Just like that Cherished Chapters Tutoring was born.
The same love and dedication that I poured into finding a name, I wanted to be reflected in our logo.
The Logo
Picking an artist to take on the task of creating the logo was no simple feat. There is a variety of talented people available, but I wanted something unique. I also wanted to uplift and support another small, local business if possible. After looking around a bit, I decided that McKenzie Bengry over at White Desk Studio had a very unique style that I thought would fit perfectly.
McKenzie is a local Florida artist, living in Auburndale. She often travels between the Auburndale and Lakeland areas. Okay, I didn't just happen across her; I met McKenzie in college. That she is also a very close friend of mine from college just adds an extra layer of sentimentality into the creation process. She recently just started up this art page of hers, and when a post popped up on my Instagram feed one day, I knew it was the right fit. Most of McKenzie's work is digital art, and I knew I going to need digital renders for both my social media and for any printable projects I might do in the future (aka business cards, flyers, etc.).
When asked to describe her art style she said:
Unique and individual. A reflection of daily life and interests.
Before I reached out to McKenzie I dabbled with what I wanted my logo to look like generally. I knew I wanted something that could be split up for simpler business card design but look amazing and embody the spirit of the company when together. Now, I'm no digital artist (as you'll see in my terrible renders), and I probably could have done better had I taken paper to pencil, but I love a good challenge.
My initial inspiration:
My Drafts:
Now you see what McKenzie had to work with. After sending her these drafts and sitting down for an initial consultation meeting (via Zoom, stay safe everyone!), McKenzie left me with this mood board for the project and set to work on some drafts.
Several weeks later, a couple of meetings in between, and we came to the very end. We went through lots of drafts, lots of font searching, and lots of editing before we came to the final product decision. Her time, dedication, and continued patience as we worked through this process together were incredible. She understood my vision very quickly and was able to bring several different options to the table, along with what I had originally wanted. This was just in case what I had asked for didn't come out as I had envisioned. I greatly appreciated her being open and keeping me open to the idea of change while still staying true to my original intent. Here are the final products we came up with!
A huge thank you to McKenzie Bengry over at White Desk Studio! If you want to reach out to her, you can find her on Instgram. Her page was linked above.
**All images copyright of Cherished Chapters Tutoring except the marked photo
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