REMIX! pt. 1 // Gus & Ruby Letterpress

Putting a face and a heart on my business is something I have been working on for a while now. Here’s where you say, but YOU are the face and the heart of the business, Sarah! To which I respond with, yes I am…but what does that mean?

I live with me every day, I know what I like + what I don’t, what I daydream about + what I have nightmares about, I know all of my deep dark secrets which I will never tell anyone and so on – but ask me to write an “about me” and I get stuck. It’s not an easy process, I’m sure those of you who have had to do this are nodding right along with me, but it was one I had to do in order to guide this business that has become so near and dear to me.

I had to decide what I want people to feel when they look at my website and how I want them to react when they hold a business card of mine or are reading a letter I send; I had to define it in such a way that I would attract brides and grooms who want someone like me photographing their most important day. And on the flip side, I had to be ok with putting so much of me out there that I am going to push away those that don’t want someone like me on their wedding day. It’s a tough thing to do, but it is one that I think will allow me to continue working with the perfect (for me) brides and grooms and insure that the business I am cultivating oh-so-carefully will always be one I love.

And here is where Pinterst came into play for me BIG time. I created a board that was my branding pin board and on it I pinned anything and everything I felt spoke to where I envisioned my brand and the type of feelings I would love to capture. I pinned things without looking at the board for a while and from images of people, swatches of color, quotes, fonts and videos, I put them on there by the handful. After a month or so, I finally went back and opened the board and what ended up coming to surface was very unexpected for me but I loved it! It was dreamy, warm, girly, soft…and gorgeous! I loved it and I would never have thought that it would be all cohesive in the end, but there it was! (If you are curious, you can see the pin board here).

So as I was contemplating all of this last Spring, I approached the girls who own the best little boutique stationary shop in Portsmouth, NH and asked if they could possibly, maybe help me come up with a new face to my business. Samantha and Whitney of Gus & Ruby Letterpress have the best cards in town (chances are if I have sent you a card lately, it is from here), from hysterically funny/borderline terribly mean cards to super sweet loving ones, this place has it. HAS IT! The best selection in town and they support a lot of smaller card companies + vendors that you won’t find at your regular store.

But clearly that isn’t all they do, they also design custom wedding invitations (brides, you should definitely check them out) and business cards for other local creatives. Sam and Whit are gurus at what they do.

I passed this pin board over to Sam and asked them to use it as inspiration along with a few other thoughts that were floating in my head. After we spoke a few times in person (I got teary eyed during one meeting…I am a nerd!) and across email they were getting more and more in tune with what I was looking for. After closely working with the design and getting it juuuust right over the holidays, I finally have my new business cards to hand out! What they came back with in the end was so…gorgeous!! I love them – oh man!

They are letterpressed so the words are embossed onto the cotton paper allowing you to actually feel the letters, and are hot off the presses from Whitney’s machine that she runs herself in New Hampshire (!! I love supporting local businesses so to know that I supported one in the design AND in the actual creation of the cards is so bitchin’). The cards have one of two of the logo designs they came up with for Sarah Vanessa Photography; scroll down a little further to see the second one which I will use here and there on stationary and stickers. They also helped me fine tune the colors of my brand; the soft blue and warm red that we finally settled on are perfect.

From start to finish, it was a joy and a half to work with them. I am so pleased with my cards and the personal touch the two of them put on the project and I can’t wait to hand one of these babies off to a client for the first time! I really feel there is a reflection of me in the cards, the design is simple and clean with a graphical element to them, and I love love love mixing fonts so I am beyond happy with them. OH, and they have my fancy new last name on them too!! Mrs. Martinez at your service! :)

Go visit Gus & Ruby and tell them I sent you, I promise you will love their shop! Thank you Sam, Whitney, Liz, Laura + Smash for all of your help; I am over the moon with my lil cards!

I had to show the little box that Whitney wrapped the cards in – for my brides of this past year, does this packaging look familiar? I swear I didn’t know they did this as well! :)