Neighborhood Notes

A few days ago I picked up my print samples from the printer on this stationery package I recently designed through Defteling Design and I was just tickled when I saw how nicely it all came together!


Lynnette and Ken have worked very hard to create Neighborhood Notes, a wonderful community tool for the Pearl District here in Portland. Now they're ready to expand into other neighborhoods within our city and even beyond! So they approached me about designing their logo and letterhead package (with newsletter and website overhaul to follow very soon!).


The logo design process went super smoothly and I'm so pleased with how nicely it turned out. It totally fits what they do – connecting people within a community and providing them an online place to interact.

Because the logo had to look good on their newsletter and website masthead , it took a distinctly horizontal form. To take advantage of that, I designed their business card to be longer and narrower than a standard card. Plus the double-sided design meant that I could allow the logo to breathe on one side of the card while all the contact information fit neatly on the other.


I'm a big proponent of maximizing your sheet size on press, so I recommended they print note cards along with their business cards. A little hard to discern in the photo, but the front of the note card is cut short to reveal the orange bar that's actually printed on the inside of the card.


I also often suggest, especially to smaller organizations, that clients consider printing mailing labels instead of envelopes. This way, they have more flexibility at less cost - the same label can be applied to a plain white #10 envelope, a colorful A2 envelope to match the note card, or even a large 9x12 to hold presentations.

And if the color palette looks familiar, it should! When it came time to assign colors, Lynnette and Ken asked if they could just use my Cecily Ink color palette since they loved it so much!