Thursday, July 3, 2008


Here it is! My name and my logo. However I have to say that all the names suggested by my brothers were absolutely hilarious and well worth a click on the comments link for my last post. Chris spent about 3 hours getting this logo together exactly right and making templates for stickers and things.

Just so no one thinks I'm nuts (like my husband did) faerie cakes are cupcakes. So I can sell pretty much anything I want under this name because cupcakes are so loosely defined. Plus I like that she's a very woodsy faerie, and yet has a cute little star wand. So I can play up either side of the coin depending on who I'm targeting with a specific product. I'm very happy with this.

I think it is time now to post one of the funniest things my daughter has ever said, and for those of you who know her, that's saying a lot. We were talking about onions at lunch the other day:

Jimmy: I'm never gonna cut onions cause I don't ever wanna cry!
Me: You'll have to get your wife to cut all your onions.
Jimmy: I'm never gonna have a wife either!
Chris: Why not? A wife is a great thing to have, they help you all the time and they're nice.
Jimmy: Ok, fine. I'll have a wife. I'll marry Zoe.
Zoe: NO!!! Sorry Jim, we can't get married, you're my brother.
Jimmy: Why not?
Zoe: I don't know.
Me: First of all, ew, and second of all, if the Mommy and Daddy are too closely related, like brothers and sisters or cousins, then the baby usually has birth defects.
Zoe: what does that mean?
Me: It means the baby just doesn't come out right.
Zoe: You mean it comes out your butt?!?!


Yes Zoe, it comes out your butt. A prospect so horrible it's no surprise there's a law against it. Chris laughed so hard I thought parmesan chicken was going to come out his nose if he didn't have a heart attack first! That's my darling daughter for you!

7 comments:

RobisonWells said...

Okay, so... don't hate me. I promise that I'm trying to be helpful.

Two things: From a marketing perspective, "faerie" is a very loaded word. (Well, a very loaded spelling.) When it is spelled faerie, the average consumer probably doesn't think much about tinkerbell--they think more about weird people who play D&D, or the kids in high school who wear capes. I promise that I'm not making normative judgements about either the spelling or people who wear capes--I'm merely saying that the spelling "faerie" will turn off a very large portion of our potential consumer base.

I would highly recommend using the spelling "fairy". Again, I promise that I'm saying this from a pure business standpoint, not because I don't like D&D.

Second, I really like the logo, but I'd recommend something simpler. The most effective logos in the world are ones that use only one or two colors and that don't have a lot of detail. (Look at Disney or Nike or AT&T or BMW or Google or Coke or Cisco or any logo of a big consumer-based company.)

The reason for simpler logos is that they're more memorable and eye-catching. A good rule of thumb is to try to have a logo that the average consumer could draw from memory.

Again: I'm promise I'm being constructive here, not like the usual Rob-is-a-nay-saying-jerk stuff I usually do.

:)

Dan Wells said...

I actually disagree with both points. The "faerie" spelling is actually much safer than "fairy," because you'd much rather have fantasy connotations than gay ones. Besides, given the name itself and the style of the logo, I really don't think the fantasy connotation is one she's really worried about.

Second, the logos Rob mentions as being effective are indeed very effective, but that's based more on the fact that they're supported by billions of dollars in advertising than on the simplicity of the design. If Allison were a big corporation then yes, I'd encourage her to go for a really simple logo, but for a small business like hers I think the type treatment and the fairy (or faerie) is great. She and Chris have done a good job presenting a specific look and feel, and I think it could work very well.

RobisonWells said...

I hadn't even thought of the gay connotation, but I think that it could be overcome far more easily than the D&D connotation.

If you could link your business to the Disney-version of magic and fairies, rather than the fantasy-novel version of magic and faeries, the former has a much larger existing base.

Erin said...

I am ignoring what the boys are talking about and just commenting on Zoe.

Hilarious! I couldn't stop laughing.

Erin said...

I am not a buisness woman but don't most companies start very small without billions of dollars worth of advertising. So wouldn't it be wise to pick the perfect label. Nike started from somewhere. Did they only use there currant logo after they had made their billions.

I like your logo a lot though. Mostly just commenting to Dan.

Allison Hill said...

Thanks for your input!

Just to clarify, when I first thought of the idea of faerie cakes, we thought of two potential problems. The gay connotation, and the fact that if I sell a health-nut-granola-weirdo muffin, I don't want a picture of tinsel and sparkly fairy dust all over it. So I went with the spelling I did so that it would at once avoid the gay issue and embrace the woodsy-ness d&d type faerie. Then, by using a picture of a cute little woodsy faerie with bare feet and wispy wings and dress coupled with a magic wand, I appeal to both sides of the faerie idea.

We tried to embrace every connotation of faerie (other than the gay one) including celtic, welsh, shakespearian, d&d, as well as typical fairy tales--without insisting on one or the other.

I know that the logo is in color, (different ones than in the blog--I don't know why--it's supposed to be blue), and that the picture is a bit intricate, but we felt color was necessary to make the logo pop. The picture can also be removed from the logo for various applications, but my goal is to make the picture with the words in that font so ingrained in my customer base that if I leave off the picture for some things they will associate it anyway.

pwells said...

I like the name, the spelling and the logo. I think Rob's comment's should carry a lot of weight because of his education, but on the other hand, Allison, Erin and I are the ones who would actually buy from a company like this and I think it will appeal to women and be memorable.