Grand Opening of Legato Gelato!

As designers and branding consultants, we are always meeting smart, passionate people who come to us with big dreams. They usually show up with a plan—a vision and a concept that needs an image— and they ask us to help them make it a reality. (It is a big responsibility to be entrusted with the hopes and dreams of people who have put everything on the line!) These brave trailblazers are bringing about America’s economic recovery, providing jobs and zest to their communities, and it’s an honor to be a part of their success stories!

When Terri-Ann and her husband Berchaun asked us to help them create the branding for a new gelato cafe, they brought us samples of her frozen desserts. We were blown away by how good this gelato tasted! We knew that Legato Gelato was world-class stuff that would be made right here in Nashville, TN. We were given a few months to create a logo and help them to develop a branded look for the new shop, which was set to open on June 15th, 2012.

We sketched up several different looks...

Terri-Ann chose a clean, classic design created by our all-star logo designer Edward Patton.

Once the color palette and logo were done, we worked with the sign vendor to create outdoor graphics. We also designed labels for use in the store and graphics that would end up on t-shirts and other stuff. Terri-Ann had great ideas for paint and furniture—she consulted us all along the way to be sure that everything matched from the umbrellas to the labels, signs and wall paint.

We had fun mixing and matching colors, stripes, and shapes to create a cohesive, branded look that started at the curb and went right up to the counter.

Legato Gelato now offers delicious handcrafted gelato and sorbetto at their brand new shop in Edgehill Village, Nashville.

Terri-Ann’s goal is to make the best gelato possible. To do this, she found that there are no shortcuts. Her gelato is made fresh daily. Each of her gelatos and sorbettos is made in small batches using fresh ingredients, including growth-hormone-free milk from Tennessee and, whenever possible, produce from local farmers.

In addition to Legato’s six signature flavors, the seasonal selection of gelato and sorbetto rotates daily and features traditional favorites like Pistachio and Chocolate Hazelnut alongside more adventurous creations like Pineapple Basil, Lavender with Nobel Springs Goat Cheese, and Peanut Butter and Preserves. Legato Gelato also offers a variety of homemade baked goods, frappes, affogatos (espresso over gelato), drinking chocolate and Italian sodas.

NEW “Vintage” Travel Posters!

We don’t get out much, but we have had lots of fun creating new travel posters for places we went to back when we actually had time to travel. Now that we are so stinkin’ busy doing cool stuff for Denny’s, Williams-Sonoma, Ram Trucks and other awesome clients (who found us on Fab.com,) we sit in front of our Macs all day, dreaming of the places we’d like to visit when things calm down. And for us creative-types, dreaming usually leads to inspiration for new poster designs.

That is how our Art and Soul of America line has grown to include over 50 different favorite U.S. travel destinations. We just added 2 brand new national parks posters—Glacier National Park and Joshua tree National Park so we would have enough designs to produce a 2014 calendar with Zebra Publishing. (Yeah, they work THAT far in advance!) Both of these designs were created by Michael Korfhage and Joel Anderson. It was fun creating different temperature extremes by using icy colors for one design and hot hues for the other.

 
Michael and Joel have also been experimenting with creating some State Pride Prints. They started out with 3 designs: New York, California and Texas. (More State Pride designs will follow as time permits.) These 3 new designs are available on our store site in the Art & Soul of America collection.

We still have several more American cities and national parks to cover before we can say that the Art and Soul of America collection is done. So look for Minneapolis, Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Dallas, and several other prints to be added in the fall.

After covering so many U.S.cities and parks, we have set our sights on world domination. We’ve always loved European Travel posters and drooled over the chance to integrate motifs, colors, and typography from different cultures into our designs. We started the World Travel collection with 9 different prints that feature some of our favorite international cities. Shelby Rodeffer worked with Joel Anderson on 7 of these designs. Joel worked with Christopher Stewart and Michael Korfhage to create the 2 Paris designs. 

We plan to add several other cities over the next year. This cool new collection is now up on our studio store site under the World Travel heading. Here are close-ups of a couple of the prints...

We decided to add one more collection to our studio store site. Political Pimp is what we are calling this ever-growing arsenal of election-related posters... As we watch the election coverage, new slogans and gaffs will surely provide inspiration for future designs.

Check out the 2 latest pithy political prankster prints by Joel Anderson...

And finally, our newest collection of travel poster art came from an unexpected place—the Denny’s restaurant menu! Several months ago, folks from Denny’s ad agency saw our prints selling on Fab.com. They liked our classic-looking Americana prints so much, they hired us to create 7 new designs for their Tour of America menu, which is in all the Denny’s restaurants in the USA and Canada from now until December 31. After the menu art was finished, we all decided it would be swell to create a collection of ready-to-frame posters, postcard sets, and note card sets.

The Denny’s Tour of America collection was added to our store site on June 1st. The prints and cards will be available until December 31, 2012 or as long as supplies last!