Hello Monty on the Corner

Hello Monty on the Corner

Signage & Graphics

We told you about helping our long time collaborator Rob Gentry as he and his brother Clay worked to start the new restaurant and bar, Hello Monty. The construction was completed and Hello Monty opened to the public in October of 2020. We also were able to help put some finishing touches on the beautiful building remodel Rob and Clay did with Tucker Build: the signs.

Designed to be a classic neighborhood joint, Rob and Clay wanted the signage to be minimal and to complement the building. Art Director Mark Walter expanded on Designer Travis Hitchcock’s stacked type logo and identity to make an elegant sign that took advantage of being on the corner. A bright “Hello” neon sign in the script from the logo lights the way to the slightly hidden location of the front door.

Inside the bar, Mark added a wall mural of a vintage map. While now known as Main Street, it used to be called Montgomery Avenue, and that was the inspiration for the name.

Creative Director: Paul Rustand; Art Director: Mark Walter; Designers: Mark Walter, Travis Hitchcock; Exterior Sign Production/Installation: Victory Signs; Wall Mural Production/Installation: Adams Litho.

Refreshing the Body

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Refreshing the Body

Design update for Lookout Mountain Presbyterian Church

In 2015 designer Benjamin Dicks (formerly a designer with Widgets & Stone from 2012-2014) created an elegant identity design for Lookout Mountain Presbyterian Church (LMPC). The design served the church well for over six years.

In 2021 LMPC Communications Director Anna Moyle asked us to “refresh” the identity and provide design tools for the church’s communication needs. We kept the rose window symbol Ben created, but updated the type and colors and provided an alternate approach – reversing the symbol out of a solid circle.

The design team then updated the look and feel of stationery, documents, brochures, TV displays, and podcast graphics along with customizing an icon set. We also worked with web developer John Reeder to provide a wide array of web module design and styles to be applied to the new web site (which is currently in development). Lastly, we provided the working templates with design guidelines to help the communications team implement the new look.

Creative Direction: Paul Rustand; Art Direction: Mark Walter; Design: Brad Dicharry, Emily Ricks, Mark Walter, Noah Marlowe; Photography: LMPC.

Niedlov’s Rebrand

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Love to Knead, Knead to Love II

Niedlov’s Rebrand

Inspired by trips overseas, Niedlov’s new owner Erik Zilen tasked us with updating their look in hopes of recreating the transportive feeling that comes with setting foot inside the same venerable bakeries he visited in Europe.

The challenge was to update one of Main Street’s most recognizable, and established logos and create something that was going to walk the fine line between being refreshing and new, while also still retaining the timelessness of the previous logo. And to update an original logo that we designed in 2004.

The end result was a wordmark inspired by the handcrafted, old-world typefaces seen in documents from the late 1700s, paired with a color system that showcases the unique ingredients that have made Niedlov’s a Chattanooga staple for the past twenty-plus years.

Creative Direction: Paul Rustand; Design: Mark Slawson, Travis Hitchcock.

Bird Dog Valet Parking

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That Dog’ll Hunt

Logo

We created a logo for a new valet parking service that matches the qualities of man’s best friend (and best hunting partner) – loyal, disciplined and smart. Our iconic solution is both playful and distinct, standing out in the rather cliché world of valet parking brands.

Visit their web site here.

Creative Direction: Paul Rustand; Identity Design: Travis Hitchcock; Web Design: Stephanie Fast.

The Blue Plate

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Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

The Blue Plate

Since 2006, Widgets & Stone has helped to develop creative design and marketing tools for Chattanooga’s metropolitan diner, The Blue Plate. As the restaurant has grown and changed over the years, so has the branding. Widgets & Stone has designed styles and messages for digital, print, photography, interior design and so much more.

Let our team help you with your restaurant project.

Creative Direction: Paul Rustand; Photography: Graham Yelton; Design: Travis Hitchcock, Liz Tapp, Athene Ruiz, Laura Michael.

EF Contract Rebrand

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A New Day

EF Contract Rebrand

Engineered Floors, LLC restructured and rebranded the commercial flooring businesses of Bolyu Commercial and Aqua Hospitality, following Engineered Floors’ purchase of the operating assets of the Beaulieu Group.

Bolyu and Aqua has been rebranded as EF Contract and EF Hospitality.

Brad Root, the Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing tapped the creative teams Widgets & Stone and 26 Tools to develop the new brand and communications tools to present to the company and the industry. We created a straightforward and pragmatic identity to reflect the new brand’s personality and the new product’s quality.

EF Contract will offer modular carpet, broadloom carpet, LVT and Kinetex, an advanced textile composite flooring that combines key attributes of carpet with the long-wearing performance characteristics of hard-surface flooring. EF Contract will focus on the low-to­ mid range of the flooring market.

Confidence in perfomance.

Surprisingly beautiful.

Relentless service.

Because Every Thread Counts

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Because Every Thread Counts

Microseal Chattanooga

MicroSeal is the only fabric protectant that works from the inside out. For more than 30 years, the industry-leading formula has worked by penetrating fibers instead of coating them, permanently guarding each and every thread against stains and fading. From rugs to upholstery, curtains to aircraft interiors, MicroSeal provides all kinds of fabrics with seamless, spotless and timeless protection – year after year, wear after wear.

Microseal licenses providers based on regions of the country, and most of these providers are cleaning or manufacturing services that focus on the technical side of Microseal rather than the aesthetic. Chattanooga’s Microseal provider also owns high end furnishing and interior design companies and understands great quality furniture and fabric – and the need to protect it. So Widgets & Stone created a simple but elegant look and feel for this region’s Microseal services. Collaborating with 26 Tools for keen copy and Kyle McKillop for photography, the team built stationery, collateral material and a web site.

http://www.microsealchattanooga.com

Creative Direction: Paul Rustand; Designers: Brad Dicharry, Amy Trumbull, Liz Tapp, Travis Hitchcock; Writing: 26 Tools; Photography: Kyle McKillop.

Inside the Box

Inside the Box

Interior Designer Identity

Annie Cox works professionally with a major furnishing company, but has slowly been growing her freelance interior design business. To help her continue to grow, her fiancé asked Widgets & Stone to create a simple identity that she could use.

Summer intern Jessi Chambliss crafted a beautifully understated mark to symbolize the ‘inside the box’ kind of work that interior designers do. Spring intern Stephanie Fast helped to translate the design to the web, and The Open Press printed some lovely letterpress cards for Annie.

Creative Direction: Paul Rustand; Design: Jessi Chambliss, Stephanie Fast.

A Billboard That Stands for Something

A Billboard That Stands for Something

Billboards for Education Identity

Billboards for Education was created to give hope and support to local educators who struggle with an ever-present lack of classroom resources. As an outdoor advertising company, we use a proven, profitable business model to generate revenues. We then donate 10% of every dollar, from every billboard ad, to local schools. Earning for learning.

Owner and founder Matt Richman realized at the young age of 17 that true greatness is not defined by how much a person has, but how much a person gives. This realization prompted him to change his ultimate professional goal from gaining as much wealth as possible, to positively impacting the lives of as many people as possible.

Already an experienced business owner and entrepreneur, Matt realized the importance of a strong brand identity and writing. He reached out to Caleb Ludwick (26 Tools) and Paul Rustand (Widgets & Stone) to help. Together the team created a set of visual and verbal tools to help Matt establish his new venture and communicate is goals and differentiation points.

Find out more at www.billboardsforeducation.com

Creative Direction: Paul Rustand; Design: Casey Yoshida; Writing: Caleb Ludwick, 26 Tools.

A True Beginning

Gaining Knowledge. Growing Faith.

A new campaign for Covenant College’s Graduate School of Education

Covenant College believes that our understanding of the world informs and impacts every aspect of our teaching. So Covenant’s Graduate School of Education courses provide a Biblical understanding of education, which becomes the foundation of those in the profession of a teacher or administrator.

Covenant College launched a comprehensive new identity in 2004, but its application to the identity of the Graduate School of Education was not fully executed. For 2015 Widgets & Stone and 26 Tools were engaged to build new messaging for the school. 

The team worked together to create writing and designs that built on the identity of Covenant College, while still creating a sense of differentiation between the undergraduate and graduate programs.

Creative Direction: Paul Rustand; Design: Amy Harmon, Travis Hitchcock, Matt Greenwell; Writing: Caleb Ludwick, Keely Stockett Hungate; Photography: various source provided by Covenant College.

Come As You Are. Get Where You Want To Be.

Come As You Are. Get Where You Want To Be.

Forte Fitness Identity Design

After a decade of working for a national franchise, owner and personal trainer Julian Kaufman decided to start his own fitness studio. Through years of working as a one-on-one personal trainer, Julian had developed an excellent client base and reputation. He turned to Widgets & Stone to help him create an identity that would reflect that excellence in his brand communications.

Widgets & Stone worked with regular collaborators Caleb Ludwick and Grant Dotson to create the name, the writing, the designs and the photography to properly represent the new endeavor. Forte Fitness was the result.

The name and overall look and feel were inspired by Julian’s Italian heritage. The name means strong in Italian, and is familiar to those who don’t speak the language. The Italian flag’s colors made their way into the logo and the “azurri” blue of the national teams plays a complimentary role in the palette.

Dotson Commercial is currently working on photographs that show how training and lifestyle go hand in hand at Forte Fitness. The black and white images stand out in the marketplace, but also match well with the colors and type.

Creative Direction: Paul Rustand, Mandy Meredith; Design: Amy Trumbull Harmon, Matt Greenwell, Brian Wleklinski; Writing: Caleb Ludwick; Photography: Dotson Commercial.

Streaming Made Simple

Streaming Made Simple

Boxcast: Live HD Video, from Anyone to Everyone

Boxcast is a pocket-sized breakthrough technology that makes it simple for anyone, anywhere to stream live video to everyone, everywhere.

Boxcast is a startup with a few years already under its belt. The company’s leadership was finding that the brand identity and communications materials it had created early on weren’t quite doing the job. So a couple of their experienced investors turned to Widgets & Stone for help.

Led by Mandy Meredith and Paul Rustand, the team also pulled in writer and strategist Caleb Ludwick of 26 Tools. The team quickly and efficiently produced several possible solutions for identity and communications, resulting in a clean, clear and straightforward look and feel.

Along with identifying five key target audience archetype stories, and ways to speak to those audiences, Widgets & Stone and 26 Tools created a new logo, design styles, photography guidelines, strap lines, headlines and explanatory copy.

Web designers Alex Ogle and Jason Fritts of Tubatomic joined in to establish web styles and templates for the client to implement.

“I have seen many presentations by nationally renowned creative agencies over the years,” said investor Tobey Maloney, “But this was by far the most impressive. The quantity and quality of concepts delivered on the timeline and budget was spectacular.”

DRyan

DRyan

Identity Design 

Daniel Ryan is a consultant and speaker; Co-captain of the Open Chattanooga Brigade; and Resident Technologist at Waypaver. Previously Daniel was the Director of Front-end Development for President Obama’s 2012 election campaign.

Upon leaving his role with the President’s staff, Daniel began consulting and speaking. He looked to Widgets & Stone to develop an identity to represent his new endeavor. The new look reflects Daniel’s tech expertise while also adding an eye-catching flair that helps him stand out in the market place.

Creative Direction: Mandy Meredith; Art Direction: Paul Rustand; Design: Amy Trumbull. 

Renewing a Saint

Renewing a Saint

Refreshing a classic Chattanooga brand

Widgets & Stone is pleased to be collaborating with Chef Daniel Lindley to help refresh the wonderful St. John’s Restaurant brand with some new menu designs, signage and logo concepts. 

Above are pictured some proposed logo variations, built on the subject matter of the established logo design. The new illustrations by David Webb (and letterpress printed by Terry Chouinard) draw out the craftsmanship and character of the restaurant and its food, while the modified typography adds subtlety and depth.

Creative Direction: Paul Rustand; Illustration: David Webb; Letterpress Printing: Terry Chouinard.

BOOMTOWN.

Bringing the American Institute of Architects to town, in style.

Naming, branding, print and web collateral, environmental design.

For several years, the American Institute of Architects TN chapter had bounced their annual convention and expo around the state, skipping over Chattanooga. So when it was the city’s turn again, local architecture leaders wanted to make an impact. 

Widgets worked with local AIA board members and Caleb Ludwick on naming and strategy, to tell the story of Chattanooga through architecture. Exploding assumptions (e.g. “expos are boring”) and exploring possibilities (e.g. “what if we encouraged escape routes out of the conference”), we created a communications strategy that benefitted both the AIA and the city.

Goals: 

Create an identity for the expo that captures Chattanooga’s spirit and drive.

Draw architects and vendors from around the region.

Draw people out of the expo, into the city.

Give the locals a reminder of the benefits of great urban design and architecture.

Deliver an integrated communications platform.

We’re proud of our city. Of what it has become, and what it still could become. Putting aside boosterism for a moment, and all of the public relations opportunities, national news articles and photo ops… what do you see? 

A lovely city tucked between the mountains and the river. A downtown that has retained its upward trajectory, despite historic and recent challenges. A place with a unique character – never finished, always on the cusp, future-focused. A bit edgy, a bit conservative.

A boomtown. 

Click here to see the full presentation of the design thinking and identity development as presented to AIA leadership, implemented for the event – and positioning to bring the benefits of living in Chattanooga not just to convention-goers or any one segment of residents, but to everyone. See more designs on our Flickr Boomtown set. 

For Love of the Game

Passion for the sport drives the club and the brand

Widgets & Stone’s team was tapped to help promote the Chattanooga FC brand for the fourth season in a row. Widgets designed and wrote everything from ads to promo materials, postcards to e-blasts, billboards to merchandise, uniforms to tickets. Built around the theme “For the Love of the Game”, the 2012 campaign highlights the club’s pure passion for the sport — playing and cheering out of sheer love, rather than for profits or fame.

The CFC board attributes team’s ongoing success (the largest attendance in the league) in large part to the high quality of the brand design, promotional materials and advertising. Widgets & Stone wishes the team and coaching staff all the best as they head off to San Diego compete in their second National Semifinal in the past three years!

See much more on our Chattanooga FC Flickr set.

Creative Direction: Paul Rustand; Design: Brad Dicharry; Writing: Caleb Ludwick; Photography: Steven Llorca; “For the love of” logo: Dustin Hysinger & Ashley Worley.

Eat Here Now

The Blue Plate

After years of experience with Big River Grille, restaurateur Rob Gentry decided to open up The Blue Plate – a modern take on a traditional diner. The fresh and creative menu was complemented by the sleek contemporary interiors designed by architect Roddy Creedon of Allied Architecture. Widgets & Stone was tasked with developing a logo and identity design that captured the spirit of the place and food.

Since its opening in 2006, Widgets & Stone has provided creative for all kinds of media – web design, interior design, menus, social media, photo direction and much more.

Creative Direction: Paul Rustand; Design: Brad Dicharry, Paul Rustand; Photography: Dotson Commercial; Writing: 26 Tools.

Zümfoot

Sunny, organic, stylish, holistically healthy shoes for a walkable world.

Naming, branding, packaging and environmental design.

Rebranding six stores from the Birkenstock Place

Stretching from Chattanooga to Cincinnati, Birkenstock Place retail footwear stores was an established chain that, for years, had carried primarily Birkenstocks. An established message of health and product quality were supported by brand repositioning efforts by the German footwear giant, including style input from superstar designer Yves Béhar and supermodel Heidi Klum. But with other great brands including Merrell, Keen and Dansko, the store owners decided that the store name was limiting growth potential.

Working with writer and brand strategist Caleb Ludwick, we dug into national trends and local markets, creating archetypes of customers (and potential customers), telling the stories of each and what tips them from awareness into purchasing activity. And we found that even with Birkenstock’s fashion focus, there was still often a perception that each pair came with a free membership to Armpit-hair Anonymous and Ukuleles-R-Us. Customers were looking for a shoe store that brought Birk health benefits, but also that look good. So we began by foregrounding design, while retaining strong focus on health and clever thinking.

The new shoe store name, Zümfoot, is a made-up word that communicates : Good for your feet and good for your life; style that is not excessively precious; comfort, honesty and healthy. (See the logo here.)

We also developed a retail concept built for growth, including unusual store design, unique product offerings, brand implementation guidelines for everything from answering the telephone to music played in the store, and customer service tips that communicate the right expectations with every customer touch. Zümfoot, a store offering sunny, organic, stylish, holistically healthy shoes for a walkable world. (Interior and concept designs here.)

Packaging, advertising and point-of-purchase signage evolved to give a unified voice to Zümfoot’s brand personality, while at the same time to showcase the many individual shoe brands offered. (Packaging and advertising images here.)

Return on branding investment

The strength of the brand concept and design was demonstrated when a shoe manufacturer bought licensing rights to create a Zümfoot brand of shoes, for 4x the cost of the original brand creation.

See all the images on the Widgets & Stone photostream.

Knead to Love, Love to Knead

Niedlov’s Brand Design

Niedlov’s Breadworks is a dream in progress of bread makers John and Angela Sweet. John and Angela met at Zingerman’s Bakehouse in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where they made bread together and fell in love.

John started Niedlov’s Breadworks in the fall of 2002 as a wholesale bakery, focusing on selling artisan bread to fine dining establishments in Chattanooga. In the following years, Niedlov’s began selling bread through local groceries, then setting up a retail counter in the front of the bakery to accommodate walk-in customers, and finally opening a storefront bakery/café on Main Street.

Widgets & Stone helped to craft an identity that was equal parts old world French bakery and new world local food movement. The logo was hand drawn with slight imperfections, to mimic the unique qualities of artisan bread.

Creative Direction & Design: Paul Rustand; Photography: Andy Montgomery.

Superior Quality, Uncompromising Craftsmanship

David Bruce Woodworking

Named after the founder’s great grandfather, David Bruce Woodworking uses the same traditional techniques to build uniquely crafted cabinets and furniture. 

Widgets & Stone created a logo and an identity for David Bruce Woodworking that captured the craftsmanship of the era with a simple woodcarver illustration and classic printing and typography. The design style celebrate the era that the craftsman honor with their woodworking.

Click on photos to see larger images.

Creative Direction & Design: Paul Rustand; Writing: Chuck Crowder; Photography: Lane Brown Taylor.