Stationery in progress

Keeping continuity in mind, I wanted my my entire stationery to reflect my logo. If my logo is simple and straight forward, then my stationery will do the same. Since the main part of my logo is the shape of the bean I wanted to repeat that shape throughout my stationery. The letterhead originally just had a rectangular border, but that didn't relate back to my logo so I began to play with curves. First I had them located at the top and bottom of the paper and then I thought to try them on the sides which lead to my idea of creating the shape of the bean. I had the curves outlined in brown at one point which made the letterhead a little cramped so Paige suggested I get rid of the borders and see how that would look.
Onto business cards, I wanted to incorporate the bean as well but with just the initials. I thought by bleeding it off the edge the viewer would still be able to relate that particular curve the initials created to my logo. On the back, leaving that negative space at the top immediately draws the eye to the most important thing, the owners name, which I enlarged and put in color. Contact information is important as well and I put those in color too, but I decided I was going to put them both in brown since that green did not come out well in small font.



While in the process of working on my stationery over the weekend I also began to experiment with different types of paper. I like to collect a lot of old magazines and memorabilia, and I came across an old scrapbook I bought off ebay a few years ago. I noticed that it had a lot of empty paper in the back, and I immediately thought I could try this paper out for my stationery. I loved the sepia tone and the quality wasn't too bad but since the paper is older than me and my parents, it tears very easily, so thank goodness there's a fair amount of sheets for me to use for mistakes like that.



I cut a few sheets into 8.5 x 11's and did a test print on my computer for my business card. I kept my fingers crossed since my printer is unpredictable and I didn't know how it was going to handle the new paper, but hey the result was better than I thought it would be:



I also found a few variations of brown cardstock paper at Michael's Craft Store. These had a smoother surface than the scrapbook paper and didn't have as many little specks. My printer happily accepted this paper as well. Here was the new letterhead without the brown outline and 2 new business card ideas.



I want to do two since both business cards are aimed towards different audiences. The first is for professional use, mostly for other companies, corporate,etc. The second, which is my favorite, is geared towards the general public and would most likely be handed out in the store.

Business card 1:


Business card 2:


This is currently where I am at so now onto the envelope!