them. Then she turns to me, eager. “So, what’d you come up with?”
Shut up, Aria! I’m screaming in my head. Her smile fades slightly when she sees the look in my eyes.
I decide to opt for honesty.
“ Listen, Kate, Jacob,” I say, facing them. “I apologize, but for whatever reason I missed your plan for a redesign.”
Kate frowns, and Jacob rolls his eyes.
“ However, if you just give me a moment, I can come up with some rough ideas for you right now.”
She looks at her phone. I’ve lost her attention. Jacob leans over and murmurs something in her ear.
I decide to have a take-charge attitude. “This meeting won’t be a loss. Trust me. I understand that you want to change things up a bit. That’s fairly typical for clients starting up here in Asheville. So, we’ll discuss what parameters you need and I can come up with a few sketches. The only thing we won’t be able to show you today is the digital version of those ideas, but I can e-mail them tomorrow morning.”
Jacob sighs, but goes into the rough plan they want. I listen intently, drawing as he speaks. I’m kicking myself for not bringing my laptop. I seriously thought this was just a meet and greet.
Meanwhile, poor Aria is taking in the train wreck this meeting has turned into. She leans toward me and peers over my shoulder at my sketches.
“ What if you kept the change simple? I mean,” she looks at me apologetically, “I really like what you’ve come up with, Rachel. But another approach would keep the brand a little more solid. You’ve got strong clientele in Durham and Raleigh, and they’ll recognize your name if you can keep it mostly the same…”
I’m trying really hard not to glare at Aria, but Kate and Jacob are listening and nodding.
Aria grabs a pencil from the stack by my paperwork and works for a few minutes, drawing out basically the same logo as they had. She swaps the capital ‘R’ out for a lowercase one, leaving more room for a group of faceless people she’s drawing.
I see what she’s doing. Honestly, it’s obvious. It’s smart.
Where the hell did this come from?
“ So, Asheville people… mountain people,” she corrects, giggling, “we really like community. If we just do a slightly brighter color scheme, and add some cut-outs of people, it’ll imply that you guys are community oriented. Do you have support for your workers in any way? Or do you have any programs that are community-based?”
“ We’re employee-owned. See, sometimes we’ve put that in the ads,” Jacob says, pulling from the bottom of a stack and showing Aria a copy of a billboard.
“ Yeah, that’s great. We’ll highlight that even more with this campaign. We could make it almost like a slogan or something.”
It’s perfect.
Kate and Jacob are smiling now, and Jacob orders yet another round. Aria continues sketching until she’s done a mock-up for their simple logo, the logo with the slogan, and even an advertisement template with the logo plus a photo of company employees. On the logo and slogan, she sketches a light outline of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the background.
While she’s busy, both chatting and working simultaneously, I snap a photo of the new logo with my phone, and do some work on the colors. By the time we’re into our third round of drinks, we’ve got basically what I would have prepared for them finished.
Unbelievable.
Kate and Jacob are thrilled, and when we get up to leave, they thank us as though Aria and I are both designers.
I’m more than a little tipsy when we head out to my car. Sheepishly, I hand Aria my keys. She doesn’t so much as blink as she takes them from my hands and heads to the driver’s seat. Also, to her credit, she’s not saying a word about what I would’ve done if she hadn’t come along.
“ You were really good in there,” I say, sliding into the passenger seat.
“ Thanks.”
“ I never knew you could draw like that.”
She shrugs. “You never asked.”
I
Shut up, Aria! I’m screaming in my head. Her smile fades slightly when she sees the look in my eyes.
I decide to opt for honesty.
“ Listen, Kate, Jacob,” I say, facing them. “I apologize, but for whatever reason I missed your plan for a redesign.”
Kate frowns, and Jacob rolls his eyes.
“ However, if you just give me a moment, I can come up with some rough ideas for you right now.”
She looks at her phone. I’ve lost her attention. Jacob leans over and murmurs something in her ear.
I decide to have a take-charge attitude. “This meeting won’t be a loss. Trust me. I understand that you want to change things up a bit. That’s fairly typical for clients starting up here in Asheville. So, we’ll discuss what parameters you need and I can come up with a few sketches. The only thing we won’t be able to show you today is the digital version of those ideas, but I can e-mail them tomorrow morning.”
Jacob sighs, but goes into the rough plan they want. I listen intently, drawing as he speaks. I’m kicking myself for not bringing my laptop. I seriously thought this was just a meet and greet.
Meanwhile, poor Aria is taking in the train wreck this meeting has turned into. She leans toward me and peers over my shoulder at my sketches.
“ What if you kept the change simple? I mean,” she looks at me apologetically, “I really like what you’ve come up with, Rachel. But another approach would keep the brand a little more solid. You’ve got strong clientele in Durham and Raleigh, and they’ll recognize your name if you can keep it mostly the same…”
I’m trying really hard not to glare at Aria, but Kate and Jacob are listening and nodding.
Aria grabs a pencil from the stack by my paperwork and works for a few minutes, drawing out basically the same logo as they had. She swaps the capital ‘R’ out for a lowercase one, leaving more room for a group of faceless people she’s drawing.
I see what she’s doing. Honestly, it’s obvious. It’s smart.
Where the hell did this come from?
“ So, Asheville people… mountain people,” she corrects, giggling, “we really like community. If we just do a slightly brighter color scheme, and add some cut-outs of people, it’ll imply that you guys are community oriented. Do you have support for your workers in any way? Or do you have any programs that are community-based?”
“ We’re employee-owned. See, sometimes we’ve put that in the ads,” Jacob says, pulling from the bottom of a stack and showing Aria a copy of a billboard.
“ Yeah, that’s great. We’ll highlight that even more with this campaign. We could make it almost like a slogan or something.”
It’s perfect.
Kate and Jacob are smiling now, and Jacob orders yet another round. Aria continues sketching until she’s done a mock-up for their simple logo, the logo with the slogan, and even an advertisement template with the logo plus a photo of company employees. On the logo and slogan, she sketches a light outline of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the background.
While she’s busy, both chatting and working simultaneously, I snap a photo of the new logo with my phone, and do some work on the colors. By the time we’re into our third round of drinks, we’ve got basically what I would have prepared for them finished.
Unbelievable.
Kate and Jacob are thrilled, and when we get up to leave, they thank us as though Aria and I are both designers.
I’m more than a little tipsy when we head out to my car. Sheepishly, I hand Aria my keys. She doesn’t so much as blink as she takes them from my hands and heads to the driver’s seat. Also, to her credit, she’s not saying a word about what I would’ve done if she hadn’t come along.
“ You were really good in there,” I say, sliding into the passenger seat.
“ Thanks.”
“ I never knew you could draw like that.”
She shrugs. “You never asked.”
I
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