This is the primary (and favicon) logo for my personal branding, Lauren Burch Designs.

With the last name Burch, pronounced “birch” — like-the-tree-but-with-a-”u”-in-it — and an appreciation for plants and the natural world, I couldn’t resist including a leaf in the negative space between the first initial of my first and last name. Circles are strong and soft at the same time; they’re actually so strong because of their soft appearance. Circles are welcoming, inclusive, and warm. I wanted my logo to feel like an invitation.

Keep swiping to see the horizontal and square logos.

Within an enveloping circle, a bubbly, soft, and curvy capital “L” (for Lauren) and “B” (for Burch) form half of a leaf (based on the shape of a birch leaf) in the negative space between these two letters.

The soft curve along the spine of the “B” bends slowly into the negative “leaf” space, touching the center vertical line of the circle. The right edge of the “L” (the right tip of the top of the “L” + right edge of the bottom “L”) and the left edge of the top + bottom of the “B” are equidistant from the center vertical line.

With the circle divided horizontally along the center, the slight indent to form the “B” shape is half of the distance above this center horizontal line compared to the distance below that line that marks where the inner angle forming the “L” shape is.

The heading typeface is Hobeaux. I needed a typeface that would complement the curves in the “L” and the “B” in the primary logo design, letterforms that would look at home in a circle. It’s bold, it’s definitely got personality ... with the faintest whiff of funk / hippie (bonus points if you can name the movie that demands, “Get your patchouli stink out of my store!”). It was important to me to have something warm and approachable — a friendly font that isn’t afraid of being a little groovy. An additional attraction for me was the unique way that there are no descenders even when the text is in lowercase.

Assistant is the clear, clean, straightforward typeface that I chose for the subheading (bold) and body (regular) to balance out the curves of the heading and accent.

The accent typeface is Beloved, adding a personal touch, since it’s close to my own cursive handwriting and still retains legibility.

The heading, subheading, accent, & body type all prioritize lowercase whenever the meaning of the content can be retained (proper nouns, for example, must be appropriately capitalized). When using complete sentences, normal case is to be used — but never all caps.

The ampersand “&” is to be used as an abbreviated version of “and” whenever appropriate.

The hero colors are light green, mid green, and dark green. These greens are enveloping, like a dappled forest — warm and inviting. They echo Robert Frost’s suggestion: “You come too.”

The neutrals include a light neutral and a dark neutral. Reminiscent of colors that could be found in birch bark texture, they help ground this nature-inspired palette and warm up your screen.

Introducing a range of transparency levels for these palette colors allows a little more freedom to play while still adhering to a clearly established colour palette and paying attention to high-contrast pairs for ease of accessibility.

To maximise accessibility and readability, approved color pairs must have a contrast score of 4.5 or higher.

Horizontal logos are to be used when there is limited vertical space.

I have two options here (a & b) to show possible varieties, depending on need and context.

These can be in any approved high-contrast color pairing, as dictated by the environment in which they appear.

The so-called “square” logo (more of a circle, though, really, isn’t it?) is the variation to use when there is equal vertical & horizontal space.

Any approved high-contrast color pairing is an option, depending on the color context, but I much prefer this combination of particular greens when possible.

This pattern lives as the background to my LinkedIn page.

Against the welcoming whimsy of the rest of the branding, I offer some contrast and edge in the form of black & white photographs. There will be situations that require color photographs, but, whenever possible, I prefer black & white. (It’s all about balance, right?)

I haven’t printed them yet, but here is a mockup of my personal branding as it could appear on a business card.

I would, of course, have them printed as circular business cards (that would still fit within the usual business card dimensions) — and I’ve even thought about having them as stickers, with my contact information printed on the sticker backing. (This requires more research and investigating …)