High-End Brand: Before & After of Elevated Events

I talk about Elevate Events branding project quite frequently because it’s still one of my favorites! My amazing web partner Stefani (from December Oak) and I worked together (I did brand, she did web) to bring this high-end brand to life and the results still blow my mind.

One reason I am still such a fan of this project is that I genuinely loved working with the clients. Mallory & Kirstie are a sister duo running an event planning company in Madison, Wisconsin. They are some of the kindest people I’ve ever met, and it was an honor to work with them. DREAM clients for sure!

Before working with Rhema Design Co for branding, they offered amazing services but their branding definitely did not convey the high-end brand they were becoming. They found Stefani on Instagram and approached her about redoing their website. While websites are wildly important, you can’t build a beautiful website that wows your clients without an effective and strategic brand. So, Stefani sent them my way to develop a stunning brand.

Elevate Events was launched in March of 2015 after Mallory planned her own wedding. Through their business, Mallory & Kirstie aim to design elevated events for their clients. After a few years, they experienced the natural changes every business does and refined their business such that a new brand was necessary to target the higher-end clientele they wanted to reach.

The goal in working together on a new brand was to develop an identity that felt high-end, luxurious with fine art inspiration, that still felt intentional and compassionate. Mallory & Kirstie wanted to refine their brand. I’m a bit biased, but I think they chose the perfect partners in Stefani and me.

Before & after high-end brand

Here’s what they had before we worked together. They essentially just had one logo that was in an overdone hand-lettered font with a drop shadow.

And here’s what we developed through strategy and intentional design!

The typography throughout the new high-end brand is inspired by fine art and customized to reflect the playful, yet luxurious nature of the work they do. The branding is a fresh and refined look for the industry, which sets them apart

The color palette utilized throughout the brand is made up of charcoal, creme, dusty blue, with a pink accent. The soft and welcoming palette speaks to a high-end, friendly couple. The deep charcoal reflects the fine art inspiration, while the blue ties in a touch of their previous palette.

Here’s one of my favorite parts – the deeper meaning behind their new brand icon. Throughout our strategy conversations, the concept of weaving kept coming up. Mallory & Kirstie are intentional about weaving their client’s stories into their big day. The concept of weaving became influential in the development of this brand.

Next up: the website!

After we worked together to develop a stunning new brand identity, I handed their final deliverables over to Stefani to work her magic, and holy wow did she knock it out of the park. I can’t speak as much to her process, because I’m not as involved, but you can read more about that here. Take a look at the before and after of their website and tell me Stefani didn’t do an amazing job!

Elevated Events are one of my favorite clients of all time because they were kind first and foremost. Mallory & Kirstie saw the importance of investing, and not JUST in a brand. They worked with a copywriter, had professional images, and came back later on for print! They were READY and jumped all in.

Here’s what they had to say about the process of working with both of us:

“It was wonderful! Both Stefani and AnnaKate approached their respective projects with professionalism, innovative ideas, and enthusiasm. Not to mention, these two ladies have incredible attention to detail! We had so much fun with this that by the time the projects came to an end, we were sad it was over! That’s when you know it’s good.

The combined efforts of Stefani on web design/strategy and AnnaKate on overall brand meant a seamless, elegant transition into a modified look for our business as well as an uber-functional, user-friendly workspace in our site. Knowing that the two of them were communicating behind the scenes left us the opportunity to focus on the REALLY important stuff in a re-brand: defining our company goals and values, focusing on our bottom line, and communicating exactly what we hoped to our potential clients.”

It’s ALWAYS the goal after a project that your life is easier and you see the impact of your investment in your branding.

Here’s what Mallory & Kirstie experienced:

“There’s nothing quite like launching a rebrand and new website towards the early months of the pandemic but nevertheless, we feel as though our business has gotten stronger – our values, our vision, and our philosophy is more clear now than ever before. We also feel like our business has more of a process than prior to working with you because we were essentially forced to think through those elements (so, thank you!!). We’ve received a ton of great feedback on how our brand feels very “us”, our website is beautiful, and when looking at the inquiries and bookings we are getting, it’s clear we’re attracting more of our ideal clients.”

Interested in working together on your next brand project? Reach out via my contact form and let’s get the process started!