Over the past few months, Maxwell Sydney Design Group has had the privilege of working with Eileen “Irish” Hafke and her firm Design Matters Studio. Irish designs custom kitchens, baths and interiors for high end properties in Florida. I first met Irish during a presentation I was giving on New Media Marketing in Orlando. Since that time our conversations about her business have turned into work on her corporate identity, a magazine ad and a website.

The Identity.

Irish and I talked quite a bit about her company and the detailed drawings she does for every client before embarking on a remodel or interior design project. We also talked about her love for Irish heritage and the intricacy and deep meaning behind Celtic imagery. After a few drafts of more modern logos we decided to go in a different direction and actually licensed a Celtic Tree of Life design from Canadian artist Cari Buziak to form the basis of Design Matters Studio’s logomark. We tweaked the original artwork a little to make it her own, but the original style and complexity is clear. We believe there is no better form to showcase the renewable nature of the custom cabinetry Irish Hafke designs as well as the psychological renewal one feels after spending time in a well appointed and well designed home. The tree of life also shows both the complexity and elegance that you will find in every project Irish Hafke is involved with.

The final identity includes an optional watermark of the logomark in reverse. It is designed to be shades of black as standard with the ability to take on the color of project at hand (i.e. the logo could mimic the palette of an interior design project or be a complimentary color to the finish of some cabinetry).

The Magazine Ad.

After completing the corporate identity package, the next step was a 1/3 page magazine ad to appear in the premier issue of Gulfshore Life At Home Magazine, a publication targeted to southwest Florida’s most affluent neighborhoods. The concept for the magazine ad was straight forward – showcase the attention to detail Design Matters Studio puts into every project while retaining simple elegance. The focus needs to be on the interior and required a design that could change the photography and color scheme while retaining the same recognizable style.

After providing a couple options, Design Matters Studio chose the ad featured here, which is included in the January 2010 premier issue of the magazine.

The Website.

In conjunction with the identity and magazine ad, we worked closely with Design Matters Studio to develop their website. The website needed to have the same elegance as an Irish Hafke project and contain a wealth of information for current and prospective clients. As every project is as unique as the customers she serves, it was imperative to put a large focus on the customer relationship by featuring testimonials and photography from a variety of projects. The site also needed to be modular and easily upgradable while working on a variety of platforms.

For this website we worked on a 960 grid system and developed a custom site to work on the WordPress platform. In order to showcase the dual focus of Kitchen & Bath with Interior Design we utilized a cream fabric background (representing interiors) along with a dark wood highlight (representing kitchen and bath). The site went “live” on December 23, 2009, and we will continue working with Design Matters Studio on the addition of new content, gallery photos and website features.

Visit Design Matters Studio at http://designmattersstudio.com.