Imagining Evergrain

A couple of years ago, I ran into Dave Whelan of the Chestertown Spy in Fountain Park. He was soliciting name suggestions for the new bakery to open at the corner of Queen Street and High. I suggested “Against the Grain.” A few months later, I was pleased to see that my suggestion had been taken.

And so, this sign has been hanging outside the bakery for almost two years, a shining beacon to all lovers of fresh, delicious, high-quality baked goods.

Everything was going great and Chestertown was eating better than it ever had before when a fateful letter arrived in Doug the Baker’s mailbox. Another bread company called Against the Grain had sent a polite suggestion that the world wasn’t quite big enough for two bakeries with the same name.

And so, Doug the Baker knocked on our door and politely requested that we help him think of a new one.

We thought long and hard, and this time did a bit of research to find out what Doug’s business is all about. He uses only the best ingredients and obtains them as locally as possible. He believes in sustainablity, community, and creativity. Above all, he champions quality. Which is why his stuff might cost a bit more but is absolutely worth it.

We kept all these values in mind as we thought about a name. And then we considered Doug the Baker himself.

He is strong.

And he is elegant.

To our way of thinking, the new name and logo had to reflect these qualities along with the previously mentioned “brand values” (if you’ll forgive me a bit of marketing speak).

And so, after much tinkering and deliberation, we came up with the name Evergrain— and this logo.

Our hope is that the name and the logo are at once strong and elegant, that they hint at renewal and sustainability (think “evergreen”) and that they feel welcoming and community-minded.

We also hope that they appeal to the ear and eye. We like them, but the real test is whether the rest of you will still come in for sun buns on a daily basis.

Robbi wants me to point out that in imagining the sheaves of wheat in the logo, she drew inspiration from the graphic on the side of my oatmeal bowl.

This is her artists’ disclaimer. There’s nothing new under the sun. Everything is borrowed from someplace else. The art is in the reinterpretation.

Of course, any successful logo must be extendable to other contexts. Here are the social media buttons we developed for Doug.

And the business cards.

And finally, the sign, still in the concept phase.

And there you have it. Add “bakery namers/branders/logo designers” to our already puzzling list of jobs and responsibilities. The longer we go on, the less sense we have of how to describe what we do. I guess it’s fair to say that we make stuff.

Whenever possbile, we try to use our creative wherewithal in the service of things we believe in. In the case of this project, believing was easy.