Rue – a street or road (French). Rumination – to meditate or muse; ponder. Rueminations – to dissect, analyze, inspect or appreciate design found on the streets.

I’m hoping that many of you are familiar with The Sartorialist, what might be considered the standard as far as street fashion/photography/journalism is concerned in the blog-age. There are many others, mostly based on location like Japan, Korea or Toronto. There’s even Street Peeper. Rueminations, you could say, is similar. Instead of keeping an eye on fashion, however, I’ll be keeping my eye on signage, billboards, storefronts and the back of cars, looking for great typography, color and overall aesthetically pleasing graphic design. It’s something as a designer I do anyway (I’ve gotten separated from friends many times as I stop to ponder a company logo), it will be a good resource for aspiring designer as well as old, and I feel that companies with good design (and their designers) deserve some love.

First up is a sandwich shop in the Fremont neighborhood, Homegrown. Beyond being a pretty darn good sandwich shop (the Bluffernutter blows my mind), it has a brand and logo combination that easily trumps everything else in the wannabe trendy Fremont neighborhood.

photo credit: Rachel: Photo Diary, http://www.rachelphotodiary.com/ used without permission.

A simple, clean typographic treatment (of which is unmistakably Garamond) with a single artistic mark fashioned out of the letterform of the ‘g’ which makes an easily distinguished rooted vegetable.

The Garamond typeface which is kerned slightly tighter than normal helps give an upscale and rich atmosphere. With the tradition of Garamond, it also speaks to a rich heritage of craftsmanship as if to say this store is handcrafted, artisanal, which it is.

On top of that, the rooted vegetable screams organic, which again, the sandwiches are, and are crafted to appeal to those who shop at places like Trader Joe’s, PCC or Whole Foods and want healthy, homegrown, organic alternatives for their lunch break.

That makes the name itself genius as, instead of trying to hint at what a place is or does, it comes right out and says it: Homegrown.

It’s a bit tough to tell with the signage lit up, but Homegrown also employs a simple two, three color scheme for their brand. Their signage in daylight is simple white on what looks to be maybe a 60-70% black.

photo credit: Fremont Universe, http://www.fremontuniverse.com/ photo used without permission.

The rest of their branded materials – including their website – deploy the logo in a solid black on a background that looks like scanner paper sacks. This speaks to the concept of “unfooled around with.” The logo is simple, presented with simple colors. The logo itself is a work of art, made of simple, uncluttered elements…exactly like the sandwiches in the shop.

I don’t know who designed the logo/identity/brand – I’m still trying to pin that down – but I gotta say, this is absolutely a hit. They should definitely be proud.

UPDATE:

(4/8/10) I was recently contacted by the graphic designer behind Homegrown! His name is Dax Borges and the logo was designed and developed by him and the co-owner of Homegrown, Ben Friedman. So, there you go, big props go out to them.

This is what Dax had to say:

Hi Mike,
My friend and co-owner of Homegrown (Ben Friedman) just sent me the link to your Homegrown signage article… Can’t tell you how much I appreciate the kind words. Ben and I worked long and hard on that logo. I’m the graphic designer but Ben played a major roll in refinement and overall branding. It would only be half what it is without us working together.

Either way your observation of our hard work is awesome and speaks a lot to your own design and brand sense.

Thanks again for the writeup!

Of course, Dax has a website, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t pass the link along:

daxdigitaldesign.com

Credits:

Original articles from which the images were taken can be found below:

http://www.fremontuniverse.com/2009/03/31/homegrown-sandwich-shop-off-to-good-start/

http://www.rachelphotodiary.com/2009/03/20/homegrown-fremont-seattle-coming-soon/