New Work: Veranda on Highland

It was such a privilege to get to redesign the logo for one of Birmingham's best and most popular restaurants, Veranda on Highland. Veranda welcomed Chef Jeffrey Hansell in the spring and has been focusing on what it does best--"southern + seasonal" cuisine--while its image and interior have been updated to be fresher and less formal. The intent for the logo was to represent these changes, creating a fresher impression while maintaining a strong sense of history, elegance, and southern culture.

It was important to the client to include an image of the building because of the history that it has. So we decided on a pared-down drawing of the restaurant within a hand-drawn circle that referenced the shape of a plate or platter. I chose the "Veranda" typeface because of its elegance and organic quality--love those swashes on the "V" and "A"--and because it's not as stoic as other didot typefaces. We looked at several colors for the logo, including a yellow-gold and a darker slate blue, but in the end the client chose this grey because of its warmth and vintage sensibility.

Now all I have to do is make a reservation at the restaurant!

See more of my design work at sarahrobinsdesign.com

Charlotte's Big 0-1!

You know when you see those signs that say "12 Months No Interest!" or "12 Month Tarot Card Reading," or, if you're really lucky in your nearest Mexican souvenir shop, "12 Month Mayan Calendar"?

Well, all "12 months" makes me think of lately is Charlotte, because she's officially one year old! She hit the big 0-1 on October 21st, and we had a little party on the 22nd to celebrate.

On her real birthday I couldn't resist buying her a mini cupcake to celebrate. She liked it, but she loved that candle even more.

I designed this little invitation for her party. It's a timeline of her first year, highlighting such things as  "First Word (Ellis)" and "First Auburn National Championship."

We were so fortunate to have special friends and most of our family here to celebrate with us.

Charlotte, my mom and dad

 I have such talented friends who helped make Charlotte's party so special. Laura Self Burton of Uprising Cakes blew us all away with her to-die-for almond cake, perfected with flowers on top, a dusting of fine gold glitter, and shell pink ruffles all the way around. Charlotte even got her very own baby smash cake! (Keep scrolling for more photos of her beautiful cakes.)

Charlotte, me, Laura

Laura Rowe has documented Charlotte's first year in photos every three months, and she brought it full circle by shooting the party. Below you can see some of her incredible talent. You can also see what a fun time we had! I made tissue paper pompoms and some fabric bunting banners to hang, and used some pale pink carnations, billy balls, and some kid of little green berry (not sure what it's called) in glass bottles and apothecary jars. For favors we had beautiful (and delicious) cookies by my cousin-in-law, Elizabeth, of swEEt thang cookies and more. I also put out some candy necklaces, rings, and watches (for the gentlemen) to get us spiffed up. 

Happy Birthday, Charlotte Bethea! Your first year has been our sweetest year.

Pin It

Framed Calligraphy and Rebekah's invitation

Good afternoon, Pasties! Lately I've been working on all things calligraphy, including a Frida Kahlo-inspired Houston wedding suite that I'm so excited to share with you! You'll have to wait a few weeks til the bride sends them out before I can make the big reveal. In the meantime, here are a few pics of some pieces I've been lucky enough to create for blushing brides and beaming babies.

Rebekah and Nate were married on August 27, and I was able to design the bridesmaids luncheon invitation for the bride, as well as do a custom calligraphy piece for her to display in their new nest. Lately I've been drawn to the look of handpainted type, especially script done in a continuous line of watercolor, so I had fun revisiting this technique for Rebekah's invitation.  

And here's the calligraphy piece, framed, for their new place. I used a gold ink and lots of ornamentation and was really pleased with the way it turned out.

Welcome Baby Ford! McDonald Plummer IV was born this summer to some good friends of ours. I made him a little piece for his baby gift.

I was also lucky enough to do two more of these pieces in pink for the sweetest two little girls, Corinne and Kaitlin. I don't have those photos back so I can't post pics of those today. 

Stay turned for a full rundown of Charlotte's FIRST BIRTHDAY on Friday and her party on Saturday! 

New Work: Prime book and SL sell shirt

Well, it's officially wedding season around here, and I literally can't even remember what year it is, because in addition to wrapping up some invitations for this fall, I'm also working on next year's season: invitations for 2012! But before posting images of work from upcoming nuptials, "I do" want to share some work I did in the spring. I had the opportunity to work with some friends from my old stomping grounds, Student Life. This year I designed the summer sell shirt and a 42-page section in Prime, the last Bible study book in a series of six.

The sell shirt was Andy-Warhol inspired and featured the "heart, soul, strength" concept found in Deuteronomy 6:5. I wanted to streamline those three ideas into a working icon which could be used for each--hands shown in three different positions. We used hot colors, halftones to simulate overprinting, and a grid to reference pop art screen printing. 

Art Direction: Dana Humphreville, Events Resource Manager


Student Life Bible Study books hold a unique place in the market in that they are fully graphic. I had the chance to design a 42-page section on "misfits"--people in the Bible who walked by faith and were thus treated as outcasts. The art direction for this section called for a vintage circus/freak show look. We hit the jackpot and found high-resolution royalty-free vintage circus posters, many of which I was able to edit to show our section headers rather than existing headlines. This was such a fun section because I got to use great display typefaces, rich imagery, lots of overlays, and bold color. Each page represented a day's Bible study and thus had to work as a single page as well as part of a spread.

Project Editor: Jeremy Maxfield
Creative Direction: Drew Francis


Want to see more of my design work? Check out my portfolio!

Pin It

I'm live! I'm really live!

Well, my portfolio is FINALLY live, and I'm so excited, and I'm so glad to have it wrapped up. Many thanks to Jeff Williams for awesome photography and to Warren Moore and Tony Legrone for transforming my site design into something fluid and functional. 

Check it out, and tell all your friends! I'd love to talk to you about a potential project or need you might have, or what it is that I do. sarahrobinsmpowell.com