I spent a long time on my personal brand. A long time. SagemarkText is (quite literally) the handmade version of the results of that. Sagemark is where I express my handcrafted goods, like books and cards.

Continue reading below to see some of the thought behind it.

Those triangles up above? That's it. That's what took me years to find. I examined many, many other options, and finally settled on a stupidly-simple triangle. But simple isn't easy. 

Among many, many other factors, triangles are the strongest shape, and are used in building inherently strength-needing structures, like bridges. Triangles also represent feminism in some contexts, and they reliably always add up to 180º. 

It was all too perfect for my compulsive brain.

Sagemark was meant to be a rip-off of Hannah Bleak. I wanted it to look like my own brand, like it belonged. I wanted it to be a more handmade version of what I already had.

As I mentioned before, SagemarkText is the name under which I sell my handmade goods, like books and cards. They're intended to help people keep memories because I believe that's what outlives us — our documented stories. 

But it literally took forever.

I filled up half an actual Sagemark book with handwritten text options. I drew these for weeks and weeks before I damn near hired it out. I know a lot of designers, and I knew they could do it better than me.

Then I remembered my italic calligraphy class. It was perfect. It seemed so obvious once I found it, but man oh man did I want to make that cursive work. 

The colors were pulled from the most beautiful place on earth — the Utah desert. I mean, look at it. If you don't want to put all of those rocks in your mouth, you can fuck right off.

Orange is obvious — sandstone. Sage comes in through the unbelievably hardy sage plants that grow with relentless dedication to dehydration. And far, far off in the distance, shadows turn purple. It's color theory, really, but it's simply astonishing. 

As an added plus, these three colors make a secondary color scheme. Which, I can't even bat an eye at that. 

Photography needed to feel like it was taken in the desert. Like the books were warm and cozy. With a temperature increase and color correction, photography actually shows how the books feel in your hands. Though it may be obvious, I feel obligated to state that the photo on the right is the correction I use. 

See Sagemark on Etsy or contact me for your branding project.