Melissa Waller

Hedgerow Pottery · 2022

Hedgerow Pottery identity system

I turned a fragile logo file into a production-ready identity system, giving Hedgerow Pottery a guidebook, vendor-ready assets, and a brand toolkit that could work in real production without constant design translation.

Three overlapping social posts from Hedgerow Pottery. The owner holds up a teal t-shirt printed with the round Hedgerow Pottery mark. A winter classes and workshops graphic carries the same mark at its center, over a grid of studio photographs. A hand holds a green glazed mug with the mark pressed into the clay.

Rebuilt Mark

A fragile mark became a usable system

Hedgerow Pottery already had a recognizable identity, but it lived inside a small, low-resolution file that could not reliably carry the business across signage, print, social, and vendor handoffs.

From a low-resolution source to production-ready artwork

Original Hedgerow Pottery logo file, shown small and low contrast with fine details that would be difficult to reproduce at different sizes.
Before. A fragile logo source that could not support every production context.
Rebuilt Hedgerow Pottery logo with clearer hierarchy, stronger spacing, and higher legibility for production use.
After. A cleaner mark with stronger hierarchy, spacing, and reproduction quality.

Problem

The real problem was production fragility

The visible problem was a logo that needed cleanup. The deeper business problem was that the identity could not move cleanly through the places a small business actually needs its brand to work: a sign vendor, printed materials, social posts, merchandise, and day-to-day marketing.

Without reusable files or simple standards, every new use risked becoming a one-off translation. The business needed a right-sized system the owner and vendors could understand without turning every production decision into a design consultation.

Approach

I reframed the ask as an owner’s toolkit

I treated the work as brand-system enablement, not a cosmetic refresh. The goal was to turn trapped design knowledge into practical assets, rules, and guidance that would keep working after the project left my hands.

That meant sizing the solution to the business: enough structure to make decisions repeatable, but not a heavy brand program that a small team would never maintain.

Brand Guidebook

The handoff worked when the sign went to production

The strongest proof point was not the guidebook itself. It was what happened after the handoff: a vendor used the guidebook and production files directly to produce the large-format outdoor sign.

That matters because the system had to survive outside the designer’s hands. The rebuilt artwork made the sign technically possible; the guidebook and file guidance made it usable by the people responsible for producing it.

The Hedgerow Pottery storefront, a blue brick building with two round signs carrying the rebuilt logo mounted on two faces above the entrance and the corner window.
The produced outdoor sign, scaled from the rebuilt identity system.

Role

What I designed and led

I was solo on the identity system, from diagnosis through production handoff. I designed the assets, clarified the rules, and created the guidance the client and vendors needed to apply the brand consistently.

  • Rebuilt the logo as scalable vector artwork.
  • Created flexible logo variations for different backgrounds, sizes, and production contexts.
  • Improved contrast, hierarchy, spacing, and small-size legibility.
  • Prepared production-ready files for signage, print, social, and marketing use.
  • Built a lightweight guidebook with usage rules and vendor handoff guidance.

The palette

Three values, so a vendor never has to guess which green.

  • Primary #C0CECC
  • Secondary #606161
  • Accent #738481

The original mark

What the business had: one small file, with fine detail that broke down as soon as it was scaled or reversed.

The original Hedgerow Pottery logo: a hand-drawn circle enclosing the words Hedgerow Pottery, at small size and low resolution.
The source file, shown at the size it was supplied.

The variations, and when to use each

Four marks from one rebuild, so the identity has an answer for a sign, a social avatar, a letterhead and a stamp without anyone improvising.

  • The Hedgerow Pottery mark: the wordmark inside a hand-drawn circle.

    Full mark

    The default. Signage, storefront, anywhere the identity stands alone.

  • The Hedgerow Pottery mark inside a hand-drawn circle, with the tagline Studio, Classes, Gallery beneath the wordmark.

    Full mark with tagline

    Where a first-time reader needs to know what the business does.

  • The Hedgerow Pottery wordmark without the circle.

    Wordmark

    Narrow spaces and small sizes, where the circle would close up.

  • The Hedgerow Pottery wordmark without the circle, with the tagline Studio, Classes, Gallery beneath it.

    Wordmark with tagline

    Print and marketing, where there is room to say more.

System Design

The system connected assets, rules, and real-world use

The toolkit connected the rebuilt mark to the decisions that usually create friction: which file to use, which version fits the context, and how to preserve readability as the identity moves from screen to print to signage.

From fragile asset to usable system

A small business identity rebuilt so the owner and vendors could apply it in real production contexts.

The Hedgerow identity system One low-resolution logo file becomes an identity toolkit of vector artwork, logo variations, legibility rules and file-format guidance, which in turn feeds vendor handoff, a large-format sign, and social and marketing use. Portfolio Inventory One low-resolution logo file Fragile for print, signage, and vendors Identity Toolkit Vector logo artwork Logo variations Legibility rules File-format guidance Vendor Handoff Large-format Sign Social and Marketing
One fragile source became a system of artwork, guidance, files, and real-world applications.

Outcome

The identity left my hands and kept working

Hedgerow ended with more than cleaner artwork. The business had a practical identity system that could be handed to vendors and reused across real touchpoints.

The produced sign confirmed the handoff worked at large scale, and the identity assets are now used across social channels and marketing materials. The value here is production readiness, clearer quality standards, and a brand system the business could keep using.

Hedgerow Pottery identity shown across packaging, a tote bag, business card, and mug mockups to demonstrate how the system can extend across marketing and merchandise contexts.
System applications across marketing and merchandise contexts.