How the Bess Identity Was Built
Bess founder Christy Mack let her Hudson Valley past, California present and vision for the studio guide the creation of the Bess identity.
“I believe brands should always start with your story and your organization’s ‘good’ because no one else in the world has it. The brand captures your unique intent right from the start,” Christy says as she looks up from her teak kitchen island. “In keeping, the studio brand represents my story and intent for creatively and collaboratively using brand to shape the world want to see.”
Christy Mack with the help of graphic designer Helen Alba brought the Bess identity to life. Christy and Helen designed the Bess brand to represent an eclectic mix of the modern and nostalgic, filled with meaningful shapes, colors and fonts.
Their first exploration began with considering how the name Bess would be shown in the logo. Christy and Helen went for a vintage look to honor Christy’s great aunt while adding a crescent moon shape into the “e” of Bess and full moon shapes to the s’s in Bess.
“The moon ties to my history,” Christy shares. “I grew up next to a horse farm in the New York countryside and spent many nights lying on top of our old wooden picnic table near the farm field’s edge staring up at the moon,” Christy shares. “Moons are still a source of awe and comfort for me.”
During the creation of Bess, Christy learned the moon is symbolically representative of “the mother” and that both she and her great aunt Bess were born under a waxing crescent moon.
“The moon in the logo honors my tie to my aunt Bess and the connection I have always felt to the moon,” Christy beams. “Helen and I initially placed the crescent moon shape into the ‘B’ but I fell in love with the crescent shape incorporated into the ‘e’ of Bess. It drew me into the Bess logo, much like the moon draws me in over and over again.”
“The Bess color palette is made up of moss, sage, lavender, navy, mustard, and bone, and like all other things Bess is derived from personal meaning past and present.”
“Moss and sage reflect the pine trees and cactuses that fill the landscape surrounding me,” Christy shares. “I feel at peace in this landscape and that peace allows me to create. Creativity is integral to everything we do at Bess so I wanted to honor that feeling in the studio’s identity.”
The lavender is tribute to a gorgeous, dusty lavender colored suit Christy’s great aunt Bess would often pair with soft print, floral tie-neck blouses and oval, tortoise shell sunglasses. Christy was so enamored with this vintage look that she made the suit hue part of the color palette.
Christy’s love of airy spaces led to the inclusion of bone in the palette. Christy finds the use of this light, off-white hue allows the Bess brand space to breathe. It also provides time to sit, reflect + take Bess in.
Navy and mustard are colors that don’t often sit alongside moss, sage and lavender, but there’s a story there too.
“The navy and mustard additions to the palette arose from a 1975 Pace Editions Inc. poster from 32 East 57th Street in New York City that was a gift to me from my mother-in-law,” Christy shares. “The postmodern poster shows two abstract human silhouettes with a lavender desert mountain scape in the background. A mustard colored sun is perched high above the mountains casting larger than life shadows of the figures in the foreground. Navy blue frames the entire scene. The uncommon mix of lavender with navy and mustard along with the significance of the artwork intrigued me. Helen and I added navy and mustard to the Bess palette. After these additions the palette finally felt complete.”
Next it was time for Christy and Helen to turn their attention to fonts. They chose Majesti Banner to capture the vintage vibe of the Bess brand. Roboto was selected for its modern feel, but at the same time harkens back to the 1960s and 1970s fonts that appeared on the Knickerbocker beer cans and bags of Wise potato chips Christy’s great aunt Bess would share with her husband Bill to mark the end of each workday.
Words in Bess brand executions are often displayed in unconventional ways to show that we can break molds + make new models. Even the name bess in the logo is all lowercase, which is not as you may expect.
“Bess is about deconstructing and reconstructing while looking to the future of what’s possible,” Christy shares with us. “We’re using brand to shape the world we want to live in and we wouldn’t have it any other way.”