Editorial
Front Page - Friday, October 29, 2010
Widgets & Stone present a ‘visual language’ for clients in unique designs
By Erica Tuggle
Paul Rustand, the director of Widgets & Stone, guides his team of collaborators in making unique and eye-catching logos and signage for their clients. Widgets & Stone has worked with Neidlov’s Bakery, Chattem and Greenspaces in design and are responsible for many other visual projects around town.
- Photo provided
The average individual sees several thousands of brands every day on billboards, clothes and storefronts. The eye naturally filters out anything that is the same. Thus, only the brands and logos that are truly different get noticed.
Paul Rustand and his collaborators at Widgets & Stone have the task to distinguish a company’s brand and make the consumer’s eye pay attention. Rustand says this entails finding out who or what the client is, why they are unique, who they need to communicate to and find a way to differentiate them from all the “branded clutter” out there.
“A lot of our goal is to figure out how to get you noticed in your marketplace. We spend a lot of time trying to figure out our customer’s business objectives, because that will help us find out where the designs need to go.”
As the director of Widgets & Stone, Rustand says his job is similar to that of a film director in that he guides how everything should feel, and in design this translates into what colors, typefaces, photography, writing and the whole package should be.
He helps to guide other creative people, such as collaborators Brad Dicherry, Grant Dotson, Matt Greenwell, Caleb Ludwick and D.J. Trischler, in creating a cohesive brand and identity for their clients. Working together in a totally remodeled garage on Market Street with old letterpress equipment side by side with Macintosh computers, Rustand and these collaborators of Widgets & Stone make the visual elements of the companies we know and love locally.
The logos, signage and other visual candy Widgets & Stone have created can be seen in Chattanooga entrepreneurs Neidlov’s Bakery, CreateHere, Greenspaces, RockCreek, 2 North Shore, The Blue Plate and Easy Bistro, to name a few. Work with Chattem, Unum, Olan Mills, the Aquarium and Allied Arts are also in their portfolio
Rustand says he got into this area of the business because he likes the focus that clients bring in their needs and goals where he
can step in to be a translator, speaking the visual language for his clients and target audiences.
Widgets & Stone originally began in 1995 with Rustand and four friends from school. They located in downtown Chattanooga because the members wanted to stay in the Southeast U.S., in a midsize city, and were impressed with the difference downtown had made since the ’80s.
“Downtown felt alive and the city really cared about what was happening and citizens wanted to be part of helping it grow and get better, and we really responded to that,” he says. “The city was small enough we could make a contribution but big enough so that it is bigger than us.”
Rustand says in 1998 the band broke up, so to speak. Burnt out at working so hard to create something out of nothing, he took a sabbatical and went into graduate school full-time. He came back renewed, refreshed and excited in 2002 at the current location and started Widgets & Stone back from scratch. In 2004, the current group began to assemble and work together, and now, Rustand says these five collaborators are as much a part of Widgets & Stone as he is.
“It’s been fun these past five years to think as a team and have challenges in evaluating ideas, and I think that’s a unique thing we have been able to cultivate,” he says.
Widgets & Stone is also trying something different these days in carving out a working sabbatical where half the day is spent on client work an the other half is spent doing personal products of their own that could take the form of events, publications or Web sites. Rustand says, by doing this, they are getting their creativity going in a way that helps out their clients as well.
“It’s been nine years since my last sabbatical, so I feel we are a little overdue to pay attention to some our own projects,” Rustand says. “We still continue to serve customers here and elsewhere, and will continue to pursue projects like that.”
One of these personal projects involves the letterpress equipment housed in the Widgets & Stone office. This old fashioned and time consuming way of making visual projects is a very satisfying tactual mix of painting and work done on the computer, Rustand says. Since he grew up painting and drawing, he wants to get back into this type of work when doing his personal project work. Also part of the personal projects is collaboration with individuals they have had an interest in, but have not had the chance to do so because previous client projects did not overlap.
Whichever direction these projects bring Rustand and his collaborators with Widgets & Stone, the outcome is sure to be unique and something our eyes will want to pay attention to.
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