Clumpies Ice Cream at 25

January 13, 2025

Looking back to October 2024: Happy 25th anniversary to Clumpies Ice Cream Co.! It is amazing to see the logo we designed in 1999 still going strong after all this time.

It was a joy to collaborate with founder Marshall Brock to create the original logo and to build the identity over the course of the next 14 years. Marshall had a vision to create a small batch ice cream shop focused on excellent craftsmanship and delightful flavors. His inspiration and guidance to Widgets & Stone was to look to antique dairy farm equipment as we designed the logo and the identity. So we did just that.

Original stationery set, letterpress 2000

From 1999 - 2004 Clumpies’ look and feel drew heavily on vintage farming catalogs, products and equipment. The brand utilized two of John Downer’s font designs from 1999, Brothers and Council. Both were new variations on vintage typography on broadsides and tins, a perfect fit with the antique theme.

In 2004 as Clumpies expanded with joint ventures and new locations, Widgets & Stone reimagined the brand style to move brighter, bolder and more playful. Introducing a type heavy approach to utilize the lighthearted writing, and adding brighter colors to the palette. The new locations added opportunities to update signage and wayfinding.

In 2013 See Rock City acquired Clumpies Ice Cream Co. and the brand design duties were brought in-house. But even after all this time, the logo and visual identity are still going as strong as ever.

Creative Direction: Paul Rustand; Design: Bradley Dicharry, Paul Rustand, Joseph Shipp, Mark Cooley.

Rock/Creek

October 16, 2024

Rebranding a successful outdoor retailer for a future in the digital marketplace.

Rock/Creek understood that its past is part of its future. Although the logo of 20 years had served them well, it was time for a new identity that would communicate all they are and all they bring to the outdoor experience across multiple brand applications. And one that would help grow into a successful digital presence with online sales.

The Challenge:
Our challenge was to create a new look and feel for a well established store that not only captured what customers had loved about it for 20 years, but one that would be successful for the next 20 years.

Rock/Creek is committed to taking people into the outdoors. It enables people to move out into the world in new ways, discovering pathless trails and open roads, with all the promise they hold. Rock/Creek helps people to find themselves, get lost in the experience, and find themselves all over again. They do this through great products and great advice.

The Goal:
Our goal was to create a new brand identity that would communicate that this is a company that is established, strong and grounded, has great, fashion-forward outdoor products, and a love of simple beauty.

The goal of the brand design was to:

/ draw out the way Rock/Creek improves customer's lives

/ highlight customer experience and participation

/ be inspirational without being intimidating

/ remain true to the 20 year brick-and-mortar heritage

/ connect the parts of the brand that can grow with the company

The Work:

We provided a comprehensive visual identity for Rock/Creek. Our work included: logo redesign, photo styles, messaging and writing, print materials, wayfinding and signage design, and a digital design toolkit.

The Results
The new Rock/Creek brand captures the company’s storied personality and paves the way for a successful future digital marketplace. With the launch of the new brand, online sales grew more than 15x, leading to a successful acquisition by Camping World. Over seventeen years the brand remained timeless, relevant, and inspiring to the next generation of customers.

“The design team captured the core of who we are as retailers and turned our heritage into a new, exciting brand. Their method and the thoughtful nature of their work reinvigorated our own sense of direction and led to focus for growth.”
— Mark McKnight, Marketing Director

On October 8, 2024 Rock/Creek announced that it was acquired by Gearhead Outfitters and would be rebranding in the near future. We are so proud of the almost 17 year legacy of the Rock/Creek brand and visual identity we created, and how it became such a big part of the community. We are especially grateful to Dawson Wheeler and Mark McKnight for giving us the opportunity to work with them on such an important part of their business.

Creative Director: Paul Rustand; Design Director: Matt Greenwell; Writer & Strategist: Caleb Ludwick; Designers: Brad Dicharry and Joseph Shipp.

encycLOGOpedia

June 26, 2024

ENCYCLOGOPEDIA

A Widgets & Stone Logo Book

After much ado, the retrospective book of logos by Widgets &Stone are printed and this limited edition of 100 signed copies is finally available for purchase!

The book is five inches by five inches with 220 pages of content and over 200 logos created during the studio’s 27 years. The forward is written by R. Michael Hendrix, former Partner & Global Design Director of IDEO.

The paperback cover is letterpress printed in silver and fluorescent orange on Neenah Solar White Techweave 100# cover by The Open Press. The interior and bindings were done by Wonder Press. Each copy is hand numbered and signed by Widgets & Stone Founder, Paul Rustand.

Copies are available for purchase at $39 (plus applicable sales tax and shipping and handling). If you are interested in getting a copy of E N C Y C L O G O P E D I A, please email us at info@widgetsandstone.com, be sure to include your address so we can know if there will be any shipping fees needed.

A sampling of logos included in the book:

Creative Direction: Paul Rustand; Design: Benjamin Dicks, Jessica Chambliss, Brad Dicharry, Grant Dotson, Stephanie Fast, Matt Greenwell, Amy Trumbull Harmon, Michael Hendrix, Travis Hitchcock, Ben Horner, Beth Joseph, John Le, Noah Marlowe, Laura Michael, Emily Ricks, Athene Ruiz, Joseph Shipp, Mark Slawson, Liz Tapp, D.J. Trischler, David Webb, Mark Walter, Brian Woodlief, Casey Yoshida.

Better Before Bigger

January 18, 2024

In July of 2023 Widgets & Stone was proud to become part of Whiteboard.

Whiteboard Co-Founder Eric Brown shares this message.

A reflection on a wild year at Whiteboard:

In 2023, Whiteboard served 120 clients across our brand, web, and growth studios spanning from Fortune 500s, global non-profits, scrappy startups, and individuals willing to take a risk on their idea to build a brighter future.
Launched a Support as a Service team to help clients with ongoing platform maintenance and development enhancements
Executed end-to-end digital marketing campaigns for more than 12 organizations ranging from public companies to community colleges
Launched a product to help brands build internal culture and strengthen employer value proposition (more on this in Q1 2024).
Expanded technology partnerships like our Webflow Enterprise Partner status, serving on Mailchimp’s Customer Advisory Board, and more
Maintained a 96% Employee Satisfaction Rating with retention at 3-4x industry norms. We’re really proud of this and continue to work on ways our team can thrive in their work and lives.

Expressions of our work include: family-owned hospitality groups, pioneering solutions to end homelessness, reinvigorating faith in the next generation, identity verification, stock exchanges, real estate portfolios, schools, charitable foundations, preventing teenage suicide, land identity, campaigns to free the world from poverty, a very famous underground waterfall, and so much more.

Learn more → A Retrospective On 2023

The World, Curated.

September 18, 2023

Mary Elizabeth Kaufman had been working as a bespoke travel agent for years with Martha King Travel, but in 2023 she convinced her husband Julian to change careers and join her. The couple decided to brand as their own agency and came to Widgets & Stone for help with a name, visual identity and basic website.

Since the Kaufmans custom design trips for each individual client, the idea of “curating” travel led to an Italian take on the name: Via Curato. A minimal and elegant visual identity grew from the name, designed to let photography of the world’s most beautiful places tell the story. Metallic gold foil on beautiful green, extra thick card stock accentuate the business cards. And the clean and efficient website brings the brand to life.

Visit the website.

Creative Direction: Paul Rustand; Design: Mark Walter, Emily Ricks-Tyree, Dylan Delaney.

A New Chapter for Widgets & Stone

July 14, 2023

We are thrilled to announce that Widgets & Stone is now a part of Whiteboard, not simply adding strength to strength, but multiplying it.

What changes for our clients? Nothing — unless you find you need more thoughtful expertise and more services.

Over the years, Whiteboard has evolved its services by forming three multidisciplinary creative studios focused on brand, web, and growth offerings. From research to brand narrative, pitch decks to brand strategy, visual identity to verbal identity, websites (of all kinds) to apps, paid advertising and audience growth. Whiteboard’s team has always served clients across these touch points.

All this gets added to Widgets & Stone’s exceptional brand identity, digital, print, and environment design. Together, Widgets & Stone and Whiteboard share almost 40-years of expertise.

One of the many reasons I’m excited to join forces with Whiteboard is their team’s relentless commitment to empower their clients to design, build, and grow their ideas for a brighter future. And I hope this future involves continuing to serve you and all your design needs.

28-years in and we’re just getting started.

Stop by to visit us at 1433 Williams Street, Chattanooga, TN 37402.

– Paul for the Widgets & Stone team

On the Move!

June 23, 2023

Dear Clients, Collaborators and Friends,

It is with an odd mix of nostalgia and excitement that we’re announcing that Widgets & Stone will be moving from our office on 8th and Broad in July of 2023.

We have absolutely loved our wonderful space for the past seven years, but we’re shifting into an exciting new phase for our company — and with that will come a new location. More info ahead when details are finalized!

If you are in the neighborhood, please don't hesitate to stop by to visit us before the end of June — July will be a bit crazy with the actual move. We’d love to see you.

We would be remiss if we did not mention how extremely grateful we are to our building owners: John Healy and Matt and Ethan Wood. They have been truly wonderful!

Stay tuned for more details on our new (ad)venture.

Hopefully we’ll see you before then.

Ciao!

A Park that Barks

June 6, 2023

A Park that Barks

New Catalog Design

BarkPark designs and produces outdoor dog equipment, courses, and accessories for dogs and dog parks of all sizes — essentially playgrounds for pets! UltraSite, the parent company of BarkPark, tasked Widgets & Stone with doing a revamp of the catalog’s design style for 2023.

Designers Emily Ricks-Tyree and Noah Marlow collaborated to make a playful and lively design for the piece. Throughout the catalog, an “Instagram-post-treatment” was applied to photo features of real dogs using BarkPark equipment, as well as colorful, organic forms that keep the tone of the catalog as playful as the equipment, and the dogs that use it.

Design Direction: Emily Ricks-Tyree; Design: Noah Marlowe, Emily Ricks-Tyree; Photography: various provided by UltraSite.

Naturally Beautiful

May 31, 2023

Naturally Beautiful

Campaign Design Styles

“City in a Park” is the visibility initiative of Chattanooga Parks & Outdoors. Crafted to promote the City's offerings and to stimulate public engagement, the campaign highlights impressive educational, recreational, and cultural resources and activities (not to mention the staggering volume of beautiful natural spaces) available to Chattanoogans. With its unique integration of built and natural spaces, Chattanooga boasts unrivaled accessibility to some of Tennessee's most beautiful parks and exciting outdoor resources. It's truly a city in a park.

Designer Mark Walter worked closely with consultants and the Parks & Outdoors Department to create a dynamic and flexible design system to communicate the theme.

Art Direction: Mark Walter; Design: Mark Walter; Photography: various.

Silver and Gold…

May 17, 2023

Silver and Gold

Chattanooga FC 2023 Uniforms

In celebration of Chattanooga Football Club’s fifteenth season, Widgets & Stone created the new kits utilizing design elements that had not been used in the past. A mix of solids, sashes and hoops are highlighted by color and by touches of metallics — either silver or gold.

The primary jersey and alternate goalkeeper jersey shine with metallic gold touches; the secondary kit is understated in silver, and its hairline hoops match the black keeper; the women’s primary, the primary keeper and the 2023 owner’s jersey all have versions of a dynamic sash.

Of course, this third edition of the owner’s jersey has the names of every supporter-owner worked into the sky background — over 3,200 names in all. Making its debut in January, it is the one longsleeve of the set.

Creative Direction: Paul Rustand; Design: Emily Ricks-Tyree, Mark Walter, Brad Dicharry; Photography: Cassidy Dickens (All Trades Creative), Austin Pantaleo.

Scale Seamlessly

May 15, 2023

Scale Seamlessly

Support Ninja Identity Design

Support Ninja helps clients find capacity again. They free up resources, accelerate growth, and solve for scale with access to a hand-picked talent pool. Support Ninja dedicated new team members become experts in their customer’s world—their customers, tech, data, systems—so they can build what has been started.

Our partners at Whiteboard asked us to work with them to develop a brand identity design that would build on the strategy work that they had already done. Under the great Creative Direction of Kody Dahl, we built designs that flowed out as a natural extension of the Support Ninja brand.

The foundations that Widgets & Stone established for the identity — the color palette, the type families and styles, the logo — provided the structure for the web design team to build upon. José Ocando, web design lead, was able to put our design standards to use quickly and easily, not only by adding lovely custom illustrations, but in building a wonderful web design to boot.

Creative Direction: Kody Dahl, Whiteboard; Design Direction: Paul Rustand; Art Direction & Design: Mark Walter; Web Design: José Ocando, Whiteboard.

Mama Knows Best

March 1, 2023

Mama Knows Best

A Rebrand for Taco Mamacita

The very first restaurant Mike and Taylor Monen opened together was Taco Mamacita on Chattanooga’s North Shore in 2008. It quickly became city staple and a local favorite. In the years that followed, the couple created at least eight more concepts — adding a brewery and a music hall to their restaurants — with just as many locations. Along the way, the Monens began to expand their concepts to other cities, including a Taco Mamacita in Nashville in 2009.

After a great stint in the southwest area of Nashville, an opportunity arose in 2020 to move to a thriving section of the city known as Germantown. The historic building of Little’s Fish Market would become the new home of Taco Mamacita.

The Monens seized on the opportunity to expand and re-imagine the Taco Mamacita brand, enlisting Smith Hanes (interior design) and Dryden Architecture & Design to bring out the very best in the new space and location. Soon after, Widgets & Stone joined the effort to assist in rebranding Taco Mamacita for its next era. The Widgets team was privileged to collaborate design of the new space, creating concepts for signage, murals, posters, merchandise, menus and more.

The Brand Design

The Monens originally tasked Widgets & Stone with creating a new look and feel for the Taco Mamacita brand that bridged where they had been with where they were going. The creative team generated a variety of designs that highlighted various aspects of the Taco Mama personality. The winning design style for the logo was the one that seemed to fit best with the clean aesthetic of the building and interior designs. It was also based on the original marquee sign lettering still adorns the first location.

From there the creative team began to build out graphics for the restaurant space. After reviewing the clean and minimal design results, the Monens asked if Widgets & Stone could inject a little more of the gritty humor and “rock’n’roll aesthetic” that the original store had. The team was happy to oblige — and under the guidance of Art Director Mark Walter, the final results effectively captured that “Taco Mama” spirit.

Art of the Craft

Finally, to bring the vision of the graphics to life in the space, Taylor Monen asked the talented sign painters of I Saw the Sign in Nashville to paint all the designs in the restaurant, exterior and interior. Mark Walter provided design direction for the most prominent design elements, but the allowed for I Saw the Sign to showcase their immense talents with places for original touches on type, flourishes and ornamentation. Not to be outdone, Mark added his own personal touch to the six poster designs with handpainted elements, gold foil and cut paper additions.

The result is a warm, charmingly imperfect, but thoroughly vibrant human touch that is Taco Mamacita.

Creative Direction: Paul Rustand; Art Direction: Liz Tapp, Mark Walter; Design: Mark Walter, Emily Ricks; Interior Design: Smith Hanes; Architecture: Dryden; Sign Painting: I Saw the Sign; Photography where noted: Quinn Ballard.

Talent on Display

February 2, 2023

Talent on Display

A family of logos and websites

For over 35 years, Displaycraft has been making excellent custom displays and fixtures. They engineer every aspect of permanent display and fixtures creation with worry-free, full service capabilities, regardless of project scale. Over time the company has expanded its array of services, and the new ownership group decided to showcase that by bringing three companies under one umbrella, DCI Manufacturing.

Widgets & Stone used the long standing Displaycraft logo as a jumping off point for the look of the entire logo family. New websites for each entity followed soon after, with streamlined graphics and content.

DCI Manufacturing is a family of companies built to meet manufacturing needs. It consists of Displaycraft, K2 Metals, and DC Lab. K2 Metals offers complete metal fabrication — design, production, and assembly services to customers across a wide variety of industries. DC Lab is result of their unique ability to work alongside entrepreneurs and craftsman to offer advice and expertise as they develop and scale their product.

Creative Director: Paul Rustand; Design Director: Liz Tapp; Designers: Liz Tapp, Mark Walter, Brad Dicharry; Writer: Ross Hagan.

Simplifying Play

November 30, 2022

Simplifying Play

Play & Park Catalog Redesign

Play & Park playgrounds and recreation solutions deliver a boutique experience with the backing of the largest playground manufacturer in the world. Widgets & Stone has collaborated with Play & Park on their annual catalog design almost every since 2015.

When the new Director of Marketing and Product Development, Kelly Ellington, wanted to reimagine the catalog, she turned to us for help. Design Director Liz Tapp and Designer Noah Marlowe created a new look that minimized clutter and elevated the brand quality. Adams Litho provided sensational printing with elegant touches to make the finished product stand out against the competition.

Design Direction: Liz Tapp; Design: Liz Tapp, Noah Marlowe; Photography: Play & Park.

Coloring Outside the Lines

October 21, 2022

Coloring Outside the Lines

Tucker Build Office Graphics

Tucker Build is a commercial construction team, made up of design-build specialists. They know every project is unique, and that's why they break the mold again and again for their clients. Tucker Build’s expertise is in bespoke planning, managing, and building. Their process is defined by the specifics of each project and their job is to think of everything.

Widgets & Stone captured this sensibility when we created the Tucker Build identity, and we sought to expand upon it in the design of the graphics for their new office. Designed by architect Hugh Newell Jacobsen, the office embodied a clean, Modernist minimalism. Our team embraced that style and expanded on it in our approach to environmental graphics.

The office is decorated with standoff black and white photographs of Tucker Build’s work, accentuated with bright swatches of red and orange that break the edges and spill across the walls. The results are dynamic, yet with a bit of restraint that ties the space together, across hallways and rooms.

Creative Direction: Paul Rustand; Art Direction & Design: Mark Walter; Fabrication, Printing & Installation: Steven Eddy, PSS.

The Making of an Icon

October 19, 2022

The Making of an Icon

Catalog Design

ICON Structures are designed with the same care as architectural and fine art structures, and needed a catalog that helps pronounce that. Bold, colorful photography and vibrant, red typography lead readers through a streamlined narrative of featured products, style guides, and more.

Design Direction: Liz Tapp; Art Direction & Design: Emily Ricks.

Start Your Ascent

October 12, 2022

Start Your Ascent

H3LIUM Brand Design

H3LIUM is a Web3 native company with the mission of onboarding new builders and companies into the ecosystem to pursue unique fundraising opportunities — through creative services and unparalleled industry expertise. H3LIUM Studio is a full service creative agency with leading industry expertise in all things web3. Their team provides the highest quality creative offerings through in-house talent and represented artists.

The H3LIUM platform was the brainchild of the creators of the Balloonsville NFT collection. They saw great potential in expanding the types of collections they offered, as well as growing out their suite of services for others seeking to get into the sometimes confusing world of NFTs.

We helped guide them through the process of creating, naming and branding a new umbrella company that could house all the different kinds of products and services they were offering, and would offer in the future.

When it came to the design solution, our team thought a lot about the metaphor of flexibility or malleability — things being shape-shifting, scalable, adaptable. People who are interested in Web3 seem to have a shared interest in products and projects that are multidimensional and hard to categorize. They seem to fit whatever space is needed, much like the gas of Helium. The extreme thins and thicks in the type family embody this as well.

The final result is a design that embraces freedom and exploration, pushing boundaries to see what the worldwide web can actually be.

Creative Director: Paul Rustand; Art Director: Mark Walter; Designer: Noah Marlowe.

A Poetic Triptych

September 30, 2022

A Poetic Triptych

Volume Three for Viston Taylor

In 2010 our designer Grant Dotson created the look and feel for Viston Taylor’s first volume of poetry. A beautifully minimal book design built to showcase the poetry and to serve as a limited edition for friends and family. In 2017 designer Virginia Brooks built on the structure Grant designed for Volume Two, and finally in 2021 designer Emily Ricks completed Volume Three.

Creating Volume Three proved more difficult with supply chain issues and high demand on binderies. The unavailability of the same text paper used in Volumes One and Two meant that the printer, Adams Litho, had to get innovative — printing on plain paper to create the flecked stock effect of the older versions. Quality was paramount for the world class printers, and so production issues had to be overcome. The result is a beautiful set of three poetry books.

Viston Taylor, born February 5, 1946, was raised in a small town in Tennessee and, after serving in the U.S.Army in Vietnam, completed his 50-year career in gerontology and healthcare in Chattanooga, Tennessee.Now retired, he spends his days writing, reading, playing piano, and attempting to learn social media so that he can communicate with ten grandchildren. He is married 42 years to Roses, and they live on Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, where they happily play backgammon, cribbage, Scrabble, and gin rummy among three dogs, a cat, and a blue and gold macaw.

Creative Direction: Paul Rustand; Design: Emily Ricks and Grant Dotson; Printing and binding: Adams Litho.

Like Nana Makes

August 19, 2022

Like Nana Makes

Nana B's Brand Identity

A beloved brand of fresh sweet teas and lemonades with over 75 years of experience and history wanted to develop a new brand of single serve RTD teas. The marketing tream partnered with Widgets & Stone on naming, identity and packaging designs to launch the new drink. With a long history as a woman owned company, the final name of Nana B's was selected in honor of one of the original founders.

Widgets & Stone created dozens of designs for both the logo and the packaging in a wide variety of styles. The final solution is bright, distinctive and down-to-earth. The unique typography and playful illustrations capture the spirit of the New South and present the flavored teas in a cheerful and friendly style.

The product is currently being market tested in hopes of a national launch in the near future.

Creative Direction: Paul Rustand; Design: Travis Hitchcock, Liz Tapp, Mark Slawson, Brad Dicharry.

Connecting the Dots

July 28, 2022

Connecting the Dots

Applied Information Brand Design

Applied Information is a leading developer of connected, intelligent transportation system (ITS) solutions designed to improve safety, reliability and mobility. Their Glance Smart City Supervisory System™ allows cities to manage all their traffic and ITS assets on one web-based application. Their focus is in 5 key areas: Traffic Intersections, School Beacons, Parking Guidance System, Mobile Vehicle Assets and ITS devices. AI’s Glance TravelSafely™ smartphone app connects drivers, cyclists and pedestrians for a safer commute.

Creative Director Adam Houston (of Bridge Creative) has been working with Applied Information for years. Having watched AI grow exponentially over that time, he saw the need to take the company’s brand communications and design to the next level — to reflect the new maturity of the business. He asked us to help.

Our designers considered dozens and dozens of potential brand design styles before settling on three key approaches to present to the AI leadership team. The winning style is a visual metaphor of what Applied Information does: capture data from hundreds of thousands of smart devices and connect them to make everyday life better, safer and more effective.

Our solution is built around the theme of “Connecting the Dots” and uses a variety of image styles, patterns and designs made with dots large and small. The result is a diverse and flexible system that allows for integrated brand designs that run the gamut from simply clear to artfully complex.

Creative Direction: Adam Houston; Design Direction: Paul Rustand; Design: Brad Dicharry, Emily Ricks, Mark Walter; Photography: various stock.