Lela Barker of Lucky Break Consulting and Bella Luccè emailed me out of the blue with a six week turn around time on an absolutely massive project to create a brand involving fortune cookies + entrepreneurial wisdom. I couldn’t type YES fast enough! I am beyond thankful Lela chose me to help her birth her new business-after 100+ hours, 290 emails (and counting), + a whooooooole lot of creating, I can say she is one of the smartest, funniest, and finest women I have ever known. Neither of us believe in lucky breaks but I thank my lucky stars for aligning to bring her radiant vision, tongue-in-cheek wisdom, and fierce generous spirit into my life. I was hooked from the beginning by her inspiring business story: ten years ago Lela started her skin care business with $500 after a divorce left her a single mother with no “employable” skills. Now she runs a for-real empire out of a huge facility, employs a team of staff, has travelled the world over and is generally awesomesauce with a side of extraordinary. Lucky Break Consulting is the distillation of Lela’s decade of in the trenches business experience and a powerful new resource for creative entrepreneurs.
Let’s dive right in and let Lela tell you about our project for herself!
I first approached Jessika with a jumbo-sized project and a teeny-weeny window for turnaround. I was anticipating a polite “many thanks for the offer but you’ve gone stark raving mad” sort of decline. To my delight, Jessika accepted the challenge with vigor! She suited up, put on another pot of coffee and dove right in.
The moment the starting gun elicited its blast, I had no doubt that I’d found the graphic designer and branding guru of my dreams. Though I was bringing a strong vision to the table about the kind of aesthetic I wanted for my new consulting company, Jessika proved to be adept at crawling inside my ear, tinkering around in my brain a bit and wrestling the vision from its lofty perch in my imagination. She was able to translate my ideas into a tangible form at a wicked speed and with an enthusiasm I had never anticipated.
As the task list grew (Hiya Jess! Think we could design an entire book in less than two weeks? Umm, Jess? I’mma need an extra dozen graphics for a side project, etc.) so did our friendship. I walked away from the project with a brand identity I adore, a website that thrills me and a book that’s garnering raves from the hundreds of souls who have adopted a copy. Despite all that branding goodness- and there is plenty of it- the most cherished thing I walked away from the collaboration with was a new friend who already feels like an old friend. Jessika did that project so much justice that it makes my head spin and I’m really excited about a project we’re putting together this year.
Starting with three pencil sketches of fortune cookies we bounced logo ideas back and forth moving from paper to Illustrator to create black and white mock-ups until we got the final design, then onto revising colour palette choices. From there I illustrated the takeout box graphic that is used across her branding, a monogram/stamp playing with the LB from both Lela Barker and Lucky Break, a temporary tattoo, blog header with a fortune cookie banner, a fun design for an upcoming product and an illustration of the lovely Lela. I also designed a series of Moo Luxe business cards showcasing the stunning photos Lela had taken by Lisa Rodgers of Shoot Y’All Photography, some stickers, a letterhead, and too many graphics to possibly count!
Once the illustrations and core branding elements were done we moved the party to the web where I built a home for all of Lela’s brilliant ideas! This involved creating a comprehensive website and blog design with all the graphic goodness of sliders, sidebar badges, and an Asian inspired background pattern. This got bundled up and passed off to be coded by the fantastic Padraic Ryan of Ryan Design Studio.
But that is not all, oh no, that is not all! The big work had only just begun (are you tired yet?)…from there Lela and I volleyed back and forth to create not one but TWO books! 25 Business Words You Need To Know Now, a 30 page ebook for newsletter subscribers and 155 Words You Need To Know: Practical Wisdom for Creative Entrepreneurs, a 120 page print book full of must-know definitions for entrepreneurs that you can buy on the Lucky Break website or Amazon.com!
There is more and still more to come but we need to save something for a future post! You’ll be seeing Lela around as we are planning another epic project and also because I asked if she would join us to share her insight and enthusiasm with our community as a contributor. For now I’m going to stop gabbing and give you the details of the giveaway so you can get lucky too!
Lela is offering 5 copies of 155 Words You Need To Know: Practical Wisdom for Creative Entrepreneurs to 5 OMHG readers postage paid to any spot on the planet. Lucky girls (and boys!) can enter by sharing one word or business concept that sent your head spinning when you first dipped your toe into the entrepreneurial ocean. If you aren’t the kind to wait around to get lucky you can scoop up one of the few spots left in her Kicking Ass & Taking Names in 2013 class series and enter code IKickAss at checkout to enjoy $100 off tuition!
Be sure to connect with Lela on Twitter and Facebook + welcome her new business to the world by sharing your thoughts about the Lucky Break branding and website in the comments!
