THORN & VELLUM
A brand strategy and identity design project for an antiquarian and rare bookseller in Connecticut, Annie Rowlinson. Annie was the most delightful human to work with and has an incredibly cool job.
Annie sells rare books, manuscripts, and ephemera from the 18th century until the modern day, mainly relating to women's experiences. She sells everything from Regency-era sketchbooks to 1930s mail-order contraceptive catalogues and everything in between. Her customers range from individual book collectors to large museums, libraries, and institutions with large dedicated budgets for acquiring rare materials and archives.
Before settling on Thorn & Vellum as her business name, she considered naming it Pope Joan! She found my website through Google while checking to see if the name was taken. As a result, the relationship between Thorn & Vellum and Pope Joan Design Studio was born.
STRATEGY
Learning as much as I could about Annie and the rare treasures that she discovers, I chose a font based on antique 18th-century printer specimens with intentionally irregular spacing and a dancing baseline to mimic the look of quickly printed period leaflets. Adding a color palette to imitate vellum and a vintage, botanical design with a thorn nestled completes the work.
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Brand Strategy & Identity
Print & Digital Collateral
