If you appreciate fine craftsmanship and the concept of upcycling, you’ll appreciate our new client Nat+Tin, a Dallas business that’s helping make the world a more beautiful place, one custom handbag at a time. Two creative mothers with a desire to channel their unique sense of style and taste, the owners of Nat+Tin transform high-quality remnant fabric pieces into one-of-a-kind clutches, wallets, pillows and more. In an effort to elevate their brand to reflect the unique handcrafted quality of their products, they contacted B+C to create a new logo. The selected design has a slightly feminine tone, and beautifully complements the look and feel of their handiwork. You can grab your own timeless piece at natandtin.com.

There’s something to be said about that old adage “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” Especially in the hands of the creative minds at Stash Design, our newest clients. At a time with recycling is top of mind, they take it to a whole new level: upcycling — where discarded items from fence posts to metal scraps find new life and new purpose as unique and artistic furniture, fixtures and finish-out.

If you’ve ever set foot in Bishop Arts hot spots Oddfellows or Bar Belmont, you’ve seen their work. Details from the door handles to seating and lighting and even the bar tops, floors and signage are the inspired touches of Stash designers Gary Buckner and Kim Linder. Not far from there, at The Foundry Bar on Fort Worth Avenue, they unexpectedly transformed re-purposed wood pallets into a spectacular outdoor stage — and next door at Chicken Scratch, you’ll find reclaimed wood used for the tables and quirky light fixtures made from old milk crates. Everywhere you look, there are layers of visual surprises. And Stash is keeping it local, with several other Dallas businesses having them to thank for their amazing interiors, each with its own flavor. You can see photos of all of them on the Stash Design site.

So, all this is to say, we had a field day visiting their retail space on Lower Greenville to research (shop) the types of finished pieces they offer. That was followed by an excursion to their workshop in Oak Cliff, to peruse the endless raw materials they have collected from scrap yards and trash piles and to see where it all comes together. It was quite impressive. Now, with our newfound understanding of what Stash Design has to offer, we’ll go to work on helping them repackage their branding and marketing materials. Our first step will be to succinctly communicate exactly what they do in a positioning line — which will be fun but challenging. Keep your eyes out for a future blog to see the results of our own renovation project as we refresh their printed materials (on recycled paper, of course) and web site.

– Kris Murphy, Senior Designer