John Howrey, Design LeaderFor new work
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Buttercream Bake Shop

A full identity for a small-town bakery, from badge to storefront to t-shirt voice

The actual Buttercream storefront in Apex, NC: a yellow-and-cream striped awning, BUTTERCREAM set in white display caps across the window, a round black-and-white badge sign hanging off the front, two customers chatting on the sidewalk in front. Side windows are decorated with a hand-drawn cupcake pattern.

Buttercream is a bake shop on a main street corner in Apex, North Carolina. The owners had the recipes, the lease, and a name. They needed everything else: the mark, the storefront, the t-shirts people would actually want to wear, the voice of a real bakery, not a chain.

I built the full identity myself, in one pass, ready for opening day.

The mark

A bakery badge, black on white.

The primary mark is a black scalloped badge. A cupcake sits at the top. BUTTER / CREAM sits below it in stacked small caps, with BAKE SHOP underneath. Around the edge, PASTRIES · SANDWICHES · COFFEE runs across the top and APEX NC · SINCE 2013 runs across the bottom. The mark had to work small as a pin, medium as a decal, and large as a roadside sign.

The Buttercream Bake Shop primary badge: black scalloped roundel with a small cupcake illustration centered at the top, BUTTER / CREAM stacked in white caps, BAKE SHOP underneath, and PASTRIES · SANDWICHES · COFFEE running around the top inside the scallop with APEX NC · SINCE 2013 around the bottom.The simplified Buttercream wordmark: a small line-drawn three-tier cake icon centered above BUTTERCREAM in tracked sans caps, BAKE SHOP underneath, EST 2013 / APEX NC at the bottom in tiny tracked caps.

Sub-brand spurs

The Baker. The Buttercreamery.

Two sub-brands cover directions the owners were considering: THE BUTTERCREAM BAKER for custom cake commissions, and THE BUTTERCREAMERY for a possible ice cream spinoff. Both use the same display caps, the same cake icon, and the same EST 2013 / APEX NC line at the bottom. If either grows, the system is ready, and it still reads as one family.

Two sub-brand wordmarks side by side on a white ground: THE BUTTERCREAM BAKER and THE BUTTERCREAMERY, each with a small cake icon above and EST 2013 / APEX NC underneath in matching tracked caps.

The storefront

From sketch to storefront.

I built three mockups before anything got painted. The first put the wordmark on the window. The second added the cupcake pattern to the side windows. The third brought it together: a yellow-and-cream striped awning, BUTTERCREAM in white across the front, the round badge hanging from the bracket, and the cupcake pattern wrapping the sides. Passers-by see the personality before they see the menu.

Storefront mockup, line drawing variant 1: simple BUTTERCREAM wordmark on the front window, the round badge sign hanging from the awning bracket on the left, plain striped awning above.Storefront mockup, line drawing variant 2: BUTTERCREAM BAKE SHOP set on the picture window in caps, the round badge sign on the awning bracket, no decorative pattern on the side windows.Storefront mockup, line drawing variant 3: cupcake-pattern wallpaper on the side windows wrapping the picture window, the round badge re-applied at the centerline as a cleared-out window decal, awning bracket sign on the left.
The actual storefront from across the street: yellow-and-cream striped awning, BUTTERCREAM set in white caps across the picture window with BAKE SHOP underneath, the round badge sign on the awning bracket, sidewalk seating, customers walking up.The actual storefront on a cooler day: the same yellow awning and white window caps, with the cupcake-pattern decals visible on the side windows wrapping around the BUTTERCREAM BAKE SHOP centered medallion.

The voice

The t-shirts get to be funny.

The t-shirts let the brand be playful. The badge stays serious. The shirts are jokes: MAKE A WHISK, WHEN YOU WHISK UPON A STAR, EAT IT, TOO, IF YOU'RE AFRAID OF BUTTER, USE CREAM. They're set in green-on-white display caps so they read across the bakery, with a whisk or badge icon for punctuation.

A white t-shirt printed with MAKE A WHISK in green outline display caps, set with a small whisk icon as the punctuation. Photographed flat on a charcoal surface.A white t-shirt printed with WHEN YOU WHISK UPON A STAR in green outline display caps, the whisk icon to the right of the line, photographed flat at an angle on a charcoal surface.
A white t-shirt printed with EAT IT, TOO set in solid green caps, paired with the small Buttercream badge icon. Photographed flat on a charcoal surface.A white t-shirt printed with IF YOU'RE AFRAID OF BUTTER, USE CREAM set in two stacked lines of green caps wrapping under the Buttercream badge mark.

A bakery needs a sign that hangs straight, a window that pulls people in, a mark that prints on a coffee sleeve, and a shirt people want to wear. I got to make all of it, one main street corner, done well.

Closing

Credits
Client
  • Buttercream Bake Shop, Apex NC
Sector
  • Hospitality
  • Food & Beverage
  • Local Retail
Role
  • Lead Designer
  • Brand Strategy
  • Production
Discipline
  • Brand Identity
  • Environmental Design
  • Apparel
  • Print
Collaborators
  • The owners

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