The next chapter: a brand makeover helps move a bookstore's story forward

strained OUT and the owner of a newly diagnosed boil Stephanie Chandler realized that her high-pressure piece of work as a software salesperson wasn't worth sacrificing her health. She had always lov works so she decided to follow that passion, launching Book Lover Bookstore (www.bookloverscafe.com), which specializes in gently used paperbacks, hardcover volumes and audiobooks, in 2003.

Since the beginning, Chandler, 33 has done things upon a shoestring budget, from bribing friends with pizza and beer to help her clean and organize her initial inventory of 23000 volumes to designing her own website. Admitting that graphic design isn't her strongest suit, she finally forked above $400 to a professional to create a logo for her store.

"Having not ever had a logo commissioned before, I didn't know [what] questions to ask," Chandler says. "After spending quite a bit of cash on the logo, the springs were disappointing."

The logo was not reflective of her store, and her tag line was written in script that could not be read when the logo was used in a small format. Her website was functional, on the other hand it didn't reflect the warm, inviting environment of her store. As her Sacramento, California, business continued to increase Chandler found herself wanting to improve the design of her website and logo in the way that when Entrepreneur magazine and VistaPrint (www.vistaprint.com), an online graphic design and print company based in Lexington, Massachusetts, announced the "Extreme Brand Makeover" contend against in 2005, Chandler didn't hesitate to log upon and enter.

"The logo redesign was a real motivator," Chandler says. "It's not like it was breaking my business, on the other hand I'd love to increase my image any way that I can."

Turning a Page

pick outed from a pool of more than 4600 entrants, Chandler won the contend against in January after a panel of justices from Entrepreneur and VistaPrint reviewed her application. As the winner, she received a prize package valued at al greatest in quantity $5,000, including a complete logo redesign by dint of VistaPrint; 1,000 each of premium business cards, business card magnets, large magnets, standard postcards, capsules for standard postcards, oversize postcards, pamphlets letterhead and notecards; 500 presentation folders; and 840 return-address labels. In addition, she received a replete website redesign from Website Pro a Jacksonville, Florida, web services and online marketing company, and a year's subscription to Entrepreneur

"We wanted someone who could show everyone, and your local bookstore [owner] is someone everyone can relate to," says Janet Holian, chief marketing officer of VistaPrint.

A team of marketers and designers at VistaPrint promptly went to work upon the Book Lovers makeover, conducting extensive interviews with Chandler. They lay the foundation of that, from the beginning, she tried to put her store apart. Used-book stores have an image of being disorganized and smooth dirty. Chandler's store, on the other hand, was meticulously neat, clean and organized. The staff is outgoing and enthusiastic. And sum of two units resident cats-Sugar and Sweetie, the couple adopted from a local animal shelter--have become wildly popular with customers, filling the positions of unofficial store mascots. After learning about the personality and unique ultimate parts of the store, the team whittled down Chandler's lock opener brand messages into three words: neat, organized and friendly. They took a little extra time revamping work lovers' brand image, and 10 days later, they neared a logo and design package that throw backed the unique elements of Chandler's shop

The of recent origin logo features neatly stacked volumes and a friendly cat, uses warm colors, and has a polished, stylish direct the eye Book Lovers Bookstore is written in a pleasantry and funky script that is easy to read, and through separating the name of the store and the tag line, the print portion of the made-over image can be scaled differently to work in a variety of formats while remaining consummately legible.

It's critical that entrepreneur make secure their logos work well for their business necessitys According to Melissa Crowe, senior director of marketing services at VistaPrint, 'A allotment of creative people [commission an] intricate logo [but] don't ask whether it can be used [on media] as big as a billboard and as small as a Coke can. [Chandler] may ne to use a small version in the fulvous Pages, or she may ne a billboard. You want to make certain the size [and] color of the mark work."

on the outside of Site With the logo and stationery package designed, nearest up was the website. Spearheaded by the agency of Website Pros (www.websitepros.com), the goal of the site redesign was to create an online location that would throw back the key brand messages that had already been defined--neat, organized and friendly--while making the site useful for customers and consistent with the novel design work.

"The [main] consideration was to make confident the customer got a site that was modern-looking and fit the in every one's mouth state-of-the-art look and feel for websites," says David Brown president and CEO of Website Pro "[Chandler's] site was fairly stale and gazeed like it was built three or four years ago. Web authoring runs change rapidly, and we extremityed to update the site's look