All Posts in LoHi

November 12, 2015 - Comments Off on A Creative Collective

A Creative Collective

Summer of 2015 was a busy season, so busy we are blogging about it in November! EnZed Design hired Ligia Teodosiu, designer and talented illustrator, Helen finished her term as president of AIGA Colorado, and we moved to a new beautiful space at 2626 West 32nd Avenue, just around the corner from the old Tejon location. The new studio is a store front in a small shopping district surrounded by stately Victorian homes and refurbished bungalows as well as restaurants, coffee shops and small boutiques. And lest we forget, the North High School tennis courts are just steps away.

Helen and Ligia are enjoying the company of several creative firms, the same crew from before. Two digital designers—Matt Crest of ACL Software and Chris Arnold of Authentic Form & Function—and two print experts—Jason Wedekind of Genghis Kern and Maura Gauthier of The Paper Guppy—are the primary office mates. There are currently 6 more desks available for other creatives to add to the buzz.

The Furniture Creative Coworking space came about a dream realized by Jason Wedekind to have his letterpress shop under the same roof as his design studio. (If you’re wondering about the Furniture reference, it’s a letterpress term.) When the space came up for rent, he pounced and the renovation began. The new space is has lots of natural light, high ceilings and an open floor plan with designer touches throughout. There’s a private conference room with sliding steel framed walls, a phone booth room with a wall that glows blue when in use, and a sizable kitchen with a garage door in lieu of plate glass window in the back. Jason’s contractor, Sam Brown, salvaged ceiling planks to cover divider walls and built custom 10-foot steel doors for the press room. Wood floors, exposed brick, white walls and stripes of steel lighting give the place an airy open feel with edgy industrial finishes.

Although the LoHi neighborhood is constantly changing, this area is more settled with established store owners flanking the studio. There is lots of street parking on 32nd and the side streets. Look for the original big blue “Denver Fine Furniture” sign.

We hope you’ll come for a visit and explore LoHi a little, too.

 

April 1, 2013 - 9 comments

Our new studio

EnZed Design of Denver, Colorado moves to LoHi neighborhood

EnZed Design has moved to a new 'hood in Denver—Lower Highland, or “LoHi” to the locals. Just zip up I-25 and exit at 20th or Speer North to access our studio located at 3316 Tejon Street.

The new space is a converted Rollerdrome that architect Matt Davis renovated into retail space on the street with office bays along the side. Each features an open floor plan, mezzanine level and a garage door in lieu of plate glass windows. He salvaged much of the narrow-plank oak floors and barrel ceilings, then complemented them with industrial finishes such as tall steel doors, exposed brick and concrete block, and translucent walls.

Helen and Emily are enjoying the company of several creative firms in Unit 106. Two webbies— Matt Crest of Artletic and Chris Arnold of Limber Creative—and two print peeps—Jason Wedekind of Genghis Kern and Maura Gauthier of The Paper Guppy—are the primary office mates. And AIGA Colorado president Elysia Syriac of Relish Creative hijacks the conference room for committee meetings when she’s not designing with Jason.

We are steps away from two new clients and collaborators, Gränd Salon and Launch Advertising, which makes face-to-face time very easy—and getting those roots touched up a little quicker, too.

EnZed Design of Denver, Colorado moves to Lohi neighborhood

When we’re not behind our iMacs, we enjoy all the foodie spots in the area, including Old Major, a new restaurant in our building. The mussels are as amazing as bartender Ryan’s mustache. Kitty corner is the recently opened Jezebel’s, if you’re up for crisp fried pickles. Round the corner is old favorite Rosalinda’s for hot green chile. If you keep walking west on Tejon, you’ll bump into the line forming outside of Little Man Ice Cream. Take a right and you’ve hit Linger, the former Olinger’s repurposed in a delicious way. Swing left and you’ll hear music spilling out of Lola as they mix your custom guacamole. If you venture up 32nd, you’ll find Tony P’s surrounded by tiny race cars ready to deliver. Just a few steps north is the Wooden Spoon Cafe & Bakery for a quick lunch. Duo is on that corner two ... or too. We certainly will not go hungry!

If you want to meet for a drink, we can sneak into Williams & Graham without being seen, stop into LoHi Steakbar for a martini, sip a lavendar lemonade on Root Down’s patio, or grab a beer at Ale House at Amato’s, just to name a few.

The neighborhood is constantly changing. There’s new construction around every corner. We’ve created a map to show you how to find us. Parking by our studio is easy. There are a few spaces along our building and plenty of street parking on Tejon and 33rd Streets

We hope you’ll come for a visit and explore LoHi a little, too.

Studio Address: 3316 Tejon Street, Unit 106, Denver CO 80211
Our billing address remains the same: 781 S Pearl Street, Denver CO 80209

February 25, 2013 - Comments Off on Meet a Gränd Brand

Meet a Gränd Brand

We recently completed a few projects for Gränd Salon that we are excited about and have been eager to share with you all!

Gränd Salon, owned by Shelly Rewinkle, moved from their LoDo location to a customize space in LoHi on 35th and Kalamath street. The new building was transformed from an old plant warehouse into an industrial yet zen atmosphere with a larger studio for their stylists, more room for retail, plus spa-like amenities — nail services and reclining shampoo stations. Ahhhhhh. We created a fresh new look for their existing brand to better fit their new space,  including a new website, business cards, appointment cards, service cards, and custom emery boards.

Grand Salon Denver, Colorado EnZed Design

Mood board images sourced here

Expanding the brand
We started out developing a mood board for their brand. We focused on collecting images that were edgy, hip, organic, yet clean and modern to communicate the feel. Then combined the existing red circular logo with new typefaces and natural elements of the interior to establish the look. The mood board set the tone for each element under the brand.

EnZed Design designs Grand Salons website

The website  launched on Jan 11, 2013, opening day at the new studio. We designed, developed and customized the site using a responsive WordPress theme to make it easy for Grand to update it regularly. With the help of Lynn Clark who wrote the copy and used her SEO expertise to optimize it, the site has been an effective tool for announcing the move and introducing the salon to new clients. The site features each stylists with skills listed, enabling clients to search and filter by the service needed and then book an appointment online. Their blog, Mental Note, features salon news and their Killer Deals page offers clients something new to try. The ability to easily change the website allows Gränd to connect their strong Facebook presence and web presence for more effective marketing.

Public Letterpress, EnZed Design, Grand Salon in Denver, Colorado

Making it memorable
The business cards are made of wood! Thanks to Roger at Public Letterpress, each stylist proudly hands a client a wood veneer laser-cut business card. Not only do they look and feel awesome, they smell so good too! This is a business card you certainly wouldn’t toss. We created a matching Services List that details everything Gränd offers as well.

For the appointment cards we kept things simple and fun, but still unique. The design is printed in black on kraft paper, but we added a custom rubber stamp to feature the current Killer Deal and provided red pencils for the receptionist to jot down information for the client’s upcoming appointment. Two colors without the cost, but all of the creativity.

The emery boards proved to be an effective promotion for Gränd Salon’s big move. Each custom nail file was first handed out to clients at their last appointment in LoDo. It served three purposes: announce the new address, allow a sneak peak at the new look, and promote the new nail services. Bonus – it stays in their bag as a Gränd reminder.