A sticker of one's own
The story behind my logos and the designers who created them. Plus, do you want some stickers????
A note to get us started: this post is a little long to fit in your email. So you might need to click to open it and view it in your browser. But trust me, there’s a little treat waiting for you at the end of this post.
The Dispatched Divorcée launch is coming very soon. Continuing the momentum, I want to introduce you to my brand and the designers1 behind it!
If you’re new here, here’s what’s going on:
Meet my friend, Tony Yates
A few years ago, I contacted Tony for help designing my brand. Tony Yates is a designer based in Seattle. He and I first met while we were working at HTC. I don’t remember how we bonded, but I do remember how sad I was when he left the company—he was a work friend who I could go to and confide in and I wasn’t afraid he might stab me in the back with the information I shared. I was sad when he left. But thanks to the magic of social media, we stayed in each other’s orbits.
As we started working on the logo for my brand, Tony caught me up on his life—mainly, how he and his wife decided to split during the pandemic and since then, he’s been doing the work to figure out what he wants next out of life.
One of the things on his list was travel. It was something he always wanted to do, but his wife didn’t.
But they weren’t together anymore.
“If I buy a ticket to Switzerland, would you point me in the right direction?” he asked.
I did more than that.
That summer, Tony’s Hot Divorcé Summer Vacation in Switzerland and Italy commenced. (I like to call it the Dispatched Divorcée Test Retreat.2)
A year later, I asked Tony to do his magic again for Dispatched Divorcée. I gave him a brief, my vision, and a slew of values statements.
He listened, and came up with this:
It leans on the masculine energy of the 60s and 70s. Think Mad Men, TWA, etc. But the colors bring in the feminine energy. And the cachets—those slanted lines at the end? Does it remind you of anything? :)
And then, my favorite part, the D at the end of Dispatched.
It was designed to look like a carry-on roller suitcase. While Dispatched Divorcée will not require every divorcée to go on an adventure, exploring the life you want after divorce is an adventure. It is about you going someplace new. When Tony presented this element, I knew we had something special.
Dispatched Divorcée stands for adventure. Of going someplace new. And pulls on the weight and baggage that made me feel ashamed and embarrassed at “failing” to make my marriage successful. Of saying I do to a system that was not entended to empower me at all.
Dispatched Divorcée, the company, is all about women saying “no” to the life they were “supposed to have” and flipping it on its head.
I think the logo is perfect. And I hope my divorcées will too.
Meet my friend, Zak Alexander
With the main logo lockup set, I wanted to see what else the brand could do. So I reached out to my friend, Zak.
Zak and I met 14 years ago3 while at a startup together. He built the brand and the visual ID at that company. I remember the founder talking about how talented of an artist Zak was—how she’d just give him an idea, and let him play with it.
I loved working with him and watching what he came up with. Like with Tony, I’ve been looking for ways to work with Zak again. And friends, Zak created some fabulous pieces! My favorite is this one:
It’s a heart hugging you. This is exactly what I hope members will feel like inside the Dispatched Divorcée community.
Want a sticker?
I’m making stickers!!!!
Now that you know the story behind the logos and your heart is melting too, how’d you like to have some fresh-off-the-press stickers to show off your DD pride???
And I have some to spare for you too!
If you’d like a sticker (or a few), leave your mailing address in this form and I’ll dispatch them to you from Switzerland!4 No strings attached. (But I’d love a photo of whatever you stick it on.)
Add your name to this form:
I can’t wait to pop these love letters in the mail to you! 💌
Fun fact: my ex was a designer. Which meant that I could never collaborate with any of my designer friends on personal projects. Which, towards the end of our marriage, it got extremely hard to communicate carefully to my designer-husband because we were having trouble communicating about other things. Anyway, that’s not part of this story.
More on the Dispatched Divorcée retreats another time!
Which is INSANE. Honestly, if you’re over 30, don’t count up the years that you’ve known someone AS AN ADULT. It’s just…weird. I haven’t been working for over 14 years. What are you talking about???? (But, yes, I wanna get paid like I’ve worked for 20+ years!)
Pun absolutely intended.