birth of a business...

it was back in 2003. i was fortunate enough to be home with my three girls under 7, enjoying motherhood immensely...yet subconsciously missing that creative collaboration from a former life as a copywriter/creative director. one day i received a frustrated phone call from babysparewear, inc. co-owner and long-time friend Tatiana. she was a recent partner at a law firm, and we were both a long way from our care-free days in the late eighties as fellow vertigo club-goers. the call went a little like this "aaaaghh, i don't only want to be an attorney for the rest of my life. i want to be an entrepreneur. let's start a business." (those of you who know tatiana, not only know the stress-induced "faux yell" quite well, but also how convincing she can be...) i immediately blurted out, "sure, come over. i have some ideas." being a mother with a creative side and a desire for simplicity and smart design, i went on about all of my aggravations du jour with potential to become our next business venture. one such relevant frustration was the inability to keep a diaper bag stocked with the appropriate spare outfit in a neat and simple way. a versatile yet stylish designated spare outfit: two shirts and a pair of pants pre-packed in a compact travel case for those little emergencies on the go. "and we can call it something like, babysparewear," i went on. tatiana loved the concept (and the name), but being familiar with proper branding protocol, I insisted on giving her a list of about 100 other names before deciding on the first, simple and self-explanatory brand name: babysparewear. we quickly moved into the product development and branding phase during which we created the babysparewear "SW baby" logo as our identity with the brilliant collaborating talents of jim bridges design. here is a scan of the original sketch.