First Light
Craft the brand identity and in-store experience for a bookstore and cafe with an expressive spirit.
- Animation
- Art Direction
- Brand Identity
- Environments
- Illustration
First Light Books is a book shop and cafe in Austin, Texas, a passion project from one of our longtime clients. Our ongoing collaborations are an enduring source of energy and joy.
We partnered with a longstanding client to develop a this new concept from conception to market.
We created a strategy that celebrates the interplay between old and new, playful and classic, utilitarian and dreamy — and its ability to inspire.
The brand design is an expression of the bookstores we know and love — the bookstore we’ve always dreamed about. The primary logotype is classic and reminiscent of vintage European book publishers.
Expressive interior and exterior touch points nurture a convivial, creative energy that’s as irresistible as the books and cafe themselves. The rabbit mark, implemented throughout the space, symbolizes creativity, good luck, and longevity and nods to the brand’s expressive spirit, sense of play, possibility, and connection.
“With our original bookshop-café concept, we wanted the feeling of a neighborhood mainstay that would be appealing to a 7 year old and a 77 year old. I knew that SDCO could help us find the alchemy of classic Paris café, the whimsy of children’s literature, and what feels true to Austin, Texas. Not easy to navigate such inputs of inspiration, but we were confident SDCO could lead us there.”
From branded coffee cups, tote bags, and member cards to bookplates, exterior signage and a mural, everything about First Light invites the world in — for a book, a coffee, and a true sense of community.
- Photography
- Casey Dunn
- Jackie Lee Young
- Animator
- CJ Paghasian
