New logo with complimentary total website redesign!

Okay, that is not at all true. The redesign was not complimentary. It took me a couple of hours. Maybe two or three. Not bad, though (gotta love Weebly!)

I redid the website because I redid the logo, and I redid the logo because I decided that the previous logo was just too obscure. A farm logo should have meaning, sure, but it should not require a minor dissertation to appreciate. Also, the trees looked like some sort of alien modern art project. Just not very ... "Farm-y."

This one requires little explanation: there are animals on a hill, and they are howling. Get it? Howling Hill. I wished I could have worked a DNA strand into this one, but you can't have everything.

I made two different color schemes for this logo. One was a blue/pink scheme that went well with the previous design of the site. The other was the one I went with, in reds and yellows (more like the colors of the animals themselves). I kind of liked the blue/pink version, but in an extensive poll that included my husband and both my parents, I was outnumbered. Warmer colors are more ... Warm, and "farm-y." Also, this particular color scheme matches our kitchen, so it works on a couple of levels, I suppose.

The reason I liked the blue and pink version so much is because it did not require redesigning the entire website. Still, the redesign is ultimately better, I think, because the blue and pink colors were a little too cool. Didn't help that all of the photographs on that version were taken in winter.

So, here it is: The new logo that drove the website redesign:

The version at the upper-lefthand corner of all of the pages is a little bit different, because I had to manipulate the text a bit to make it more legible.

Still working on a farm "slogan." It does seem that most farms have them -- some little one sentence blurb about what you make or who you are or some other marketing-type deal -- a split-second summary of your "brand," if you will -- but I suck at that sort of thing. I am working towards something that will denote the fact that we work with some unusual livestock species (and even some unusual colors within those species -- appaloosa alpacas, anyone?), but strive to produce the highest-quality examples thereof -- not just breeding something "exotic" for the sake of exotic. I am thinking of something along the lines of, "Unusual creatures. Unusual quality." Or, "Exceptional animals. Exceptional quality." Or, "Unusual animals. Exceptional quality." ... But they all sound super-dorky when you say them out loud.