Launching Linwood

Well folks, it took a lot of doin' and we're so excited to announce that the doin' is finally done.
"What took so long, anyway?" you might ask. Here, let us tell you.

In December of 2012 when Lin decided he'd give this little project a go, we never imagined how long the process would take. Right away Lin started sketching out board designs and making prototypes. Mattie began the branding process of filling out self-assessments and crafting goals, personas, aesthetics. Both had a hand in the assortment plan and knew the stories we wanted to tell through our products and our company, but never anticipated how long the road would be to nurture those ideas into fruition. 

In the first months we were neck deep in new business documents, bank papers, and legal necessities. All the while perfecting the boards themselves and developing a production process that would provide top-notch quality but still be efficient for Lin's time. He learned which types of wood responded the best to the saw and sanding, which oil was the safest to polish with, how many times he had to re-sand and refinish. 

And then launching the brand! We couldn't have done it without the support of so many talented friends and family. We brought all of our inspiration to graphic designer and marketing guru Cristina Blanchard who knocked out our amazing logo and brand pieces! Kate Pemberton, another graphic design whiz, turned our ideas into beautiful business cards. Kaela Williams of Kaela Rodehorst Photography spent over 15 hours (being conservative here) helping us with our ideas for photos and set-ups, shopping with us to pick out props, spending hours in the hot Linwood shop in the middle of Louisiana summer taking photos, and then editing them in her own time to get them to the beautiful quality they are now on our site! She also built our Coming Soon site. And all of these talented gals had a hand in developing our shipping materials and packaging that we are so proud of. 

Once the brand was squared away, we passed our story and ideas off to Breanna Rose, graphic designer and branding expert in Minnesota. While we were exchanging thoughts back and forth, Todd Miller was whipping up copy for our soon-to-be site. Content plans, site architecture, a snazzy mood-board, and 85 emails later, Breanna had created an incredible site design that brought our entire story to life. From there she passed it off to Brianna Burton, another graphic design specialist and developer in Denver who makes sites magically alive. Brianna spent so many hours, days, months coding and customizing our site while also holding our hands and answering every single question we had (and we had lots of them). In the mean time, Adam Walters and Chase Smith of Contrast Films spent two incredibly hot and heavy days in our shop filming, interviewing, and prepping to bring Lin's story to all of you through film. The product of their work can be found on our about page and when we say we couldn't be more grateful and proud of the video they made... we mean it. (More on the video process in the next post!)

We can't leave out our Terri who has done a little bit of everything like sand boards, prep photo shoots, wrap packages, print out supplies, record expenses/income, and most importantly encourage us in every step we took. She is the glue that holds this whole company(/family) together and we couldn't do it without her! Or Luke who took behind-the-scene shots, helped execute our social media plans, worked with the post office, assisted on every photo/video shoot, gave us the final approval of all things Linwood, and most importantly gave Mattie a peace of mind that things would still run smoothly after she moved across the country by helping in every way he could. And Jonny Oufnac who at last minute put together some beautiful words about our company to help us fill in copy holes on our site. 

Then there are you guys, our incredibly supportive and enthusiastic Linwood community who waited patiently and sent warm thoughts of encouragement our way throughout the last 10 months through Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and email. We've made new friends from all over the world and no matter how this project turns out, we're especially fond of the connections we've made and the many blessings we've gained through your support of Linwood! Lin gets so tickled and humbled by ever comment, like, or share you guys send our way. 

All of these steps, all of these people, and all of this time has been orchestrated together so wonderfully and we couldn't be more proud of the results. There are still pieces we're fine-tuning, but we're learning as we go and we value every bit of feedback (the good and the constructive) that you pass us. 

SO... with anticipation and much, much excitement, we invite you to browse, shop, and enjoy. Thank you for making this process the most precious and rewarding experience we've done together as a family.

And please, don't be a stranger!

Sincerely,

The Babb Family