So Your Business Needs a Sign.

Businesses need signs, right? So customers can find them? That’s what I thought. So we decided to get a sign made. Seemed simple. What followed was very much NOT simple, but at least finally resulted in a fantastic sign that we can’t wait to mount for everyone to see. Here’s how it went down.

1)      Aaron has some friends from work who do metal fabrication on the side, so after a few emails, we met to discuss the design. Lara and Jason hadn’t made a sign like this before, so they did some research and came up with this simple yet effective version of our logo:

Seems simple enough!

2)      While they got to work researching how to build a box on the inside to house a light fixture so the sign would be visible at night, I started researching if there was any sort of permitting I’d need.

3)      They gave us this awesome model, which I used to begin the permitting process:

Technology is neat!

4)      I have to outline the steps it took to get this simple sign approved, because if I didn’t, you wouldn’t understand why people make fun of government bureaucracy so often.

a.       Contacted friend at the Chamber of Commerce for advice (always a good first step) who informed me that I needed both a sign permit AND an encroachment license in order to hang our sign.

b.       Took scaled drawings of the sign to the Department of Code Enforcement. After about two hours of measuring with the world’s smallest ruler and an actual MAGNIFYING GLASS, doing advanced math on paper, and disappearing to talk to their bosses every few minutes, they approved the sign itself. What goes into approving the sign? Well, regardless of the content, if your drawing isn’t to scale then NO PERMIT FOR YOU! If the surface area of your sign is more than 20% of the total surface area of your leased space excluding additional tenant space then NO SIGN FOR YOU! And on and on. The sign permit cost about $35.

c.       The real fun began with the Encroachment License. You bring your approved sign permit (so…multiple trips already) and another set of scaled drawings to them. They glance at them, give you a case number, and tell you to go to the City County building after their initial approval (which comes later, in an email) for another set of approvals. You pay $35 for this step.

d.       I took my preliminarily approved Encroachment License application to the 4th floor of the City County building. If any taxes were owed on the property, even if they weren’t MY taxes, I would have to pay them if I wanted the license. There were no taxes, which I paid them $30 to tell me, and then they stamped my application and told me to go to the 7th floor.

e.       Then I arrived at the 7th floor (the Marion County Recorder’s Office) where they…recorded something? And charged me $35? And then told me they’d mail the permit back TO MY HOUSE, and once I got it, I would have to take it back to the Department of Code Enforcement. They looked at me strangely when I asked if I could just take it with me or if they could send it to the DCE. Of course not.

f.        Got my packet of papers in the mail a few days later and went back to the Department of Code Enforcement! Paid a lot more money! Got the encroachment license via email a few days later.

5)      So back to the actual sign! Lara and Jason were making great progress:

Machines are cool!

6)      So here’s the finished sign, ready to become a beacon on E. Washington St. any day now! I’d say that Lara and Jason probably have quite a future ahead of them if the engineering thing ever slows down.

Hello Washington St! We're ready for you!

Thanks to Lara and Jason from Fabrication Unlimited LLC.

Five Things We've Been Working On

Hey cider fans! Things have gotten really busy for us over the last month, and they will only continue to be so. Now, we have great intentions of a few blogs related to the cider-making process, but before we delve in, we’re going to ease back into blogging with a snappy Top Five list so that we can all get on the same page with each other. Deal?

Here are five things we’ve been working on over the last two months:

5. Permits – Truly, ‘permits’ will probably be in every top five list we ever write about our progress. Since the last blog a month and a half ago, we’ve applied for and been granted a sign permit, an encroachment license, a construction permit, and some sort of elusive ‘electrical upgrade certificate’. As of today, we actually HAVE all of these permits!

4. Production Space – Our production space is 90% finished! Right now, most of what we’re waiting on is simple and not totally necessary for the production of cider. For example, we still need to put in a couple of sinks, wire the walk-in coolers, etc. But, our tanks are set, the coolers are built, the floor has been epoxied (twice!), so we’re almost ready to show the space off to visitors.

Look at those pretty fermentation tanks and unfinished floor drain!

3. Tasting Room Décor – Finally, the fun part of a build-out! We’ve been scouring websites and taking weekend trips to Ikea to get light fixtures, plan out the bar, get the right draft system, and build tables. Our bar and tables are being built by Matthew Osborn (check out his website – he’s awesome!), and seeing them built has been a blast.

Parsons table for the tasting room.

2. Paint Parties – We have some good friends and family in town who have graciously showed up several times to help us paint our space. It’s amazing what a fresh coat of paint will do for a dingy old warehouse, not to mention that it’s really nice to share our business with the people who care about us.

Wes is good with a roller and a ladder.

1. Test Batches – While we’ve been not-so-patiently waiting for our electrical upgrades that will allow us to use all of our fancy equipment, we’ve been doing some recipe tweaking. Aaron will have a full blog about yeast trails in the next few weeks to outline the process.

Aaron's ideal evening - doing science-y things mixed with alcohol-y things.

0. Merchandise – Woohoo, we have some merchandise! Tasting room glassware, shirts, coasters, and stickers are here and ready for the sharing. Thanks to Amy McAdams for her awesome designs.

Heyyyy...A&E Shirt Selfie!

Alright! We're caught up with each other! Stay tuned for some blogs about the actual cider-making process and news about our grand opening!

What We Can't Do - Graphic Design

So far, the start-up phase of a business has really boiled down to making a lot of decisions.  Those decision can be summed up pretty simply: Do it ourselves and how? versus Have someone else do it and whom?  

Aaron and I both consider ourselves capable, and love saving money where we can, so we tend to try to do a lot ourselves. But from the beginning, there have been a few key areas that we’ve wanted to get right the first time. For example: forming an LLC? Lawyers can do that faster and better than we can. On the flip side, consultants offered to do market research or help us come up with a budget. Nah, we can do that. Research and math are our strong suits.

One thing we can’t do is graphic design. We have a lot of opinions about graphic design, and had a strong vision about the look and feel that we wanted, all of which drove us toward finding a designer who could bring it to life. Enter Amy McAdams, an AWESOME freelance graphic designer in Indy who had created logos and artwork for multiple local businesses. We knew we had our design partner.

When we changed our name to Ash & Elm (see previous blog about this), we were at a loss of what direction to go. Amy came up with a solid idea to have typeface only, and we loved the idea of laying it over a cross-section of a tree. Amy was in, and took it a step further, suggesting we find an actual piece of a tree and make a print instead of trying to create everything through technology.

This was our typeface logo which we used as a jumping off point. I called a tree-service company that had tree cuttings at their disposal and picked up a few cross-sections (also known as tree cookies!). Though I’d requested a piece of an Ash or Elm tree, they only had Cottonwood available (sad face).

Next, I went to a friends’ wood shop and sanded these bad boys down. I had a near death experience when my scarf got eaten by the sander while I was still wearing it, so this may have been something I should’ve had someone else do. I also took a blowtorch to the sanded cookie to make the rings really stand out (Google suggested this).

Then, Amy came over, we had coffee, rolled ink onto the cleaned cookies, and made multiple ink pressings. It took a while to find the ideal method (paper on top of inked cookie, rub with fingers over and over again, use just the right amount of ink, and carefully remove).

We took our best pressing and then Amy worked her magic by digitally scanning it in, correcting a few issues, and overlaying our typeface.

We love the finished product, and are so glad we called upon an expert in this case! Hopefully this logo and brand will become synonymous with great, hand-crafted, ciders put out by a company that is active and engaged in their community.