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player ready...With a local relocation, Yearbook Studios has shifted its focus and said goodbye to retail.
In September, the Forest Park business, which included a retail shop and design studio, closed its doors at 7316 Madison St. The studio re-opened last week at 408 Thomas Ave. with a three-year lease. Owners Jef Anderson and Noel Eberline have expanded their focus on their growing design and branding business.
“We’ll see where it takes us,” Anderson said. “It’s a great fresh start.”
Anderson, whose background lies in design and visual merchandising, and Eberline opened Yearbook in 2011, offering retail and design services. But in the years that followed, as online shopping became more popular, Anderson said the business’s retail sales weren’t growing at the same rate as its design client base.
“It was evident to us over the last six years that retail had changed, especially small retail,” Anderson said.
Anderson said they’re grateful for the success they experienced on Madison Street and confident that their design brand is known well enough that they could let go of retail.
“I think having the store really positioned us as a design source in the area,” Anderson said. “… You’re aware that it really is all about the services now, and there is no retail.”
Recently, the design studio has handled a branding campaign for the Forest Park Chamber of Commerce, interior design and branding for Obsessed Kitchen and Bar in Oak Park and Kinslahger Brewing in Oak Park, and is working on the rebranding and interior redesign of Brown Cow Ice Cream Parlor, Anderson said.
Yearbook’s branding and design look tends to have “a bit of a foot in the past,” Anderson said, which clients appreciate. He added they’ve recently been awarded the rebranding job for Forest Park National Bank & Trust Co.
The new studio, although not as big as the previous storefront on Madison, is twice as big as the former studio space Anderson and Eberline had been working with.
Jenny Shepherd Public Relations also occupies space in the new studio; Anderson said the two are working together to leverage a full offering of services for clients.
Kinslahger co-owner Keith Huizinga said they sought help from Yearbook in looking to create a certain atmosphere in their space: they wanted something new yet reminiscent of the pre-Prohibition era.
Yearbook incorporated art, textured wallpaper and reclaimed wood, Huizinga said, while playing up the space’s original tin ceiling.
“[Anderson] just really helped us take that feel and made it come together,” Huizinga said.
Caitlin Mullen is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.