I recently finished the logo and business card design for a new restaurant opening near by me in Turner Oregon called the Turnaround Cafe. The owner, Nancy Walsh, came to my office because she had heard good things about the company I work for.
After our first meeting I had a good idea of what to do with the elements that she wanted incorporated into the logo. For the most part she was happy by the second round of sketches but there were a couple parts to the logo that once I had executed them she decided that they weren't quite there yet. One was the way I drew the rooster and the other was the style of the main type. I had in my mind to do a little more of a modern version of a western font which she didn't really love. Also I ended up drawing four other roosters and all of them were more graphic and exaggerated and in Nancy's words "not pretty enough". I wasn't sure how to draw a rooster silhouette that was "pretty" and so in the midst of us discussing what she meant she showed me a picture of her own rooster on her phone. I then had the idea to use it as the model and asked her to send me the photo. The remarkable thing about the photo was that it was a perfect side-view which was what I needed. So the next mock-up I showed her was based on her very own pet and she loved it. As for the font, it took us a few more tries to get it but we are both very pleased with the final result.
THE FINAL LOGO
When I approach logo design I tend to make everything bold and simplified because I believe that logos should be very useable at small sizes. I feel like with this logo I kept the basic shapes simple and defined for the small usages but also added more detail into the art that when viewed bigger would add to the depth of the image.
Here are the 4 loser roosters that I drew before the winner.
My friends who are designers say that this logo looks different than what they have come to expect from me but they like it a lot. I take that as a compliment because I don't really like thinking that I have a style that limits me or makes my designs too predictable. I guess that is the positive result of a client pushing me out of my comfort zone but lets keep that to ourselves.