Hot n Tasty - Logo

The first thing that I want to do with the Hot n Tasty brief is to redesign the logo before I do anything else. By doing this it will give me the starting point that I need to get properly into the brief.

For a start, it really annoys me that it is 'Hot n Tasty' and think it would work a lot better being Hot & Tasty instead. It just seems that bit more professional and is better to work with in my opinion. This will be a point that I bring up during my first proper meeting with the owner. So I will change it to this, unless of course it is a definite no to the change then I will have to come back and change it.

Also, the two main colours that they already use are black and orange. I don't want to completely strip them from what they already have so have decided that I will stick with the black and orange colour scheme (and get rid of any other colours they have used like in the front sign for example). Making this decision now makes it a bit easier when it comes to designing the logo.

I sketched out my initial ideas that I have for the logo to work from.

image of sketches 

image of sketches

The main feature in the logo will be the '&', so I have explored ones that are out there to make sure that I choose my ideal one that I would like to work with - this proved to be a lot more challenging that I had originally anticipated.

I couldn't really just choose one, so I printed this out to look at more closely, and also so that I could get a good idea on which look better printed, etc.

image of printed &'s

I cannot really pin point the exact one that I would like to choose, but have narrowed it down to a small number of possibilities that I will use. This will really be determined by what typeface I use for the 'hot' and 'tasty' words that will be accompanying it really. For now though I have decided to work with the one on the bottom right in the middle, as this is the one that I was most drawn to, and so was everyone else say on my table at the time.

So following initial ideas that I have sketched out, I got on to Illustrator to start digitising them.

I didn't start off using the colour orange in the experiments, and instead used an outlined & instead to represent what would be orange. This obviously didn't give me the best impression of how the logos would actually work so I decided to pick one to work with. This could be changed slightly though in the near future to the exact orange that I will go ahead and use. Also, I was really drawn to using uppercase letterforms when sketching out ideas, but once I saw them on screen I think that the lowercase ones work better and appear a bit more friendlier and not 'shouty'. So I experimented more with the possibilities.

I like the way that the logo is progressing. I decided to have a try with a different uppercase typeface to see how that would look, and I do like it. Although the comments that it makes the logo look meaty and as though it's for a steak house from the table, I have decided that it is best to stick with lowercase. So I carried on experimenting with it.

I tried out some different typefaces to use and am really drawn to using the futura typeface for the words. It appears more friendly and not too corporate or generic. I also alternated between bold and regular for the &. Out of what I have so far, the logo that I am really drawn to using and like is this one below.

It's simple and to the point. Not too fussy and sits really easy. 

Now that I am sort of decided on this, I decided also to experiment with possibly using a different & for the middle of it. I am set on using futura for the words, so I figured I should probably try out some different typefaces for the & to see which one works the best and compliments it in the right way.

I haven't made a definite decision as to which one to use just yet as I have been staring at them for a good few hours so I will leave it for now and come back to it to see which I am most drawn to, as well as asking peers for their opinions also.