A little while back I had the opportunity to design a logo and stationery set for a start up company called Homespun Chili. This company uses local and international ingredients to create one of a kind meat and vegetarian chili creations. Right off the bat, we discussed options, ideas, and brainstormed the direction we wanted to go using my logo design questionnaire. In his questionnaire he mentioned that he wanted:
“CLEAN, SMART, QUIRKY, MAINSTREAM WITH A LITTLE MARTHA STEWART!”
There is nothing better than (at least for me) working with someone who uses clean and quirky in the same sentance 
I also love any company with a unique name. After we had talked and finalized the direction we wanted to go, I started sketching.
Sketches for Homespun Chili:
You can see I circle the ones I want to pursue because I believe those are the best options. I usually never show my concepts to the client for a couple of reasons; one being that they are pretty rough sketches and it usually freaks out the client and two, you never know if they are going to just take your sketch images and claim them as your own to hire another designer (usually not the case but I’ve seen crazier things).
After I sketched out some possible solutions, I mocked them up for the client to see in low res jpeg format.
Concept 1:
Concept 2:
Concept 3
After the client had a chance to look at these three concepts over, we talked out the possibilites and decided that concept #2 was the best direction to go. He did have some revisions for it so here they are:
Revision 1 – In this revision he wanted a couple of things: Tea colored background with rounded corners, curvature to the chili pepper, an artsy border, and to implement the tagline.
After he saw these, he loved the colors but not the border. So the second set of revisions brought: A Different border option, no border option, and a font change from Gotham Rounded to Gotham Condensed Bold.
After these we made the decision to just use the background color for certain mediums and use no background for other mediums.
Final logo:
Other variations of final logo:
Then following up with his logo, I did his stationery set:
And as always, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the process, any critiques, and compliments. Did you like the outcome of this solution or should there have been a different one chosen?
Join in the discussion now.
All this stuff is mine, please don't steal.
If you steal my work, let me know and I will handsomely reward you with a roundhouse kick to your face.
June 9, 2010
Great logo.
I love the fact you have all three words from the identity included in the logo without it looking forced.
Steve
June 9, 2010
That’s amazing, I can’t believe how many different revisions the logo process went through! I have to say the final shots of the letterheads and business cards are so sweet!
How long did it take you to design the concepts? Like going from initial design idea to finalized digital logo?
June 9, 2010
@jake – I would say this particular project took 3-4 weeks. The client was very clear on his directions/feedback, something that always, in the end, makes it look better.
Sketches usually only take me a day or two. Sometimes I’ll sketch for a week straight just so every concept has been hashed out.
June 10, 2010
I truly appreciate your design processor, and the logo came out VERY WELL. As “logical” as it sounds, the lines spinning from a house into a chili is genius. Great conceptual thinking.
June 11, 2010
This turned out fantastic! I’d love to see more of these type (documentation of process) of blog posts.
June 12, 2010
[...] View full post on brandclay™ [...]
June 13, 2010
Love this logo. And, though the final version is my favorite, each of the mocked-up concepts are really really good.
June 14, 2010
Fantastic work! This turned out great.
June 14, 2010
Thank you everyone, really appreciate the comments. I’ll be posting many more like this to really.
June 15, 2010
How much did you charge for the project
June 15, 2010
Hi Denis,
Sorry that information is confidential. If you’re interested in a project, you can contact me via the form here.
June 16, 2010
[...] that you don’t. You can see a case where the end logo was better than the beginning one here.7. Presentation:Presenting the logo to the clients is always very important. Everyone has their [...]
June 23, 2010
Dude, awesome work. Thanks for the post!
June 28, 2010
Truthfully, I think any of these would have worked great, but the final result is definitely the best in the group which is awesome considering the way things can go.
July 21, 2010
Thanks a lot Sean,
I’m trying to make a logo for my girlfriends (new) freelance carrier and this (plus your questionnaire) is helping me a lot.
November 8, 2010
I love the design. Nice clean work. Really looks clean and crisp on the stationary.
November 11, 2010
Thanks for sharing your process for creating this great logo. I liked how you showed examples of how the logo is used on a letterhead, stationary, etc.
May 3, 2011
[...] Logo Design Process: Homespun Chili [...]
May 3, 2011
[...] Logo Design Process: Homespun Chili“Homespun Chili uses local and international ingredients to create one-of-a-kind meat and vegetarian chili creations. The Logo was supposed to be clean, smart, quirky, mainstream with a little Martha Stewart!” [...]
May 3, 2011
[...] Logo Design Process: Homespun Chili “Homespun Chili uses local and international ingredients to create one-of-a-kind meat and vegetarian chili creations. The Logo was supposed to be clean, smart, quirky, mainstream with a little Martha Stewart!” [...]
May 4, 2011
great post. great logo. would you be willing to share your logo design questionnaire?
May 4, 2011
Love the logo – very clever! I think you accomplished everything they were looking for. Nice design!
May 4, 2011
[...] Logo Design Process: Homespun Chili [...]
May 5, 2011
Thanks for sharing the process with us, I definitely feel you made the right choice in the end. I can appreciate the subtle changes in font that bring impressive results. Cheers!
May 6, 2011
[...] Logo Design Process: Homespun Chili “Homespun Chili uses local and international ingredients to create one-of-a-kind meat and vegetarian chili creations. The Logo was supposed to be clean, smart, quirky, mainstream with a little Martha Stewart!” [...]
May 10, 2011
Thank you so much for posting this entire process. It’s good to hear that a client and designer can work together so well
I’m starting out in my freelance career and this was very helpful in picking up on the flow of these jobs.
Thanks again!
May 14, 2011
[...] Logo Design Process: Homespun Chili “Homespun Chili uses local and international ingredients to create one-of-a-kind meat and vegetarian chili creations. The Logo was supposed to be clean, smart, quirky, mainstream with a little Martha Stewart!” [...]
May 15, 2011
Pretty much interesting, very nice work!
May 16, 2011
[...] sourced from layersmagazine.com, brandclay.com and imjustcreative.com This entry was posted in Research and tagged Branding. Bookmark the [...]
May 17, 2011
[...] Logo Design Process: Homespun Chili [...]
June 8, 2011
Wow. I really loved seeing the sketches of the different possibilities. Your final choice is very clean, fresh, & uncomplicated. All packed up in a timeless, kind of trendy way. Nice work!
July 15, 2011
[...] Logo Design Process: Homespun Chili “Homespun Chili uses local and international ingredients to create one-of-a-kind meat and vegetarian chili creations. The Logo was supposed to be clean, smart, quirky, mainstream with a little Martha Stewart!” [...]
July 27, 2011
[...] Logo Design Process: Homespun Chili “Homespun Chili uses local and international ingredients to create one-of-a-kind meat and vegetarian chili creations. The Logo was supposed to be clean, smart, quirky, mainstream with a little Martha Stewart!” [...]
July 29, 2011
[...] Logo Design Process: Homespun Chili “Homespun Chili uses local and international ingredients to create one-of-a-kind meat and vegetarian chili creations. The Logo was supposed to be clean, smart, quirky, mainstream with a little Martha Stewart!” [...]
September 4, 2011
[...] Logo Design Process: Homespun Chili “Homespun Chili uses local and international ingredients to create one-of-a-kind meat and vegetarian chili creations. The Logo was supposed to be clean, smart, quirky, mainstream with a little Martha Stewart!” [...]
September 24, 2011
[...] Homespun Chili [...]
December 7, 2011
[...] Logo Design Process: Homespun Chili [...]
January 19, 2012
[...] 1. Logo Design Process: Homespun Chili [...]
January 19, 2012
[...] 1. Logo Design Process: Homespun Chili [...]
January 19, 2012
[...] 1. Logo Design Process: Homespun Chili [...]
January 19, 2012
[...] 1. Logo Design Process: Homespun Chili [...]
January 20, 2012
[...] 1. Logo Design Process: Homespun Chili [...]
January 20, 2012
These guys are local to me, and I met them at my local summer/fall farmer’s market. I’ve got to tell you, what initially drew me to them was the quirky, yet definitely thought-out nature of their branding. Well done.
BTW– their chili’s pretty darn tasty, too.
January 25, 2012
[...] 1. Logo Design Process: Homespun Chili [...]
February 11, 2012
[...] Logo Design Process: Homespun Chili [...]
February 15, 2012
[...] 1. Logo Design Process: Homespun Chili [...]