Holy Cow! a logo. The refresh, Part 2
[this is part 2 a series following the logo refresh for Holy Cow Creative, part 1 can be found here.]
Type was important in the current logo and was what I spent the most time on, but most time in finding just the right one. I wanted something that earned the right to carry a bold and fun name like Holy Cow! Fortunately I found Blambot that has a lot of great fonts…for comic books. But that’s exactly the look and feel I was going for. I already knew I was going to use the talk bubble (we are trying to help you communicate better) so this was a great fit.
But on the original logo, I didn’t mess with it much beyond a few tiny changes. I knew that wasn’t going to be the case this time. One good thing did come from the logo concepts I came up with initially (yes, when I was breaking the rules) and that was to stack the name. Spreading it out was a big reason for the problems when it was reduced. So stacked it was.
But we’re not even close to being done with the type. Now it was time to make it my own. I’m not sure how to walk you through this except to say this was by far the most fun part of this entire process; and while I’m going to show you three stages of refinement, there were hours and pages of refinement. Honestly, not even because it needed that much, but because I really enjoyed finessing the type. Everything got worked, the O and W were worked the most.
I was about wrapped up with the type when a friend who I met through both the HOW Conference and MinistryCOM, Clint Walkingstick, popped his head in and said that he’d be happy to take a look at things. This does NOT mean or give you a green light to show your logo to everyone, get feedback from your friends, etc. I needed this new set of eyes that wasn’t connected so closely to the logo and who could see it more clearly.
A big killer, especially in the world of church, is design by committee. When we work on your logo, we’ll give you ways to bring other opinions into the process. In fact it’s an area I’ll incorporate more and be more purposefully with after going through this logo refresh of my own.
This brought in some great insight, the first was in the type. He gave me a big push towards a hand drawn font, which I really liked. I liked how fun it was, certainly full of personality…but was it too childish?
This was an area where some market research came into play, I put this in front of pastors from various points on the creativity scale. In the end, I liked that it was sassy and playful but because because we work with a variety of church sizes, types, etc. it was bit too playful and in some circles seen as immature.
But there was one element that did connect and made a nice difference to the final type and be on the lookout, Clint and I may be releasing this type as a font, with proceeds going to a charity.
With the type now cleaned up and refined we had one more detail…the exclamation mark. This was actually pretty easy. The process was simple, I threw out the old exclamation mark and drew a new one. Too many times we complicate things unnecessarily. I could have taken the existing type’s exclamation mark and altered it, but I knew what I want it to look like, so I kept it simple and drew it out.
Isn’t type fun? The lesson here is that you should have some fun with it, don’t just take what comes out of the box. Make it your own and make sure it fits your personality and speaks the tone you want it to speak.
Tomorrow….the bubble, a few final touches and the final reveal.
