Exercise: The French Hen (Graphic Design 1, pg. 120)
Newton and Ridley are opening a new café/wine bar nearer the city. The bar is designed to appeal to younger women and sophisticated young men. The brewery has identified a gap in the market and wants to provide a ‘sophisticated and relaxed’ venue for the ‘discerning’ drinker. The brewery is trying to enhance its image as a respectable alcohol vendor.
They want you to develop some ideas for a logo to be used:
- On covers for the food and cocktail menus
- In colour on the signage outside, and as a cut-out for a window detail
- On T-shirts for the staff and paper napkins
- For one side of a beermat, the other will carry advice on sensible drinking
I started the process with three now reasonably familiar steps:
- Mind-mapping the brief
- Sketching – on my tablet in Adobe Draw
- Online research into bars/café marketing
As I started sketching some ideas came up that reminded me of the posters of Toulouse-Lautrec.
Lautrec Posters
I also looked at ideas around incorporating negative space, which came about through a lucky accident as I was using livepaint in the ‘Draw’ app. I was mindful of staying away from stereotypes, but couldn’t resist trying an idea with a hen and a snail!
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- Hen 1
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- Hen 2
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- Hen 3
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- Hen 4
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- Hen 5
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- Hen 6
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- Hen 7
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- Hen 8
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- Hen 9
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- Hen 10
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- Hen 11
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- Hen 12
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- French Hen logo 3
Having worked up the sketches I decided to carry on with the integrated bottle and wine glass idea. I chose rich burgundy colour as I felt it had a sophisticated and luscious feel, and also linked nicely to the colour of a good red wine. I got some feedback from family and friends who felt that with some of them they couldn’t see the ‘Frenchness.’ Although this initially bothered me I realised the brief doesn’t say it is a ‘French’ café/bar, just that the name is the French Hen! I also wanted to stay away from stereotypes as the client has requested.
I did some research into suitable typefaces and found some examples created by French typographers and others that were interesting and might be appropriate. I didn’t have access to all the classic French typefaces so found some equivalents where I could.
Classic French Typefaces:
- Garamond
- Fournier Serif
- Didot
- Mistral & Antique Olive
- Auriol
- Peignet and Bifur
Further online research suggested some preferred menu typefaces:
- Raleway
- Didot
- Requiem
- Lavanderia
- Small Roundhand
- Sabon
- Arepo Italic Swash
I compiled a list of my preferences:
French Hen Typefaces selection
For the final designs I shortlisted the hen and snail and the wine and hen, but decided that the latter probably came closer to the brief. I also quite liked the hand rendered French with the white hen, but again thought it probably didn’t meet the ‘sophisticated’ element of the brief.
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- French Hen logo 1
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- French Hen logo 2
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- French Hen logo 3
Having decided which logo to go with I then worked up the various uses.
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- French Hen A board
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- French Hen Decal
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- Menu 1
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- Menu 2
Overall, I am reasonably happy with the result. I think the logo works at a range of sizes and on different materials. The weakest is probably the window decal because some of the detail is lost. I decided to keep the menus simple and think that the logos work at either size. It was an interesting process to work through, particularly finding what works in terms of what sets the right tone and how to create a balance between the sophisticated and relaxed elements of the brief.
Rework
My tutor’s feedback suggested that while the reversed out glass and bottle were a good idea they got a little lost in the final versions. I had wondered about this, hence the line around the bottle, as I wanted to avoid putting it in a box. However, having had the feedback I did some more sketches in Adobe Draw and actually think a darker background would work better.
Reworked French Hens
The hen on the bottle might work for labelling but would probably be too small for the T-shirts etc. I have a preference for the terracotta coloured chicken and think that could be quite distinctive.
