Designing a Logo for a Restaurant.
My First Freelance Project
This is my first project as a freelancer. Though I have some experience in a furniture based private firm as a designer, this is the first time I am working with a client directly — getting them to believe in my work, delivering as per the requirements, and getting paid for it. The first pay check for my work as a freelance designer is a dream come true moment for me. Because I have been designing for years, mostly for friends and family, I’d started to doubt whether my design work would ever be my livelihood. As I finished high school, choosing design as a career over a hobby was the hardest decision I ever took. But now, I am pretty confident that my work will be more substantial than the pay check. I don’t mind how much I am getting paid in this project. I am getting paid for my first creative work as a freelancer, and that means a lot.
The Client
So my first freelance project is to design a logo for a restaurant. Though the client was my high school senior, I knew little about him, and the first meeting was a formal one. The requirement was quite clear: A Logo for his restaurant, called ‘Plates of Spices’. Setting up this restaurant was his first initiative as an entrepreneur, too, and that had me more excited about our first project together.
Initial Sketches
My process began with the name itself. ‘Plates of Spices’. With a simple and appealing name like that, the logo would have to stay true to the words. ‘Spices’ immediately sparked in me the thought of green chilli, one of the major spices used in Indian Cuisine. With this image in mind, I sketched different ideas for the logo of the restaurant. After some drawings, I started to design the letter P in the word ‘Spices’ with the reference of a green chilli. Henceforth, I decided ‘P’ will be the icon of the restaurant’s logo and kept at it to improve it further — my creativity sparked by a literal green chilli!
Digitization
I started to sketch the logo digitally. I used Gotham — Medium font for the logo, to design the tail of the letter ‘P’ like a chilli. And almost as a happy accident, its curve started to look like the handle of a cup. Then I started to align the words to be more aesthetically pleasing to the eye, both as a logo on small screens and on large hoardings. After that I began to work on colour, which in any design has a significant impact on our brains. I looked for lot of colour combinations that would work perfectly with the words of logo as well as the theme. Settling on a light green as the predominant colour, I worked on improving all the attributes of the logo with the new colour palette.
Tagline and Packaging
Finally I added a tagline to the restaurant’s name, “Plates of Spices — A shade of traditional flavours,” using Arizora — Regular font for the tagline. After completing the logo design, I designed templates for food packaging, Paper cups, paper bags, business cards, and mobile application layout using the logo as the main attribute, to help with the branding of the restaurant as well. The main focus throughout the process was to have the restaurant be appealing and memorable to customers, and stand out from a pool of such restaurants in town.
My Experience
In this project, I prioritized the learning over the pay check right from the start. And that I think is how I was able to meet the client’s requirements, and (as their feedback suggests) go well beyond their expectations. I was elated with the client’s praise and gratitude, and know that I was extremely fortunate to get this project. But I also know I worked quite hard to be able to pull it off. I explored a lot in my first freelance walk into the field of graphic design, and am really proud of the high school kid who chose something that gives him joy as his career, however difficult the choice was. And I can say to him with certainty now, that it continues to thrill me in every part of the work.
Checkout my video on ‘Designing a Logo for Restaurant’ on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyRhR-C2V7o&t=67s
