Sarah O’Leary is a writer, coach, and holistic health enthusiast who had several websites that she wanted to combine into one. After figuring out how she was going to do it, Sarah asked me to create a logo for her new brand, Holistic Hot Sauce. She also needed a header image for her new website and matching images for her social media profiles.
After reviewing her responses to the design questionnaire, I started sketching ideas.
Sarah wanted something creative and fun that fit her tagline “Look Radiant, Feel Vibrant, and Follow Your Dreams – at Midlife And Beyond!” and possibly had an association with nature since her holistic health advice focused on natural remedies and organic food and products.
We decided that an orange flower with petals that look sort of like flames would be the best fit. It was creative, fun, and vibrant, and flowers are associated with both beauty and nature, while flames are associated with heat and sexiness, and both could be associated with radiance.
Once the concept was decided on, I began working on creating the flower digitally, starting with the petals.
After I perfected the shape of the “flame” petal, I began creating the flower itself.
When the flower was finished I asked Sarah for her input on typefaces (fonts) for the text part of the logo.
I looked for script typefaces for Holistic because of the associations with femininity, beauty, and nature, and both plain and bold typefaces for Hot Sauce to add a bit of sturdiness and authority. I also selected a couple of more “fun” and creative (but still bold) typefaces as possibilities for Hot Sauce and Sarah liked those best.
While deciding on the typefaces, we also discussed colors. We had already decided on orange because it is a warm, vibrant color that could be associated with radiance. Sarah also wanted associations with nature, health, and organic food and products so green was the “natural” 😉 choice.
We chose a casual and fun script for Holistic and a thick, fun (one might even say “groovy” as it has a bit of a 60s feel to it) serif-based typeface for Hot Sauce. Then it was time to put it all together and decide on the size and placement of the flower.
Here is the final logo design:
Sarah was on a tight timeline so while I was developing the logo I was also working on the header for her website. Sarah sent me photos she’d taken at home and on vacations, and I made rough header concepts for most of them.
All of the images represented nature, but I felt the sunset images were the best fit for the theme of warmth, beauty, vibrancy, and sexiness. After much discussion, and many concepts, the final design was chosen and I went to work on the details of placement and legibility.
Throughout the design process Sarah was working on her new website design. Here is a rough concept I sent her with my design suggestions along with Sarah’s final design:
And here is a close up of the final header design:
To complete her digital brand imagery I also created a matching Twitter background, Facebook cover image, and profile pictures for her to use:
Do you like the Holistic Hot Sauce brand imagery?
Sharise Mershon Design 