Client: Nicholas Cunningham, AKA @jonny-clearwater
Project: Logo for “Hots or Shots”
Budget: Under 10 hours
Creative Direction: Modern & Minimalist. Must include Steemit logo
Background Information: Nicholas has created a platform where he will be interviewing Steemit members with 10 open-ended, random questions. There is also a coin flip involved that gives them the choice between spicy food or liquor shots.

Logo Design Rules

When it comes to creating a logo, some of my theories are:

Refine the mark to its most essential elements, right down to the point where it starts to fall apart.
For color, I alway start with black and white. If the logo doesn’t work black, then it doesn’t work.
Whenever you can leverage universal imagery into the visual language, you’re given an opportunity to borrow instant recognition. These visual queues can do a lot of the heavy lifting while building your identity. “Hots or Shots” gives us TWO opportunities to use universal imagery.

Leveraging Icons & Getting Out the Shit

Icon 1

When you say or write “shot” there is a quintessential and universal image that comes to mind: A shot glass. As long as alcohol has been served, bartenders and bar maidens have been dishing out this 2oz treat (or trick).

Since our goal is “modern and minimal”, I’ll create a isometrically angled shot-glass (to build depth in 2D) and give it the least amount of shape. The trick here is is to make sure it doesn’t look like a pint glass. There are many different shapes to shot-glasses, so with some research, I can find the most standard (recognized) version.

Icon 2

Even though jalapeños barely register on the Scoville Scale, they are widely recognized as a symbol for “hot”. I was back and forth on whether to use a hot pepper or a flame icon to represent the hot part of the logo, and kept coming back to the pepper for 2 main reasons:

Spicy food means it needs to be eatable and fire isn't palatable to most people.
A pepper can be a garnish, which further enhances the shot-glass / barware decision.

I looked at scorpion peppers, ghost peppers and many other Scoville-topping torture devises, but none came close to being recognizable as the jalapeño. If minimal is the goal, then a pepper silhouette will most likely work best. And a silhouette needs to be instantly recognizable.

sketch final.jpg

Starting to Take Form - Vector Sketches

You can see I’m focussing on a few mandatory elements: The shot glass, the pepper and the Steemit logo. Trying to blend those three in a minimal way has been challenging.

Incorporating Text

I knew this logo would be a circular one. Using a circle in a logo can suggest community, friendship and unity... pretty much what @Steemit is all about. I tried to incorporate a flame, a microphone, and some geometric shapes, but it felt forced.

Once I saw the pepper, I knew it could be transformed into a jalapeño microphone.

Bam. It's SHOWTIME!

Final Logo

Feedback

I'm always up for constructive criticism, but please realize the final logo has already been finalized. I've been designing logos for 20 years and I'm super passionate about the process. I'd love to talk shop with you if you have any questions or want any feedback on logos you're working on.

If you want to check out some of my other logos, take a gander and geek out with me.

If you're interested in commissioning a logo or brand for altcoin, I'd be happy to have a 15-minute phone call to see if it's a good fit.