Marvelous in My Monday [10]: Nutty Butter Logo Reveal

What’s marvelous about my Monday? The fact that I can finally reveal something I’ve been itching to tell you about.

It all hinged on a peanut.

The fabulous Sarah Pember of The Smart Kitchen revealed the newly (chimes)designed Nutty Butter logo today. It’s a sweet and a bit nutty, just like her.

I met Sarah at Blend in May, and after seeing her Nutty Butter in person, I asked her if she would like me to create some labels for her so she wouldn’t have to hand-write all her flavors on each jar. Her butters are delicious and her flavors are innovative. I could see big things coming her way. And they have!

After one of the biggie foodie bloggers mentioned Nutty Butter, Sarah’s orders amped up, and she contacted me about a logo. So I suggested that I design the entire Nutty Butter identity package — from top to bottom, logos to business cards to crazy chopstick stirrers.

I’m knee deep in Nutty Butter (if only it wasn’t a figure of speech) and I’m working on the labels, but for now, I can share the new logos with you and a little bit of the process.

I picked up a mini sketchbook on the way to HOW in June. I wanted to have something to keep my mind occupied on the flight because I’d never flown before and was anxious. Fortunately my thoughts were easily shifted to Nutty Butter and before I knew what came over me, I had about 10 pages of sketches.

I wanted to give her a wordmark with a piece that could stand alone as a logo (for small applications, and once brand equity has been built) so the “nb peanut” was born.

A typeface wasn’t the solution because Nutty Butter’s homemade/handmade-ness needed to be apparent. So, I used a million different widths of pens and wrote “nutty butter” until I couldn’t cross the double t’s anymore. I scanned my sketches, picked the best of the best, and frankensteined them into an über logo, using the “n” and “b” from the peanut as the keystone for the rest of the mark.

I tweaked. And edited. And tweaked some more. I wasn’t happy with my vertical mark or how the peanut and the wordmark went together. I was stuck for a few weeks. Until one day a bolt of lightening hit: I could use the “y” to cross the “t”s on the stacked logo.

Somehow this discovery lead me find a placement for the peanut on the horizontal logo.

In posting these, I see two more minor tweaks I want to make, but nothing that anybody but myself will ever notice. Super picky-uny changes, as one of my mentors would have said.

As you may know, one of my favorite things in the entire world is to play with color. So you bet your nutty butt that I have more colors picked out for this identity package. But you’re all just going to have to wait for the packaging reveal. Let’s just say that these butters will stand out on any shelf .. even from miles away.

Thanks for letting me geek out on you today. Tomorrow I’ve got something really fun planned!

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Interested in Nutty Butter? You can order some. Or you could try to win some on my friend Kelly’s blog today. 

[ feature image background is a photo of actual Nutty Butter from Sarah's blog ]