Since we launched our brand, Hook & Arrow, we’ve received nothing but positive feedback about our brand identity, logo and label design so we thought it would be nice to invite our designer, Alejandro Rodriguez of Toil Studio to write a guest post on our blog to talk about the process of creating the brand.
It wasn’t easy to find a designer whose style matched the vision we had for Hook & Arrow. But after a quick call with Alejandro that ended up running on for nearly 2 hours, we knew we found our guy.
Without further adieu here's Alejandro:
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Toil and H&A joined forces in 2021 to accomplish a simple goal: Create a hot sauce brand that resonates with the everyday adventurer. The key ingredient to our success wasn’t salt but clear communication and collaboration.
From the beginning, we had open conversations about what problems we wanted to solve and where we wanted to take the brand. Our process was a six-week journey of discovery, strategy, and design. The outcome was a memorable visual identity that won second place in the 2023 Scovie Awards.
The Raw Ingredients
The first objective was to answer a basic question: What does Hook and Arrow stand for, and why should anyone care? In a world where many brands are fighting for your attention, it's best to put effort into communicating what makes your brand special and let those who care come to you.
When you can easily communicate your why, it empowers customers to identify with your purpose.
Toil did this by having founders Henry and Sam participate in a brand strategy workshop. We dug deep into who their ideal customer is, what value they bring, and why this all matters to them. Giving them a clear understanding of who they are beyond what's inside the bottle.
The Final Product
The design process consisted of three rounds of design, during which we collaboratively explored creative ideas to develop a unique and ownable visual identity for H&A. Before we started, Henry shared early thoughts of elements he would love to see spice up the final brand identity.
- A deer skull surrounded by flames
- Still lifes of deer skulls and flowers from Henry’s senior project in college
- A creative way to highlight the ampersand
Say no more, Henry, say no more.
Congratulations to Henry and Sam for receiving recognition for their hard work and collaboration.
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