Goldman’s Bour.B.Que

Dee Goldman had previous orders made for his Bour-b-que, a bourbon-based BBQ sauce. But the graphic designer he worked with had quit so I took a crack at designing his table banner he requested. He wanted to use old artwork and wording from labels he ordered from us in the past (i.e. the picture of him). He wanted something bright, vibrant, and colorful, in order to catch potential buyer’s eyes and bring them to their booth at farmer’s markets. Looking at the labels, the coloring he used was alright, but not really eye catching. He had a tannish brown color for the background and three border colors for each flavor; original is the same tannish brown, smoky is brown, and spicy is blue respectively.

A lot of times I do not like to stray from the brand colors, so I made three different proofs, two with the colors he had used in the past, and one that I would do if it were a new client and what I would do for them. Sometimes I do this with clients as it gives them a few options to choose from, it compares their ideas to my idea, and they get to see the design rather than imagine it. In other words, I am giving them proofs of what they want and what I think will help catch target audience(s)’s eyes.

Because I had to proof out three designs, I quickly got to work on making three variations. The idea I had in my head for what I thought he might like using his colors was to keep the theme the same, with the colorful border but the tannish brown background. As for the third design my first thought was using a red to orange to yellow gradient, as I usually associate that with sauce and hotter sauces. Something that he wanted was a buck with his antlers. Instead of using the logo he had, which I thought cluttered the banner a little bit, I used an outline of a buck and other deer. I also added a sunset and put Dee’s photo in front of it. I still kept the same font for the heading and paragraph text.

After reviewing the three options, Dee was satisfied with the colorful third option, which I
thought was a little bit surprising as clients typically stick to what they want. We only had to
make a few minor tweaks before he approved of the final design!