Logo Details

Interview With Josh Hayes
Q:Where did the idea for this logo come from?
The concept is based on the age-old alchemic practice of attempting to artificially mass produce gold by way of fusion/synthesis with other elements. Since gold has only one stable isotope (the element Au) a massive chemical reaction would need to occur to generate this isotope.
There is only x3 active protons difference between Lead & Gold. They’re ‘chemically’ different…reaction to solvents, melting temp, etc…but, if you were to extract those x3 protons from lead theoretically, you would have gold.
Q:What application did you use to design this logo? E.g., Illustrator.
Adobe Illustrator.
Q:What was your design process for this logo? I.e., Did you start out with pen and paper then move to the computer?
I did quite a bit of sketching on this, mostly on the flame – or specifically, how detailed/minimal is would be. The mortar & pestle shapes were lock in pretty quickly.
Q:What font(s) were used in the logo?
The headline is Monteverdi Small Caps by Fountain Type, the tagline is Proxima Nova Semi Bold by Simonson Studio.
Q:How did you choose the color scheme for the logo?
The colour scheme was an easy choice, charcoal grey for the mortar & orange for the flame. I tried a number of shades of orange before deciding on this one…I didn’t want it to be too vibrant against the grey.
Q:Do you have any sketches of the logo in the early stages?
The shape of the flame changed a little in the vector, but this was the final sketch. In all the mortar & pestle logos I studied, 9 out of 10 had the pestle leaning to the right, so I choose to lean it to the left – for that slight amount of extra punch.

Q:How long did it take to complete the logo?
This was quick. About 4 days; 1st day was 100% research & study, 2nd was sketching, 3rd was vectorizing the mark & 4th was type.
Q:What do you feel was your biggest challenge in designing the logo?
Balance, positioning everything so it balanced just right was very challenging, due to its angular view point.
Q:Now that the logo is finished, is there anything you would change about it?
The type could use a little extra attention, in balance & kerning…But I’m very happy with my output.