Design Process: Two Hungry Dudes

One of our very first commissions was to design business cards for Two Hungry Dudes. Joe and Henry are two Detroit food bloggers who have written about everything from humble homemade cornbread to foie gras. They were wonderful to work with, and simply asked us to “design something you’re proud of.” So we did!

photo credit: @Wattyz

I thought you guys might like to see a peek behind the curtain at what it was like to design something for a client for the first time. Behind the cut, you’ll see the whole process from initial sketches, to the finished design, to smiles from happy customers.

Joe and Henry gave us free reign to do whatever we wanted, which was great, except it didn’t give me anywhere to start. So, step 1:

1. Immerse yourself in your client’s world.

In the beginning, my mind kept going to Martha Stewart and Giada DeLaurentiis. Right away, I got worried that I’d design something too girly. I started to wonder why two guys would start a food blog. I eventually realized, it’s partly about discovery. They’re the guys that can always say, “I know this great place.” I started thinking about other people I knew that were always one step ahead of everyone else. I ended up browsing on Style Forum and GQ, and saw these geometrical icons. This is where I started from.

2. Sketch anything and everything that you can think of.

Here’s my first page of sketches. You can see how I went from simple geometric shapes, to plates, casserole dishes and skillets, to kitchen utensils…KNIVES!! Yes, knives are the manliest food related thing there is. No one can argue with that.

3. Think your ideas through, and then choose the best ones to perfect.

Here’s another page of sketches. I had another idea for a stovetop design that loved as soon as I thought of it.

I spent a lot of time trying to bring the stovetop concept to life, but after a lot of trying, I eventually scrapped it. If I’d thought it through, I would’ve realized that it wasn’t right for this project. Instead, I wasted a bunch of time. Lesson learned.

4. Polish it up, kiss it goodbye and hit “send”.

I sent off two different options, but this is the one that they picked.

I got a huge kick out of this picture I got from Joe when his cards came in the mail.

Happy customer #1

Estimated happiness of customer #2

Thanks to Joe and Henry for giving us a shot! If you want to discover some great places to eat in Detroit, check out twohungrydudes.com. Since it’s Tumblr Tuesday, you can also recommend their blog for the Tumblr food directory.

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6 Comments on “Design Process: Two Hungry Dudes”

• Tweets that mention Design Process: Two Hungry Dudes -- Topsy.com
  

  [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Henry Balanon, Damian Rintelmann, Christina Jacobs, Trisha Verma, Shelli Gutholm and others. Shelli Gutholm said: great post on the Design Process by @perfectlaughter http://perfectlaughter.com/index.php/designing-business-cards/ [...]

  06-08-10 » 3:11 PM »

• Hubert "GAM" Sawyers III
  

  The cards look great. You couldn’t get a better client either. Hopefully, you begin to see some significant referral work from this!

  Oh, I love seeing the process. It’s inspiring. I should get my brand consultants to share their process for my new logo. I know this blog has me intrigued how they came to what I have now.

  06-08-10 » 5:35 PM »

• Jamie Favreau
  

  Great job!! Thanks for sharing the process.

  06-09-10 » 12:12 AM »

• John Phillips
  

  Wow, those cards look sweet. I love seeing the sketching and process you went through to get to the end result. Good stuff.

  06-09-10 » 7:52 AM »

• christina
  

  Thanks for all the kind words, guys!!

  A funny anecdote to share: Dennis has never met Henry and doesn’t know what he looks like. He thought the picture of him was the result of a stock photo search for “excited guy”.

  06-09-10 » 2:33 PM »

• Perfect Laughter - 2011: Still Not Trying
  

  [...] we relaunched in January, in February we took on our first client, The Hungry Dudes, and later documented the design process. (photo credit: [...]

  01-04-11 » 1:57 AM »

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