Designing our logo “The Bunny”
Our logo for Aunt Benny, herein referred to as “The Bunny”, started as a sketch on a bar napkin. It might have been an 8 x 11 but I think for the sake of this story it was a napkin. Alexander and Kyla worked on the initial sketches with a clear and concise idea in mind. The Bunny launching, slightly over a hedge or other low lying field obstacle. Escaping something? Maybe being hunted ? Like I said: concise.
I brought the sketch to my Dumb Unit designer Simon Leville, who interestingly enough, I have never met in person. We worked for over 8 years together remotely on all of our label graphics and party flyers. I had no idea if he would be able or interested in designing the logo but he knew another designer Marianne Bousquet that could at least do the illustrative components of the design. With my limited vocabulary of illustrative techniques “what do you mean that's not woodcut.. what's woodcut ? eeew , I don’t want woodcut” we managed to slowly mold the logo into a now defining shape.
While we loved our logo we were cautious not to overuse it. With all the new places springing up in Berlin there was such a heavy-handedness to logo usage. The first real instance for us was a full-tiled wall at our short-lived Markthalle Neun stand. In order to get it on the tiles we had Jonni of Dog-Day do a silkscreen. It was a bit of a challenge as the grout was deep and we were doing it on a vertical surface, so we decided to do a test run with acrylic paint. The final paint was meant to be an artificially thickened oil based paint in black, but the result was so good that we decided not to risk a re-do and keep what we did. The grey also gave a less contrasted look to the the Bunny which we really liked. We worked hard to maintain the original appeal of the booth while still branding enough that people could see it on the busy Street Food Thursday. Unfortunately, this was the only busy day at the market for us and our beautiful logo seemed like overkill for the 3 people visiting the stand on weekdays.
We eventually closed the cake stand but learned that we liked the idea of seeing just The Bunny repeated once or twice through our space. We thought that it would be nice to see it larger on our windows but in a vintage hand-lettered style. I began searching and quickly found La Letteria who had done most of the signs I really loved in Berlin.
Elena from La Leteria is such a warm person she made everything seem easy even though the project was actually quite tricky. The Bunny has a lot of small thin intricate lines. Our meeting flew by and she knew exactly what we wanted and what we needed. We arrange a time for the painting and on a Monday when we were closed Elena came with her friend Juliane from Studio Elm Berlin to get the job done. With a bit of music, some coffee, and four steady hands Elena and Juliane painted into the early evening and delivered two beautiful golden bunnies.
During the day they reflect the sunlight, made children and seniors smile, and allowed our restaurant to finally have identifiable signage. At night they had a gentle silhouette that added interest to the landscape of our window overlooking the large park. Even our longtime regulars liked it, which is always a good sign (literally).
When we closed one of the saddest parts was seeing the bunnies covered up. Elena was one of the last people to visit and ran her hand over the window and took a few snapshots. We hugged and said goodbye not knowing that the pandemic was right around the corner.
The hardest part of moving back to Canada during Covid has been the lost chance to meet artisans and other designers that subtly make our cities better. The small businesses that refuse vinyl lettering and a stock logo who instead build something that stirs emotions and draws people in. Those small shops you find on city walks of either your own town or someone else’s. The ones you need to take home a bag of something from.
Branding is not a dark art, like interiors, it requires subtly and a deft hand to be part of the community. In this instance, that hand belonged to Elena and all of us that put the idea into motion.
