Joules Logo - The Final One

Most of you would be expecting this blog to be about how the House Warming Ceremony went on, but sorry to disappoint you, I haven't got the photographs of the ceremony out yet, looks like it is going to take some more time. The picture that you see above is the finalized logo of Joules. (Planning to register it) There is a great amount of hard work and brain storming that has gone into finalizing the logo. Let me share it with you.

When we received the first batch of sample logos to consider (the ones that I shared with you), we were in a kind of confusion and didn't know what to actually look for in the logo. We were thinking that the logo should actually convey the message or the concept of Joules to certain extent and then the tag line should qualify it further. We spent couple of sessions seriously thinking as to what the logo should have and then after an exchange of few emails, we had clarity as to what we should look for in our logo or in fact any logo.

The purpose of a logo is primarily branding or representing our business and secondly to create recollection value. Look at the logo of Nike, the tick mark doesn't talk anything about shoes, nor does it convey any message, but why does our sub conscious mind relate it to Nike when we see it. The reason is the way the logo has been projected to represent the brand or otherwise simply branding and secondly, how quickly does our sub conscious mind relate it to Nike is dependent upon the extent of recollection value the logo has which could be anything from the uniqueness of the logo to the colors used in it. A couple of examples could be the Golden Arches of McDonald or the blue and red combinations used in Domino's logo.

Having agreed upon the above concept, we have decided to choose a logo that is simple, straight forward coupled with good color combinations. Off all the twenty odd basic designs we had, we tried to identify the best one basing on three parameters. One is which one of them appeals the most to a layman or common eye, secondly what color combinations should be used and why and finally what should be uniqueness in the logo which could be used over a period of time for brand reengineering.

We selected the above logo that you see for the following reasons. The font of the logo is Vag round and it is an appealing one and the design is straight with out any esoteric fundas into it which would require someone to apply brains to understand. We decided to use Green colour because in food industry it represents fresh and energetic food and the second color which is Saffron has been used because of its recollection value and finally the uniqueness of the logo is the cut that you see in the alphabet “J”. The idea is that over a period of time our advertisements would only carry the alphabet “J” with its cut and that would represent Joules.

Coming to the tag line, I felt the earlier tag lines that I designed didn’t have the punch that they need to carry, in a brain storming session me and Sridhar arrived at the one we finalized, “Count Your Calories”.

A lot of industry has been made to design the logo and the entire credit goes to Jitender who designed it for us. He has trenchant understanding of the concept, what a logo should have and what it shouldn’t and above all why and commendable patience.

Please let me know what you think of it.

House Warming Ceremony - You Are Invited

Idlis...Dosas.....And Some South Indian Coffee

I had to take time out of my hectic schedule to visit Vijayawada last Sunday. It was important because, I had to meet my sister in law's would be father in law, to agree upon a date for the marriage of their son and my sister in law. I originally planned it to be a one day trip, but my dad insisted that I stay back on Monday to attend some work that is important in view of my house warming ceremony scheduled on March 10th.

Two things that I do with out fail when ever I visit Vijayawada are hair cut and break fast at Executive Rest.

Immediately after I landed up at Vijayawada, I walked down to this barber shop near my place and made myself comfortable in one of the seats. A trim haircut followed by a relaxing head massage, with occasional doses of filmi gossip and enquiries about myself from this guy, Srinivas, whom you see above, made my saloon visit complete. When I finally told him that I wanted to take his picture he was all in smiles.

What followed after a refreshing head bath is my 15 minute ride to this place called Executive Rest. Thanks to Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the road that you see above is a part of the Swarna Chaturbhuji project that he kicked off. Driving on these roads is pleasure on any given day.

Executive Rest was opened way back in 1996. It actually is a part of a club called "Executive Club" and was originally started to cook and serve food to the club members. Later it was made into a restaurant. People flock this place for break fast although, the items are priced quite higher than compared to any other eatery.

Eating Idlis, dumped in a mixture of coconut and ginger chutney with occasional sips from the sambar bowl is a cullinary treat. My good friend Amar Singh keeps pulling my leg asking where I have my Idlis. Amar, did I answer your question?

This is the best of all their menu items, a green gram dosa or "Pesarattu" as it is originally called in AP. It is at its best at Executive Rest, especially with the ginger, green chilli and Jeera seasoning it comes with.

Break fast without Coffee is simply incomplete.

I made sure I visited this place on the second day also. Finally, for all those people who wonder, why food items are frequent topics in my blog, I am just relishing this experience of making one of my passions a reality. So, next time you drive through Vijayawada, you know where to break your fast, right?