My little brother, Cory called me a few months ago and said "Jack, I need you to design a kick-ass logo for Loochfest, I want it to incorporate a pig and a guitar." And that was it, that was his vision. Last year Loochfest was a small gathering of family and friends out at my bonus dad's* house so I didn't take it very seriously plus I had real work to do. I put it off and put it off and finally (because when I procrastinate it eats at my soul) I called Cory and asked why it was such a big deal this year. We had a good conversation about his intentions for the event. Apparently, he wanted it to grow from a 20-30 person family gathering to a 300+ person charitable music festival. He wanted to charge for tickets so he could donate the money to a local organization that would benefit veterans. He felt like having a solid logo would make the event seem more legit. After our conversation his need for a logo made more sense. I asked my kids if they had any ideas and they immediately came up with a "piguitar". With that I was instantly inspired. Moments later the piguitar was born in my sketchbook. It was pretty rough at first. Once I took it into adobe illustrator and cleaned it up it started to shine. I ran into a little bit of a creative block when it came to the font. Nothing was working. The piguitar needed a handrawn playful font but nothing too decorative or whimsical. I finally found a great font on Behance called Chomp. The font was created by William Suckling of Camberwell, United Kingdom. It was exactly what I needed and with a few adjustments it completed the design. For the colors I went to my favorite source of inspiration, Adobe Kuler and tried out a few different color themes, finally settling on a combination of vintage colors that worked out perfectly. I finished up the logo and Cory was impressed, I think I exceeded his expectations. I'm sure he'll be a return client, especially because he gets design services at the family rate.

The day of the event rolled around last week. When I arrived with my family there was quite a crowd! There was a stage set up with sponsor banners, a multiple band line up featuring reputable bands from all over North Carolina, to include Cory's own bands. Awesomely delicious pork bbq was being served up around the clock with a spread of beans, coleslaw and a few other backwoods selections.

I'm looking forward to next year's event! Apparently my little brother knows how to throw a party.
And now that we've got the logo down, it's time to come up with some Loochfest swag!

I can't forget to mention, all proceeds from this event went to the Randolph County Chapters AMVETS Post 905 & The VFW.

Here are a few not so great photos I snapped with my iPhone. I didn't have my camera with me. My husband wanted me to "relax" and enjoy the event. Attending Loochfest without my camera made me realize that it's really hard to enjoy an event when I'm not behind a camera!

*I should probably define bonus dad because it's going to come up quite a bit in my blog posts. Here's a quick back story.. Jim is my mom's ex husband. However, they were married for my entire childhood, he raised me. At the same time my dad has also always been in the picture and we've always had a strong bond, I love him. I love them both... I have two dads. My dad Dan, and my bonus dad Jim.