Have you ever heard of the term amuse bouche? According to the Michelin Guide, “the term ‘amuse bouche’ is French for “mouth amuser”— think complementary little bites that chefs send to diners at the start of their meal.” Chefs spend hours, days, and sometimes years crafting little nuggets of goodness to showcase their skills and whet the appetites of their diners. Think of it like a sneak-peek of what is to come.
I’ve always felt like the logo of a brand is similar to an amuse bouche: a sneak-peek into what the brand has to offer, whether it’s a clothing line, electronic store, or website. It can be as concise and basic as the Nike swish, or complex with multiple colors and images.
When I first began blogging years ago, I never considered creating a logo. I had a hobby-style blog to keep my mom updated with my adventures in Europe, with no thought of advertising, marketing, or collaborating. Since I didn’t have internet every day in Germany, my blog was a place I could compile all of my stories and essentially let my mom know when I country-hopped, without having to post daily. I used a free platform (Blogger) and had a horrible-looking background with low-quality photos of the most random things. Looking back, it’s a great indicator of how far I’ve come (and how far I still have to go) in the blogging world.
I then spent the better part of a year reading blogs and familiarizing myself with certain solo female travel bloggers, completely blown away by their writing style, photography skills, and clean-cut websites. The seed was planted in my mind and it didn’t take long to grow into my first self-hosted blog, The Mormon Adventurista.
I loved that blog and wrote as much as I could, between work, church and family responsibilities, and everything else I had going on. I revisited stories from my previous blog and rewrote stories in a more entertaining and descriptive way, taking full advantage of my newfound knowledge of SEO and keywords. I reformatted pictures so they were a little easier to view, had better descriptions, included meta descriptions, and removed weird filters where I could (for some reason I thought taking pictures with a filter was a good idea…not only was it NOT a good idea, but it made editing said pictures near impossible).
After creating the blog and having a good amount of posts written about travel, I started to consider creating a logo. I was learning more about marketing, networking, and wanted to have business cards to hand out. You know, something tangible to help get my name out there. But I was stuck.
I didn’t know what my logo should be. The name of the blog, The Mormon Adventurista, was directed at me…so should the logo include a part of my profile? I’m known for wearing extremely bright sunglasses, so should that be part of it? What type of font should I use? How much color?
I started to play around with a few ideas, never really settling on a single concept. I couldn’t figure out what the deal was and was stumped. Here I was, trying to be taken seriously as a blogger…and yet I knew I couldn’t theoretically promote my blog without a logo.
To compensate for not having a logo, and as a way to take up a little more space at the top of my blog’s home page, I came up with the tagline “adventure is never far away…” because I wanted to write about how you don’t have to travel far for an adventure.
Simple, yet effective and it took up enough space at the top of my home page for me to sleep at night. But I still had no idea what to do about the logo.
But that tag line kept finding its way to the forefront of my mind. I started exploring more in my own backyard and writing about places close by that people had no idea about, or never considered visiting.
Then, during the second half of 2018, a few major events occurred in my life and I started to look at my blog from a different angle. I started thinking a few years down the road and what I wanted to accomplish. Did I want to still have a blog? Yes, but why?
Was I just writing for myself, or was I wanting to help inspire other people to get out and have adventures? Yes, that seemed more like it.
But instead of trying to spread the message of anyone can travel (because I know it can be a hot/sensitive topic for a lot of people), I want to show others how they can have adventures anywhere – it just takes a different type of mindset. I wanted to have a platform where I can share my adventures in my own backyard and around the world. I wanted to be able to create step-by-step guides to having adventures, no matter where people are in life or in the world. I truly believe that you don’t have to travel far to have an adventure.
So I decided to take the plunge and go through a complete rebranding. Although I no longer go by the moniker The Mormon Adventurista, I decided to pinch my tagline as my main platform identity…and so “Adventure is Never Far Away” was officially born! I finally understood why I was having such a hard time creating a logo – I wasn’t finished figuring out what my blog was going to be about!
I moved everything over to my new website and got to work on conceptualizing a logo. I spent hours analyzing logos from brands that I admired: I took note of colors, considered how “busy” they were, how well they transferred over to other platforms on social media, and how well they conveyed the message of the brand.
Through the process of researching other brands, I realized that I not only wanted to create a logo, but something with which I could build my brand and grow. What that looks like, I’m not sure yet. I just knew that I needed something versatile and inclusive.
Always a kid at heart, I automatically think of a treasure map anytime I hear the word “adventure.” A treasure map leads the person holding it towards an adventure. Towards something desirable, whatever that may be.
Not all treasure is silver and gold, mate.
Johnny Depp – Pirates of the Caribbean
As soon as I considered a rebranding, I knew that I wanted to incorporate a treasure map concept in my logo, including an “X-marks-the-spot” visual. I also knew that I needed different travel and adventure elements included in the logo, without overdoing it.
And after working with a designer, the Adventure is Never Far Away logo was created and I couldn’t be happier. The focus of the logo is an island with a treasure map-like pathway, waves, a palm tree at the base of mountains, with a border running around the island, representing a highway (since I just LOVE road trips). And since I’m known for my love of bright colors, I made sure to include 2 splashes of bright colors: red and green.
I love my logo. I can’t stop staring at it and will often burst out in a random fit of giggles out of pure joy. I have some hopes and dreams for the future of my brand and now that I have secured a unique logo that I love and can stand by, the sky is literally the limit for me!
