Mr. Bone’s makes some of the best BBQ in Austin, which you can then extrapolate to mean he makes some of the best BBQ in the world.

Working with the team at NuArtisan, the goal was to create something iconic and memorable.

As he starts up a new business, he wanted an old-school, ornate logo, featuring himself as one of the prominent elements. There were a few other design challenges to be dealt with as well:

• Needed to clearly be Texas, and preferably Austin
• Sunglasses needed to be shaded
• Eventually, he needed a hat and a mustache and a bigger smile
• Eventually, his hair would have to be salt & pepper

What made all of this difficult was not having any additional photos. No shots of him with a hat, with him smiling or with him sporting a mustache. So everything had to be done more freehand than I’m used to doing when presenting a likeness.

My first directive was to give Mr. Bone’s a Kangol style hat. I did a significant amount of research, looking for hats of that particular style, and seeing what they looked like from all different angles. Mr. Bone’s was in a very specific pose, so a straight-forward shot of such a hat wouldn’t fit nor would it be distinctive enough. Initial tests showed it looking more like the top of a mushroom than a hat.

Once I had the Kangol hat down, I played with different backdrops – the goal was to convey Texas, barbecue and Austin, in that order. I played with a simple circular backdrop, but that didn’t have enough spice. I turned that into the shape of Texas, but eventually realized the best bet was to combine the concepts of barbecue and Texas into one element: a grill shaped like Texas.

Mr. Bone’s wanted a different style of hat, something more like a typical fitted baseball cap, and wanted a version in color which showed off his salt & pepper hair, and a bit more of a smile than he initially had in the original photo.

The final color version is below, though I personally like the black & white version more myself. I think it has a classic feel too it that goes well with the idea of Texas BBQ: