DraftBrand · Chickens

The Great Chicken Logo Identity Crisis

The Pecking Order Diaries · Building a business, raising a family, and occasionally wondering what on earth I’ve gotten myself into.

We have actual chickens at our house. They have never once asked to be in a logo.

The one on our logo is an engraved hen standing next to a woven basket, with produce and greens, a milk can, and some botanical bits, all in an antique mercantile style. She looks calm. She did not get that way easily.

Here’s what I can tell you about the process.

I changed the chicken. Then I changed her again. Then I changed the basket she was standing next to, and the background behind both of them, and the farmhouse look around the whole thing.

I have learned that I have opinions about chickens. I want the hens and roosters to be the same size as each other. I want to be able to find the beak. I want wheat to look like wheat and not like a smear.

I have opinions about backgrounds, too. I didn’t want the logo to look like a sticker slapped on top of the design, and I didn’t want it floating small in the middle of a lot of empty room. I wanted it to look like it belonged there. Ideally in a frame.

I liked our older round badge, the green ring with the name curving around it. I also liked the newer hen and basket. So obviously the answer was to ask for both, at the same time, in one logo. At one point that meant a green ring, the hen and basket in the middle, gold leaves hanging over the edge, and a faint toile pattern behind them. I loved that one.

For the farmhouse look, I kept the quiet farmhouse still life, with soft window light and a worn, chipped backdrop. The big market canopies and the pickup truck did not make the cut.

If you’ve read the Our Story page, you already know I once stayed up until 2:30 a.m. yelling at a chicken graphic that wouldn’t cooperate. I’m not going to repeat that story. I’m just telling you I’m not over it.

I’m not telling you any of this because it’s useful. A grown woman who is also trying to start a food business has spent actual hours adjusting a hen, and I wanted you to know that going in.

And then there was Hennifer

And somewhere in the middle of all this chicken business, there was Good ol Helpful Hennifer Peckington.

Hennifer wasn’t one of our actual chickens. She was a character I dreamed up to be our virtual shopkeeper. (Henrietta was in the running for a while, but I wanted something punnier. I have standards.)

My idea was that she’d hang out with customers while they shopped, help them find things, make suggestions, and answer questions along the way. She could also share a little about our producers and help with recipes and food preservation.

Basically, I was planning to hire a chicken for customer service.

An imaginary chicken, at that.

And somehow, while trying to figure out how to start a food business, I had also managed to give myself the job of developing a chicken’s personality.

I still think Hennifer could be fun someday. But for now, she’s an idea, not an employee. 😂

She isn’t the logo, either. The logo chicken has plenty going on already.