Most of graphic designer’s first clients are family or friends. Everybody has a cousin who’s opening a business or a friend who wants a new webiste. My first piece of work to be used in the “real world” (meaning: not personal or academic works) was the logo for my parent’s restaurant, called Papas & Tapas (Papas is a portuguese “nickname” for food, and Tapas is a kind of spanish snacks). It’s a nice way to start getting used to work in real life situations, but it has some problems too: i find really hard to say “no” to my parents, so they (mis)lead my works 😛
That’s the final version of the logo:
I dont know why, but my parents fell in love with that font, ITC Bradley Hand, so i hade to use it. It is, in my humble opinion, a really bad typeface.
I would have used another handwriting font, like Jellyka’s Estrya, and i’d use colors in other way. This is a sketch of what the logo would be, if i decided by myself:
Better, isn’t it? Anyway, this kind of “co-design” is not very good for us, but i’m pretty sure every designer have an example of this, specially when dealing with family or friends. But it’s not such a bad logo after all: i still like the “half”-circles, and the shape of a dish they make. And the logo looks surprisingly nice at the restaurant window, in negative, made in vinyl. It looks something like this:
grey: translucent vinyl
white: cut-out of the logo, without any vinyl (therefore, just glass)
PS: the restaurant has excellent food and the interior is beautifully designed anyway 😀