Podcast Logo

'The Chucker's Aim'

Procreate + Adobe Illustrator

Mike Oncley

I was asked to create a logo for a comedy podcast about the stock market. The terms "Bull" and "Bear" are common lingo within the stock market so a classy, yet cartoony, bull was requested to symbolize the podcast. I was given some very broad examples and asked to get inspiration from that.

I came up with 9 sketches mixing the look of the bull, the composition, and the action going on. I particularly liked the top-middle, top-right, and bottom-middle for their potential, once refined a little. Sadly those three were not chosen to move forward, the client liked the top-left and middle-right, both of which stuck with the original theme.

After sketching bit more, I just wasn't feeling the chair fit in the overall composition. It either took up too much space or made our bull too small in the frame. I focused on the standing bull and the dart board. A few revisions later, the bull started to slim down and become a little more inviting. He was also made slightly younger looking with the updated eyewear and better fitting suit(below).

The client responded with a request for a slimmer, "Mad Men meets Tex Avery" styled character(see Pins above) for the bull. As I drew more and wanted to give options to the client, I showed him these variants on facial expressions(below) and he responded with,

"I love that there's two of them, just like the podcast! Let's keep that."

So now I'm working with two bulls! (below)

Next, I began doing the line work over my original sketch. Once the lines were down I began coloring it in in Illustrator and adding text.

It wasn't until after the final draft was complete and submitted that I got word that the podcast name would be changing from "Throwing Darts" to "The Chucker's Aim". A new version was laid out and exported. The shape of the letters was actually beneficial for the new logo since the word "Aim" fits better between the bulls than a much larger "Darts".