Here we go! The first foray into the logo challenge. Fortunately, I got a pair with a lot of possibilities. When I was creating the "Logo Challenge" logo, one of the combinations spit back out to me by the random word generator was "Hook Rape." Thank goodness I was not given a similar combo. (And I shudder to think how I'll work through one of those in the future.)


Anyway, Tender Drive. Both of those words have several meanings behind them. For "tender", there is the adjective form of being gentle with somebody, and there is the noun form of the shape that chicken can come in. "Drive" has a ton of options. We could be talking about driving a car, the initial hit of a golf ball, or somebody's initiative in getting stuff done.

One of the first ideas I had was that Tender Drive could be an Uber-like service for old people. After all, old people need extra care getting in and out of vehicles! The logo would have been pink and maybe have a crochet-like border. But the more and more I thought about it ("What about male riders...?"), the more and more I didn't like the idea.

When I asked my wife about it, the word "tender" made her immediately jump to chicken tender. And as huge fans of TV's Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, she suggested that Tender Drive be a diner-like restaurant that Guy Fieri would visit in one of his episodes. Obviously, they specialize in chicken tenders. BBQ chicken tenders, lemon pepper chicken tenders, buffalo chicken tenders. Think Buffalo Wild Wings meets Denny's.

I don't know about you, but I think Tender Drive would DEFINITELY take us on a trip to FlavorTown!


(Yes, I have used this GIF before. No, I have no shame in recycling it forever.)

Anyway, because I picture it being a drive-in like place, I wanted at least part of the logo to contain something that denoted the road, so I chose a street sign for the word "drive". Fun fact: I used the official highway road font, which is called "Highway Gothic". Other fun fact: the U.S. Department of Transportation changed the font from Clearwater to Highway Gothic in early 2016.


Of course, I wanted to have a tender in the logo, too. My wife thinks it looks like a state, specifically the state of Kentucky. I am thoroughly insulted.


...okay, maybe she has a point. She suggested texturizing it in a way that looks more like a tender. I agree this would be a good idea... if I was an Adobe Illustrator savant. I suppose I could try learning, but it would take me literally days. And I'm trying to have fun with this project, not banging my head against the wall about a little bit of tender breading.

We settle on the compromise of adding a sauce cup. That I can do. With a little help from the 3D revolve tool, creating the sauce cup isn't all too difficult.

The only thing I'm not wild about is the font for "Tender". I spent a solid hour browsing through fonts online and just couldn't find anything. Oh well. Again, if I was taking this super, super seriously, we'd be here for days. And as I type these words, I have a baby trying to fall asleep on my arm. Priorities, people!

That's about it for this first logo challenge. I am eager to see where the rest of this year takes me. I guess I failed to mention that I'm going to attempt this challenge for at least the 2017 calendar year. If I enjoy it enough, I might just extend it beyond. We'll see. Hope you enjoyed the first post in this series!