It's been a while since I've shared any behind-the-scenes work. I love writing case studies, but they're time consuming and, like me, usually a bit delayed. This project is old enough now that I can't remember everything I wanted to write about.

I've decided to focus on a single aspect of the overall brand for this case study. Let's dive into Twinnies' custom wordmark and how we landed on a hand-drawn design.

Background

Alex, a designer, and Peter, a chef, are brothers. In fact, they're twin brothers. Hence the name.

Alex, reached out to me about helping brand their new "modern Peanut Butter & Jelly business" on April 2. I mention the date because it also happens to be National PB&J Day — I kid you not. It felt like a sign.

Alex had done a lot of research. Nearly every moodboard image he shared with me had a very strong Hideout vibe. The fact that he sought me out carried a lot of weight and his direction was on point. I wanted this project.

We quickly came to terms. Naturally, my first priority was procuring some of these sammies. Alex and Peter shipped me a box of their most recent batch. In a word: deliciousness.

I'm not just saying it. These things are the real deal. They're kind of like Uncrustables, but for adults. The flavors hit you immediately and even though I had to Google words like "Yuzu" and "Houjicha," I knew I'd struck gold.

<aside> 🍋 Yuzu, is a citrusy fruit, not unlike a lemon. It was the standout and remains my favorite flavor.

</aside>

An early batch from the brothers Twinnies. I love the research phase of my job.

Wordmark

We worked on some additional moodboards and honed in on illustration style. I spent a lot of time on packaging and colors. Even as those began to come together, the wordmark struggled.

I woke up one night with an idea and scribbled it down on my phone. I've written about this method before. Instagram Stories FTW!

The two "bodies" resembled a pair of N's which would have worked perfectly in a wordmark. It was so so so hard for me to give this concept up.

In the end, I think I romanticized this version a little too much. I was never able to make it click the way I wanted to. It ended up having some legibility issues: the weight and kerning were problematic, not to mention one of the letters was backwards. Below, I'll share the progress from sketch to vector so you can see how earnestly I tried to get this idea to work.

There are a lot of fun sketches that ended up working for the final brand.

The bros high-fiving, for example, is another piece I carried throughout the entire project.

I took a Grotesque approach first, but didn't love the way the S differed so much from the N's.

I thought a lighter weight would scale better, especially if I figured out an icon.

I thickened it back up at the request of the client. I also wanted the N's to be in the center of the mark, which led to some interesting ligatures. I still really dig that third option.

As I started mocking it up, we became more convinced something had to give. This system didn't quite work — the type was in competition w/ each other, the colors weren't very appealing, etc.

I got a little closer with type — we used New Kansas, one of my favorites in the Adobe library — and experimented with colors. The wordmark still wasn't working, so I decided to ditch the idea completely.