Millstone Honey - Logo Development

The best image I found online of a Millstone was this drawing/etching. I decided to trace over the etching of the millstone, so I could try  and incorporate into a logo. Etchings can be very detailed and impressive, there are so many lines and dots. It is a process I would want to experiment with in the future, etching and woodblock are things I don't have much experience with.

After tracing over the image I scanned it in and vectorised it. I began playing around with the vector and placed some type around it in a circle, to represent some sort of emblem. After speaking to friends and class mates about the design, they weren't sure on it. They said it didn't properly represent honey in any way, which I agreed with. I did more versions and variations with the millstone etching and it's texture but nothing seemed to work. It was hard to part with because I really liked how the vector came out. I decided to play with the shape of bee hives and In illustrator I began making them. The shape was appealing and represented honey correctly but I wasn't sure on the look of the pen tool it was made with. Having something hand rendered for this honey brand is more ideal and gives off a better aesthetic and feel.

I liked the etching style, but it was hard to fit it in to other elements and hard to incorporate into something else. I went back to the drawing board and started drawing up new designs for logos. Putting millstones and hives together was one thing I tried to accomplish in the sketches but did't really succeed.

Through out all the sketches I started to draw different symbols that represented honey. I did some illustrations of bee's, honey sticks, millstones and mainly hives. I liked the idea of having a set of symbols as having one main illustration for the logo was not working out. Online I gathered various images of bees, honey sticks and hives. Printed them out, traced over the top of them and then scanned them in to see which ones were more effective. I used the image of different millstone patterns and traced over that too. 

-

Next I have to play round with the composition of these different elements and see what I can bring together. I need to design the labels for the honey jars.