Logo for Gonzo Zen Massage Studio

Project:  Logo
Client: Gonzo Zen Massage Studio, Shane Vanlandingham
Location: San Francisco, CA
Tools:  Photoshop, Flash, flip phone photography
Backstory: Gonzo Zen Massage studio is the latest from Shane Vanlandingham, the owner of the greatest last name in the history of my friends. He’s a singer of show tunes, a lover of life, and a professional party-er. Oh yeah, and he received a certification from the National Holistic Institute and is now licensed to touch people and make them feel good for a living. If you are ever near Temple Nightclub / Ki Sushi on Howard Street in San Francisco, go on upstairs and check yourself in for a deeply needed drooling session.

The logo design was preconceived by the client. His passionate imaginary love affair with everything Hunter S. Thompson was the foundation for everything here. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas introduces Dr. Gonzo to the public masses. Shane let me kow that Dr. Gonzo had his own logo, featuring a hand with 2 thumbs holding a peyote button.

 

I started drawing a hand, open palmed, much like this, but with the fingers extended. I had a little bit of difficulty making it look real, true to life, and human. So I took a picture of Shane’s hand with the Lebron James phone, imported it to my computer via bluetooth, and traced it. I then took the thumb and copy/pasted it and flipped it horizontally to create the visual we were looking for. Keeping up with the theme of Hunter S. and Gonzo, I found some Ralph Steadman style fonts on the internet. I needed to find 2 sets of like fonts since “Gonzo Zen” features repeat letters on the o, n, and z and we couldn’t have them look the same, now could we?. To top things off, we added a lotus flower symbol to the palm in lieu of the peyote button to represent love and healing. Best of luck to you brother. Flynn love Shane.

Logo Design executed with excellence by DoggHouse Productions in collaboration with Shane Vanlandingham and Gonzo Zen Massage Studio. That’s how the pro’s do it!