Big Kahuna Ski and Snowboard Rental is a regional collection of ski and snowboard shops located in New Mexico. The reason for the rebrand was prompted by a change in ownership and an accompanying name change. The brand aims to communicate a fun, inviting personality using a Southwestern, artsy style.

From the very first conversation with the owner, the plan was to include a black bear, the state animal of New Mexico, as a focal point of the rebrand. We also discussed how mountain sports can take on a competitive, athletic edge or a more family-friendly, outdoor enthusiast approach and we agreed to focus on the latter.

They wanted the logo to feel fun and artistic like the town of Taos and the rebrand to feel familiar to the family-owned roots of their store. Audiences include families, vacationers, athletically geared, and those who casually enjoy outdoor sports.

When we reviewed the brand questionnaire, the owner said the vibe was Maui from Moana - talk about painting a great picture for what they were looking for! I took that inspiration and ran with it to create some of the brightest, funkiest, playful brand elements on record.

Preliminary Research

I really loved all three concepts for this client, so I’ll share a little more about the process.

This is actually the first time I have ever used AI to assist with the preliminary logo phase. From the get-go, I knew I wanted to explore a concept with an upright skiing bear. But a semester of figure drawing during undergrad mostly taught me that it’s not one of my skill sets.

So instead of trying to figure out how to use a photo reference of a person skiing and then that translate to the proportions for an upright bear, I used an Adobe Firefly to generate what that would look like so the bear itself would have accurate proportions and posture.

And to put it lightly - that was an AMAZING way to use this tool. Seeing a version of what I was imagining saved me hours in anatomy research and sketches. It also really opened my eyes to what I might be able to use AI to explore in the future.

The Logo Concepts

From there, I jumped into my standard three-logo approach. The key features for all of the concepts were: a black bear, a Hawaiian flair, a playful attitude, and appeal to a wide audience.

Within the three concepts, these are the three directions I wanted to highlight:

1. A closer crop of the bear with a face on view - this is what the client and I talked about the most, so this was my first priority. I also wanted a nod to the specific region, so I chose to have the goggles reflecting the Sangre de Cristo Mountain Range in Taos.

2. In order to really harness the full “Maui from Moana” vibe, I felt like we needed to see the full body of the bear. I LOVE how playful this one turned out. It’s lighthearted and goofy, which is exactly what we talked about for this brand.

3. I like to include an option that is a little less expected. It helps to move forward with your ideas with full confidence. It also provides a counter to the ideas you bring to the table just in case what you thought you wanted isn’t actually what you want. For this client, since the first two concepts are so playful, I wanted to provide something a little more classic so they could imagine how that would play out in their branding.

Logo Concept 1

Logo Concept 2

Logo Concept 3

Ultimately, they chose the first concept, which is the one closest to all the original ideas we discussed - which I LOVE! However, since they are a ski shop and will have a large variety of apparel, they requested to have access to the bear from Concept 2 as well.

More often than not, I will encourage choosing and using a single logo. But this is a perfect example of when variety will benefit the brand. The first two bears are fairly similar in style, so the second bear will be a great option for apparel and act as a compliment to the logo suite using the true brand mark, the bear from Concept 1.

This was a really different one for me, but I am so, so excited with how it turned out! I’ve loved asking for most of my life (it’s what brought me to Colorado back in 2009) so it goes without saying, a trip to Taos to see this shop in person just jumped to the top of my list!