Yesterday, I spent some time deciding how Lost Biscuit’s name should appear and where I might put an ewillys logo.

Building the Logo

The simpler of the two items to create was the eWillys logo ‘sticker’.  I took an EPS version of the eWillys logo, increased the size in photoshop and then applied it to the jeep.  You can see in the first image below, which is entirely a photoshop mockup, that it works pretty well.

However, when I increased the logo further, printed it out, and placed a paper version on the jeep, the logo appears washed out.  I think I need to embolden the eWillys name to give it a darker appearance when printed.  The actual sticker will be stuck to a thin plate (probably an aluminum plate made from a street sign which i can pick up cheaply at my local metal recycler).  That makes attaching the logo, and getting it positioned correctly, easier.

Finally, after staring at it over the last few minutes, I have decided to put some more white space above the logo itself — it feels too crowded at the top.  So, I’m going to center the logo a little more within the ellipse.

Creating Lost Biscuit’s name

Creating the Lost Biscuit name was more of a challenge, mostly because I needed to settle on a font.  I knew I did not want a pure san-serif font (think arial, helvetica fonts), because I felt that would be too angular and void of personality.  I didn’t want too much of a serif font (think Times or Garamond), as that would be too formal.

No, I needed something slightly modern and slightly whimsical, which is how I settled on an italicized Tekton Pro. After experimenting, I also decided to go with all capital letters (and increasing the size of the letters L and B) as it I thought it worked better visually.

In image 1, the photoshopped image, the size looks just about right.  I tried it in black, but decided white worked the best.  In the second image, I printed and cut out the letters, leaving small strips of paper to keep the letters connected.  Unfortunately, after all the work of cutting out the letters, I decided that 4″ tall letters were too tall.  So, I dropped the letters to 3 1/2″, which I think will work well (to be tested very soon). Once I finalize the design, I’ll head to a local graphics shop and have them made.

Sunday was a perfect day temperature-wise to take Biscuit out for a long test run into the Boise Foothills.

Of course, It took all of about 5 minutes into the hills before the engine overheated.  For some reason the auto temp sensor wasn’t turning on the electric fans.  So, using some extra wire i had, I wired up the fan directly to the electrical system, which bypasses the temperature sensor.

After resolving that issue, it took all of another 5 minutes before we hit a gate that wouldn’t open until May 15 … sigh.

So, I drove back down the hill, through town, and tried a different access road that’s on the East Side of Downtown Boise. This time, we found some trails!!  We even found some difficult enough terrain to engage four wheel drive and low range.

After an hour of driving, we found ourselves at the top of a pass and made a left, tackling some more difficult terrain.  We eventually hit some snow and figured that without a winch, turning back was the smart option.  When we got to the pass, I made a left and headed down the other side of the mountain.

As I managed to leave the map at home, we were travelling slightly blind, so we depended heavily on serendipity.  Eventually, we found ourselves at one of two tributaries to Lucky Peak Reservoir.  Because the lake is low, we could actually drive along the reservoir, which is where these pics were taken.

Instead of heading back over the canyon road, I took the highway back to Boise, which meant Biscuit got to drive at 55 for an extended length of time.  All in all it was a successful trip!  Here are some pics from the day’s adventure.