OUGD503 / RESPONSIVE: Studio Brief 1 : Feline Wild Cattery - Initial designs.

I found these minimalist/ clever logos to be quite effective, and thought that they were a great way of expressing a business to be both friendly and fun, but also serious about the business that they do. I began considering how I could adhere this visual to the company I was working with.

I looked into working with the initials of the name of the company FW (Feline Wild) and how I could incorporate the cat motif into these initials. I started sketching and the idea I came up with is shown below:

Here I have tried to incorporate the cat shape in between the F and W using the negative space. However I found in the second sketch that although a cat could be placed in this negative space, it wasn't true to the brand. The cats which are bred at this cattery have specific attributes, a long body, large ears and long legs, which cannot fit into this space, and therefore is inappropriate for the company.

A second idea I had was also using the negative space of the letters to produce a visual image, however for this one I had to alter the Initials to be upside down. Although I felt that this design worked better than the first one, I didn't like that the logo was now, less easy to read.  The whole idea of a logo is to create a small piece of visual communication to represent the company and so it us important to produce something that is clear.

I sketched up a new idea which also worked off of the idea of minimalism. Taking an image of a serval's face I traced over the most important and recognisable parts such as the large ears and tear stained eyes.  

I then scanned this in and image traced it, i tried a few different combinations of the image and company initials/name however I didn't particularly think any of them truly represented the brand or the product well. 

I tried a couple of different combinations shown above where I intertwined the Initials of the company with the image in two different formats. I felt that the logo was just too plain, and did not emphasize the wild roots and origins that the Savannah and bengal cats have. I also realised it was beginning to look a lot like the WWF logo. 

I wanted my logo to stand out and not confuse the public, by looking like it was associated with an organisation such as the WWF. 

to solve this issue I started to think about how the logo could work in a business card format. I took the original image and created a geometric outline around it. I found that the new geometric shape made the design appear more wild. However within this design, I didn't really know where to place any reference to the companies name.

I tried the image in yet another design, I gave the cat a slight hint of the spotted coats on Savannah and Bengal cats to help it appear more wild, however I wanted to emphasise within this the actuality that although the cats have wild roots, they are still a domestic animal. Meaning that they are not dangerous and are just as lovable as regular domestic cats. Keeping a similar theme to above I again surrounded the image with a geometric shape, this time in a heart so reinstate the affection of these part wild cats.

However I still did not like the design and felt very stuck, therefore Instead of carrying on a losing battle I decided to go away and re-assess the brand.