I spoke with Thomas (Owner of Feline wild) and we discussed the personality of the business and what he wanted for the brand.
Thomas gave me some feedback, and a much clearer view of how we wanted his business to appear in the public eye.
1. He wanted the design the be striking, just like the wild cats he breeds. This means any thing I create should be instantly recognisable as Feline Wild, and should also help it to be set apart from other companies in the same business.
2. He wanted the design to be gender free. Tom spoke profusely how the cat breeding industry was very female orientated, and he wanted his brand to be approachable by both males and females. He went into detail about how the cat world was evolving, and with new part wild cat breeds being introduced there is a new male interest in the market.
3. He wants to really emphasise what makes these cats so different to all the other breeds of cat around. It is important that the bengal or savannah cat type are represented as best as they can. Many people purchase Savannah cats purely based on how similar some look to their wild ancestors, Servals. it is important to represent this correctly through produce a vector of the type of cat with the correct ear shaoe and placement, muzzle shape and coat details.
I began tracing over one of the images of Thomas' best male cat, in which I again began to play withe geometics. I thought that the use of geometric shapes enhanced the wildness of the brand, and also made it appear more striking which is what Thomas requested
I followed the main contours of Renoir's face (male cat) to create the geometric shapes which would act as shadows, and also as shapes in which the dark colours were concentrated on his face.
I drew this idea up properly in black pen, I scanned the drawing into illustrator. I drew over the image in illustrator and added a couple of extra details, such as the white glints in the eye, this made the cat look less dangerous and took away the dead eye look seen in the drawing above.
When I added the extra details, I also tried to work on the shape of the centre of the face, adjusting the contours of the muzzle and forehead lines to create a slight visual of a heart in the centre of his face. Again I wanted to emphasise that the cats are wild, however also give a nod to the reality that although they are part serval or asian leopard cat, they are just as domesticated as any other breed.
I then started to play around with the logo and colour, adding a second layer with the same image, using a different colour to the top layer. I chose the orange colour as it was in the same kind of pallet as the colours of a servals fur boasting sand, ochre and gingery shades. I also had a look at name placement. In the idea below I have placed the name underneath the servals head hugging the contours of its chin. I feel that having the text in a half circle shapes, which ressembles the visual of a smile, makes a subtle link to the breed being friendly.
Below I have taken the same image and gotten rid of the orange under layer. I felt that the orange layer underneath added a too much of a reference to the wild side of the cats. I took this away, and played around more with title placement. By splitting the name in two as seen below, I found the merge looked much more powerful, and easy to read.
Finally happy with the logo I had so far, I began to see what it would look like in context on a business card. Below i did some experimentations with photography. For the first I took a simple landscape image of Africa, this is where the serval first orginated from. However I felt that when I combined the photography and illustration it tended to cheapen the overall look. Although the cats in which Thomas' cats are derived from originally come from Africa, the below image really has no bearing on Thomas' cats, therefore I moved on.
Next I introduced a new texture, I feel that the implementation of a texture, done here through craft paper adds a sense of care, friendliness and a humble persona to a piece. It also gives the brand that homegrown edge, that most small companies has. Thomas' looks after every single one of him cats himself with no help from employees. He feeds and cleans the cats daily, and has built them a special set up in his own home. I tried to pair this with an image that accentuated the wild side of the Savannah by using an element which made them so special, their spotted fur. However, again, I didn't think that the use of photography added anything to the design, and that the outcome was going to be truer to Thomas' brand by only using illustration.
Below is another idea I had where I tried to implement the idea that although the cats are wild they are very much so domesticated. The design takes the components of the one above which I believe wroked well (illustration and texture) which is then over laid on top of some illustrations of cat toys. This mimics the idea that these part wild cats still have the behavourial expressions of traditional pet cats. I wanted to make sure that within the brand we were not scaring possible customers away by making the brand seem to wild.
Now that I was happy with the direction I was taking, I sent the logo to the client to gather his thoughts, and see if there was any guidance he could give to me.
Thomas really liked the logo, and how I had taken one of the best cats from his family, and create a striking geometric illustration. However as a cat expert, Thomas noticed somethings wrong with the aesthetic of the cat, which for me, went under the radar. Although the cat appeared to look like one of the cats from his own, he wanted to focus more on the look of the cat he was trying to achieve.
The things that he asked me to change were:
- Make the ear shape less pointy. Higher generation Savannah cats have rounder ear tops, and they are less pointy.
- Change the position of the ears, place these more on top of the head, rather than coming off at an angle. Servals and savannah cats ears tend to stand straight on top of their heads. It is what makes them distinguishable.
- Make the eyes slightly smaller. In comparison to many other cats the serval/savannah cats have small eyes. They look this way because other features such as their muzzle and ears are so big.
Above it can be seen the changes which I made to the previous illustration.
I sent this new image to Thomas and he was much happier with the outcome, stating that the illustration was an artwork of what he was aiming for his actual cats to look like in his breading process. Now that I had got the shape of the face right I questioned how the logo would look if it were to be coloured in. I was inspired by an illustration I saw online which featured a giraffe, which had been cut into lots of geomtric shapes, and coloured in.
I found these geometric images to be very striking and offered a sense of uniqueness to a regular illustration. This could take my illustration from a geometric inspired outline, to something bold, and fascinating which will turn heads. I also enjoyed how much character the application of these shapes and colours added the the animals giving them personality and making them appear more animate and friendly.
I sectioned up the illustration I had done of the savannah cat into different geometric shapes. I tried to keep the illustration as symmetric as possible as I thought that this would make the geometric aspect look much cleaner and neater. I created specific sections to use as highlights and others to use as shadows.
Once I had done this, I selected my colour pallet by picking a range of colours from a photography of a serval. This is so that I would only be using true to life and honest colours that would represent a Serval cat.
The final product coloured in:
Next I experimented with different variations of business cards, playing with both the coloured, and black and white versions of the illustrations I had created, the textured craft paper, and a small illustration I had created combining a cat foot print with bengal and savannah spots.
I sent the designs to Thomas and he deiced that his favourite to use would be the middle design. This was also my favourite, as I felt it was the most powerful and unusual of the three. I have agreed to digitally print the first 50 cards for Thomas, whom I will then give the business card design to so that for future use he can order new sets of the business cards online.
FINAL DESIGN.
After seeing the business cards Thomas prescribed to me that he wanted the folder to have almost the exact same aesthetic to make the branding elements consistent.
When I asked him what he wanted from the folder he provided me with some details:
- The folder has to be larger than a4 as it will be holding a4 documents.
- The folder could have delegated areas which could hold the business card, so that when a folder is given out to customers, contact details are in easy reach too.
- A possible place in which a picture of the mum and dad of the kitten bought could be placed, as customers are often interested to see what the father and mother of their new cat looks like, however they may not always be housed at the same cattery.
With an aesthetic already created via the business cards, the main thing I had to figure out was how the folder would function, and house all of Thomas' wants above.
I started sketching how I could fit all of the above elements into one folder, when I came of with a simple fold and slotting mechanism. A Slightly larger than a4 folder which opens and closes like a regular book. The bind of the folder would just be a simple fold.
The front of the folder looks exactly like the front of the business cards, all white with the logo in the middle.
When opened, the inside right hand page has two flaps, one on the horizontal bottom edge and one on the right hand side vertical edge, when folded in these slot together to create a pouch like form to keep the documents in place.
The bottom horizontal folded piece will have two slots in which the business card will be placed, so that this is visible as soon as the folder is opened. The right vertical folded piece will house 4 slots (2 sets of 2) one under the other to house photos of both the mother and father of the cat.
I created a model of the folder design to check all the points I had covered were functional.
Once I found that the folder design worked I got started on the digital design.
As I had already covered the outside design (plain white with logo in centre) I worked on how the folder would appear from the inside.
I could the flaps on the outside edges with the same craft paper texture used for the business cards to keep consistency. The reason I selected these parts to be coloured in as craft paper was because I thought that this would contrast nicely with the bright white of the business card. The combination of the two together, would also be a direct reflection of the business card aesthetic. I labelled the photograph slots so that the customer would not get confused between which cat was the father and which cat was the mother.
I kept the left hand side inside page simple as the right hand side was quite busy (Images of cats, business card slot and documents). However I did want to somehow reiterate the friendly and welcoming nature that Thomas wanted to project through his company. To do this a created a combination of text, with the previous paw and spots pattern I had created. The message reads 'Congratulations! on finding the perfect addition to your family.' I felt that by associating the new cat as a family member, this would create a bond between Thomas and the new pet owner. Thomas regularly keeps in touch with those who have bought cats from him. He hand rears all the cats as his own until they leave his care, and so he enjoys hearing back from the new owners and hearing how they and their new family member are getting on.
The final branding elements:
- Logo.
-Business cards.
- Folder.
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