Logo Variations - Laptop Cat Publishing Logo - Live Brief

Using the grid sketches I replicated this on Illustrator, the design appeared more like the style I wanted to achieve. It appeared bold, stylish and exciting, offering something professional yet independent. The fact it uses bold shapes means it will be far more visible on the spine of a book and almost striking. Since the content of his books are sometimes quite dark, the cat offers something perhaps slightly menacing. He also enjoys chess and the design of the logo reflects the shape of a chess piece in some ways. It was important to add something more personal about the author within the logo, as he is self-publisher and it is important to convey to other authors and publishers that working with him is less about money and more about a personal and creative experience.

I then began to experiment with using different styles of eye shape of the cat, since the original shape of the eyes was quite striking I wanted to try a few 'cuter' approaches. These did have a more sweeter appearance, however it was considered that they would be less visible on the spine of a book. The client also suggested that the original eyes worked far better with the overall design.

I also experimented with how the logo would look with different coloured backgrounds. For example if the background was yellow, how the logo would work against this. It is still very striking and it shows the white outline isn't necessary. I also experimented with how the logo could look on a black background, with full white shape. This seemed to work well and perhaps would more bold than just the white outline. However, by inverting the eyes this didn't work so well and would need some more development to not appear so jarring.

Another idea I had was to create the design as if the cat had been folded, like a book. Because the cat was made on a grid it has a bisecting line through the center. Using this I made half a dark shade of grey, showing some implication of shade. For one of the experiments I also changed the face of the cat so the ears were directly diagonal. This did make the face appear book-like, but at the same time it also became too constructed and disconcerting. The author preferred the design where the face of the cat appeared simpler and less like a book. I believe this is for the best as the design is busy enough with the laptop, not needing to introduced the book shape too.