A Logo - Maybe

I watched a video workshop by Kay Fabella on branding. I've never been clear on the concept, and now I'm less unclear!

Kay strongly advised creating a tag line, a logo, and selecting fonts and a color palette to use consistently.

To come up with the tag line I thought about the book I spent the better part of last year writing and illustrating, Tales of Love and Courage from Milkweed Manor. It's a collection of stories about a group of animals living in the forest behind an old English manor house. The characters aren't doing, saying, or thinking anything that people wouldn't do, say, or think, yet for me, they absolutely have to be animals. I wouldn't have been interested in writing the same book with people as the characters. Once I realized that, I needed to understand why.

Well, my main message is that animals are not different from (and certainly not less than) people in that we're all sentient beings with emotions, thoughts, aspirations, and connections with others. Hence the tag line, "A Wider Love - we're not alone."

Then I turned my attention to the logo. This image came to me pretty quickly - the heart, the woodland creatures, and the natural color palette. And, of course, the tag line. It was really fun to do and I'm especially happy with the job I did on the animals. But it seems pretty complex. And pretty large.

So now the question remains: What do I do with it?

One other thing I should pass on from Kay's video is her emphasis on consistency. The value of it is people know what to expect from me, and can recognize my work.

All in all, the video was valuable, and I'm sure I'll find something to do with my logo!