For the redesign of Dog Lane Cafe, our goal is to represent them in a way that was rooted in their original designs but just modernize it and make it fresh. After we had an in-class discussion about ways to distinguish the logo to make it look more like a cafe and not a pet shop, I decided to make the typical green street sign as my main inspiration. I put so much effort in making sure it is properly designed to look like it's a cafe: I shoved in the slogan ‘come. sit. stay’ and added the established date into the logo. I bolded the heading font to ensure that the ‘Dog Lane’ stands out. I added borders to establish the street sign look.
Initially, I feel like I did a solid design. My gut feeling was telling me that it is perfect the way it is. However, it is only a gut feeling... An emotional feeling that is “defined by individuals, not companies, markets or the public.” As stated in Marty Neumeier’s The Brand Gap: How to Bridge the Distance Between Business Strategy and Design, “it’s not what you say it is. it’s what they say it is.” An effective design cannot be solely analyzed from one perspective. It is also important to ask for input from others, as we ourselves can often miss our own mistakes.
From the article, there’s two types of thinkers: Creative thinker and strategic thinker. As a creative thinker, I often let feelings and emotions take control over my work. I often evaluate work in terms of aesthetic and not practicality, which can sometimes be a problem. However, as stated by Neumeier, “when both sides work together, you can build a charismatic brand.” Other peers in the class who are strategic think they can pinpoint certain elements that aren't that practical or logical. For example, some classmate commented on how there’s so much stuff going on in my logo, which can be distracting and can take away from the design. They comment and criticize certain things that work and don't work in both mine and Ari’s design. The whole class comes together like an integrated marketing team, coming up with different suggestions and ideas.
We decided to combine both of our ideas. I decided to remove the slogan and established date to further simplify the logo. We kept the dog line art that I made and stuck with the font that Art used for her design since a majority of the classes prefer that typeface. We also modified the shape of the street sign adding a bump on the top of the sign, which is inspired by the bump of the paws in Ari’s rough design. This bump also gave enough space to put in the dog line art. We eventually create mockups, redesign their website, and overall give them an updated version of their brand.
