Logo Design: iRescueRover

Hot Diggity Dog Premium Pet Pampering, LLC is a high end customized pet care and dog walking service which will soon release a line of clothing merchandise for iRescueRover.org. They needed a logo that will be featured in their first shirt that will launch the line and brand the company. Subsequent t-shirt designs will have the logo embroidered on each shirt in a more discreet way (for example, on the sleeve). Here are the specifications of the client:

1. One t-shirt design to highlight the logo itself. The client envisions a bronzed leafed sheriff type star as part of the logo, with the star placed central and large for the t-shirt. DO NOT Let this limit your vision however. The launching t-shirt might feature a huge star on the t-shirt front.
   
2. An image of a dog integrated or central to your design. Suggestions: a mutt, the painted dog of Africa or a Greyhound image –may be abstract, artsy, beautiful, hip, cool or high end. Any domestic or endangered dog may be used.
   
3. An image of a cat, domestic or endangered with the wording "iRescuekitty.org" (a sub category of iRescueRover.org).
   
4. An image of a great white shark presented in a unique way, including the wording "iRescueShark.org" (a sub category of iRescueRover.org).
   
5. An image of a bird, any endangered bird (i.e. a long crane vertically placed), and the wording "iRescueRobin.org" (a sub category of iRescueRover.org).
   

These were challenging requirements. Not only were they quite numerous, increasing the possibility of making the logo look cluttered. It seemed unavoidable, but I decided to include all these visual elements into one design. It felt like I was developing 5 separate ideas guised in one project. I turned to my sketchbook and went into my cartoon character mode, which I think is the appropriate approach to this. Besides, they wanted the design to appeal to all age ranges.

I really love the characters I created… I was actually drawing inspiration from stuffed toys here at home. I then traced by hand, inked with a brush pen, scanned and then digitized for vector editing.

I then added elements such as the sheriff star at the back and the name banner in front. At this point, it seemed a pretty solid T-shirt design.

I was worrying however about the design not being able to be translated well into small embroidered versions or even as a tag for their future shirts. I then developed simpler icons for the main organization and its subcategories.

And an option incorporating all these tags and just the characters.

I was glad the client selected this concept among numerous propositions by competing ideas. The design is still being finalized (deliberations regarding color and some design elements) for the shirt version but just in case you're wondering, here's Brad Pitt wearing the design, looking pretty serious in rescuing some helpless critters: