Now that I had my wordmark, I had to come up with a logo which would compliment it and fit in with the rest of my brand. I started by gaining inspiration and creating some mood boards which you can read about here.
After gaining inspiration, it was time to start sketching my ideas:
At first, I was drawing a lot of keyhole shapes, some with staircases in them. This represented unlocking a new world and travelling somewhere new. I also liked the clouds with the ladders going through them as it represented something similar to this. In the bottom left corner you can see the book with the eyes and tongue. I liked this as it was playful and fun which would be intriguing to children. I decided to take some of my preferred ones digitally and see what worked.
I decided to take some of my preferred ones digitally and see what worked.
As much as I liked these, I didn’t feel like they went with the brand. I have been placing the wordmark beside tree illustrations and using a lot of green which gives it a forest feel. None of the logos I had created so far fit this feeling. At this point, I was starting to worry that I’d have to go with a logo I wasn’t fully happy with so I kept exploring.
I liked the idea of involving books or reading in the logo. This way, when people first come into contact with the brand, they will have an idea of what the company is about. Therefore, I made a book with an “F” on it.
I didn’t feel that this stood out either, However, the shape of the book sparked an idea. I thought that it resembled a fox with pointy ears. So, immediately added some eyes and a nose to it and my vision started to come to life.
I then started to explore many iterations of this. I changed the size of the ears, eyes and nose. I also seen what it looked like filled in, with thicker strokes and adding and taking away elements.
From all of the options, I knew I wanted to go for one with thicker lines and bigger eyes and ears. This is because my wordmark is quite a thick typeface and I didn’t want it to look out of place. Below you can see the one I have chosen.