Re-Imagining the Identity for spcaLA
This project reimagines the identity of spcaLA, an independent animal welfare organization in Los Angeles, founded in 1877. The identity aims to evoke compassion for animals, educate the public, and showcase spcaLA's dedication to preventing cruelty. The unique design reflects their independence and adaptability in a constantly evolving world. The logo focuses on animal tails, reflecting both their love for animals and the organization's unique identity (separate from other SPCAs). A custom typeface, "Animal Tails", uses organic shapes to represent dynamism and their ability to adapt. A secondary typeface, GT Flexa, adds a touch of playfulness while still maintaining trustworthiness and stability. Finally, the color palette incorporates both nature-based tones and colors that suggest trustworthiness.
Software Used—Adobe InDesign, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Procreate, Glyphs3 Categories—Identity and Systems Design, Branding, Brand Guidelines, Typeface Design, Logo Design, Logotype Design Typefaces Used—GT Flexa from Grilli Type and a custom typeface that I call Animal TailsProject Completion—December 2022
Research:
Researching about the organization made me understand it values, and that is where I started sketching ideas for the new identity.
spcaLA is dedicated to the prevention of cruelty to animals through education, law enforcement, intervention, & advocacy.
spcaLA embraces, above all, kindness, respect, compassion, awareness and integrity in all aspects of our mission and vision for a cruelty-free world.
spcaLA is ...
Process:
Based on the research and picking out a few words from what the organization stands for, I started sketching out more ideas that could be represented through form.
Initial Idea:
When people interact with spcaLA, they should feel the compassion for animals that the organization has. They should be able to understand the organization’s mission to educate others about animal cruelty and steps that can be taken to avoid it. Also keeping in mind the dynamic nature of the organization, due to the steps that need to be taken as the world changes, I started sketching concepts with fluidity and dynamism in mind.
Combining Some Ideas:
Combining some of these ideas made me realize the organic formsbeing created that looked like the tails of the animals.
This realization made me shift my focus towards exploring the movement of the tails of animals, relating the identity even more to what it stands for.
Being an organization for prevention of animal cruelty, along with being an independent organization from the other spca’s, the design direction is mainly focused on ‘LA’ as being the main identity for the organization. The design concept is focused on ‘animal tails’ which helped develop the logomark. This was further used to create a whole new custom typeface for the spcaLA called ‘Animal Tails’, to create a system and identity that is unique and reflects the purpose of the organization.
Refining Further:
Refining the logomark further led me to the design of the unique mark which looks just like a form, but when seen closely, also reads as ‘LA’, which helps identify spcaLA as an independent organization, unrelated to other spca’s around the world.
Design of a Custom Typeface:
Based on the logomark, a whole new typeface was designed based on this concept of animal’s tails. The unique organic shapes of the typeface also speaks to the dynamism and fluidity that the organization needs to incorporate to be able to create impact in this evolving world.
Other Typeface Determined for the Identity:
The other typeface to be used for secondary headings and body text is GT-Flexa, designed by Dominik Huber with Marc Kappeler. The design features prominent ink traps that cut deep into the letters at sharp angles. The family comes in seven widths, each with seven weights and matching italics.
Instead of the traditional view of a typeface as a collection of static styles, GT Flexa embraces the idea of a fluid design space. As a dynamic tool, it enables joyful typesetting that allows for fully responsive designs. The result is an impressively extensive typographic system with a distinctive personality.
This typeface was selected as it works in conjunction with the organization’s dynamism and responsiveness. It shows how the organization is not only about fun and playfulness, but also needs to be trustworthy and bold. GT-Flexa brings the corporate element to the identity which makes the organization feel more trustworthy and stable.
Logotype and Lockups:
Based on the organization’s mission of prevention of cruelty to animals, in order to focus on this, the letters ‘p’ and ‘c’ from ‘spca’ were made to intersect. It also suggests intervention, which is one of the main mission of the organization.
Color Palette:
The colors palette started to develop based on the nature-based colors and earth tones. Incorporating colors to represent the trust-worthiness of the organization, this color palette was developed which includes both—’trust’ and ‘nature’.
Image Treatment:
Brand Guidelines:
Based on all these systems developed for the identity, a brand guildline pdf was created which can be seen below(please scroll down the pdf to view all the pages):