A new start-up company has approached our agency to develop the brand for their new business. Using the supplied brief which encapsulated the brand strategy we worked through each stage to gain an understanding of the brief, the industry, the target audience and competitors. The goal was to create a brand identity for a newly started business and roll out a poster series based on the created brand concept. The designer also explored product mockups that were related to the brand.

The brief was to create a brand identity for a used bookstore that was about to be opening in Mexico City. The target market was excited for the chance to visit a bookstore that claims it's "Much more than a room full of books," they miss being able to discuss and converse about their favorite stories, they want to be able to find a larger variety of books that they cannot at the popular bookstore chains. If they find something new and unique, are introduced to a lesser known author, they feel like it's a pleasant surprise. How does a bookstore re-innovate itself to wash out that image of an old dusty shop when someone thinks of a used bookstore? Enter: the graphic designer.

The visual keywords chosen were Winding, Adventurous and Triumphant, because each of these words revolved around the adventures of Alice in Wonderland. Loosely inspired, I took her confidence in exploring a new and unusual world, triumph in asking for directions, and the path she took winding into deep forests and cities for a otherworldly adventure down into a portal. 

The logo was inspired by the Rook chess piece, specifically picked for its castle wall design. It links the visual idea to castles, which leads people to think of adventures. Deciding on the chess theme was due to the overuse of Poker Cards to represent Alice in Wonderland, therefore I thought, why not Through the Looking Glass? The Card soldiers also remind me of the knights and Pawns in chess, and the queen of the throne idea reminds me a lot of chess, so chess it became. And The Rook Books became the name of the bookstore.

With an idea in mind, there were a lot of iterations made with the placement of the castle wall, the watch tower floor and the floor piece, when I finally got those items sorted and balanced in height and weight, then I pored over font choices. It was decided that the thick condensed font Abolition best produced a sense of structure within the castle walls.

Much More than a Room Full of Books.

One of the ideas I got from the visual language keywords adventurous and winding was the sense of movement and disappearing shadows, so it was explored how the photography could travel across the page in that half of the image moves in from the left edge before being cut off from where it appears at the right edge. Not only do the images move, the Rook logo can move too, across two page spreads, maybe three. 

The font choice used is Quincy, a bold, confident typeface with quirky fun little details at the edges. 

The photography used are people reading and discussing books, which very appeals to the things our target market has been wanting to be able to do for a while.

The image chosen for the header of the homepage website reminds me of a portal of messy books and links to the magical portal concept in Alice in Wonderland, because when you think Alice, you also think Through the Looking Glass and of doors as portals into worlds. However, paired with the text: More than a Room Full of Books, it tells visitors that our bookstore is not one of those messy dusty old used stores most people of think of when someone talks about a used bookstore.

The colors are bold primary colors paired with a creamy white and black to give contrast, especially for legibility on their digital presence. 

Some ideas for branded merchandise include planners, book diaries (the kind that lets readers write ideas, goals for reading and their progress with each book), book covers for the used books that arrive damaged and a Poker Card deck designed with the Brand Identity. A section of the website will be labelled with different colors and a variety of books in each. When the visitors to the bookstore say, "Surprise me" or "Recommend a book for me" we can lead them to use the cards to pick out the color that they should check out so that they can pick their book of choice from the selection. Another idea is to have a big box in the stores with a big slot at the top of the box for the visitors to pick and surprise themselves with a new book to bring home.