Successful Logos/Brandings/Icons

Each of these I thought worked well because they are easily understandable, reflects their message and/or product creatively and is unique enough that it is recognizable and stands out against other logos.

I thought this was a really successful example of branding. With a limited palette, type, and a classic pattern, they have made this chocolate unique and recognizable. The packaging reflects the product, is gender neutral, and current.

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

Sue Monk Kidd was born on August 12, 1948, in Sylvester, Georgia, and lived on a plot of land that had belonged to her family for more than 200 years. She spent all of her childhood in Sylvester, a safe, small, rural town she has called “endearing” and “Mayberry-esque” in interviews, even though the town was the site of racial injustices so prevalent in the South during that time. As a child, Kidd observed the deeply ingrained segregation between white and black southerners. Nevertheless, she recalls listening to the stories of the African American women that worked in the domestic realm of her home.
Throughout her thirties, Kidd began to use her writing to explore philosophy and theology. She read widely in the classics of Western spirituality, philosophy, and literature, and she has named the Swiss psychiatrist C. G. Jung and the monk and poet Thomas Merton as important influences discovered during that time. In 1988, Kidd published her first book, God’s Joyful Surprise: Finding Yourself Loved, a spiritual memoir that explores her Christian faith and personal relationship with God. Her next book, another spiritual memoir called When the Heart Waits: Spiritual Direction for Life’s Sacred Questions (1990), describes Kidd’s spiritual awakening. Virtue magazine named this book its “Book of the Year” in 1991. Kidd’s third book, Dance of the Dissident Daughter: A Woman’s Journey from Christian Tradition to the Sacred Feminine (1996), describes Kidd’s transition from a Baptist upbringing to the development of her unique feminist perspective. This bestselling memoir explores feminist theology—a thematic interest that would reappear in her later fictional work, including The Secret Life of Bees.

Summary:

This story is set in a segregated town of South Carolina in 1964. Lily Owens, a 14 year-old girl, is haunted by the memory of the death of her mother years ago. To escape her lonely life and abusive relationship with her father, Lily flees with Rosaleen, her caregiver and only friend, to a South Carolina town that holds the secret to her mother's past. Taken in by the intelligent and independent Boatwright sisters, Lily finds solace in their mesmerizing world of beekeeping.

Tone/Feeling/Mood/Themes

segregation
strength
coming of age
devotion
love
motherhood
empathy
determination
female community
old fashioned
southern
rich
inspirational
faith

Quotes:

“Most people don’t have any idea about all the complicated life going on inside a hive. Bees have a secret life we don’t know anything about.”

“Putting black cloths on the hives is for us. I do it to remind us that life gives way into death, and then death turns around and gives way into life.”

I chose this book because I think the story is highly relatable and timeless. It's a classic that I've always enjoyed and I believe it has potential to be modernized and re-designed to correspond to the contemporary styles of today's world while also incorporating the old-fashioned southern influences. Additionally, the imagery throughout the story offers great potential for an eye catching cover.

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

Born In 1956 in Tennessee, Arthur Golden is known for the success of his only novel, Memoirs of a Geisha. He attended Harvard College, where he received a degree in art history, specializing in Japanese art. In 1980 he earned an M.A. in Japanese history from Columbia University, where he also learned Mandarin Chinese. After a summer spent at Beijing University, he worked in Tokyo, and, after returning to the United States, earned an M.A. in English from Boston University. He currently lives Brookline, Massachusetts, with his wife and two children.

In 1929 an impoverished nine-year-old named Chiyo from a fishing village is sold to a geisha house in Kyoto's Gion district and subjected to cruel treatment from the owners and the head geisha Hatsumomo. Her stunning beauty attracts the vindictive jealousy of Hatsumomo, until she is rescued by and taken under the wing of Hatsumomo's bitter rival, Mameha. Under Mameha's mentorship, Chiyo becomes the geisha named Sayuri, trained in all the artistic and social skills a geisha must master in order to survive in her society. As a renowned geisha she enters a society of wealth, privilege, and political intrigue. As World War II looms Japan and the geisha's world are forever changed by the onslaught of history.

I chose this book for my re-design because I thought the bold themes and incredible visuals described offered high potential for an elegant, eye-catching cover design. The oriental aspect offers strong pattern and color and a terrific setting for inspiration. The two existing covers created for this book are limited to photographs of a geisha using minimal color palettes. Furthermore I consider this story to be one of my favorites and hope to create a series of covers that reflect such an inspirational story.

Themes/Tone/Mood/Feeling conveyed in the novel:

Obligation
Societal Status
Elegance
Delicacy
Male Dominance
Competition
Deception
Cultural
Drama
Jealousy
Love


Powerful Quotes:

"At the temple, there is a poem called 'Loss' carved into the stone. It has three words, but the poet has scratched them out. You cannot read Loss, only feel it. " – Sayuri

"A story like mine should never be told. For my world is as forbidden as it is fragile. Without its mysteries it cannot survive. I certainly wasn't born to the life of a geisha. Like so much in my strange life, I was carried there by the current. " – Sayuri

"You cannot say to the sun, "More sun." Or to the rain, "Less rain." To a man, geisha can only be half a wife. We are the wives of nightfall. And yet, to learn kindness after so much unkindness, to understand that a little girl with more courage than she knew, would find her prayers were answered, can that not be called happiness? After all these are not the memoirs of an empress, nor of a queen. These are memoirs of another kind. " – Sayuri

"We do not become Geisha to pursue our own destines. We become Geisha because we have no other choice." – Mameha

Prints and Patters

Thought these were great examples of bold color, strong, graphic designs --yet simple and fun. Loved the different patterns within the animals and other existing forms.