Book Blizzard—Used Books, Music, Movies & More
a logo project by BookBlizzard

Creative brief

The buyer added updates to the brief. Read them.

LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT US:

We are starting an independently-owned used book superstore in a medium-sized city in the northern United States. We will stock a vast selection of quality, previously-owned books, music CDs, audio books, and DVDs priced at a deep discount off the publisher’s price. The store will contain more than 20,000 square feet (2,200 square meters) and will be positioned as a shopping destination for dedicated readers, music lovers and movie fans of all ages and backgrounds.

HERE IS WHAT WE NEED:

We are looking for a logo that communicates our brand through every medium we expect to employ: In-store signage and graphics, bookmarks, flyers, print advertising, our web site, and the store’s freeway-frontage exterior building sign. We would prefer to see designs that create the “logo” portion of the store’s name using the words Book Blizzard in a creative, visually exciting way that is stylized but still very readable, perhaps with a snowflake or even snow on the letters themselves. Depending on the application (web site versus bookmark versus exterior sign) we will sometimes use the full 8-word store name, and sometimes use just the words Book Blizzard with the graphic.

Please note that the “subtitle” portion of the store’s name (Used Books, Music, Movies & More) should be a different font and/or size from the words Book Blizzard; very simple and readable.


OUR TARGET AUDIENCE IS:

Our demographic is local (rather than national or international) so to us, the logo is more about visual excitement and the cultivation of name recognition among our city’s residents. The winning design will probably be one that finds a way to combine the word-play of an enormous bookstore as a place that is “a blizzard of books” with the fact that our geographic location means we receive quite a lot of snow each winter (thus the snowflake or snow-covered letters idea).

WE LIKE THESE DESIGNS:

Although we like the idea of a snowflake, with all its geometrical possibilities, we need to avoid a “cutesy” look. Same thing with snow-covered letters, in that it could be very tough to tell what the snow is supposed to be, since we can’t rely on the idea of white snow atop colored letters (remember, the entire logo will be black-on-white much of the time).

WE ABSOLUTELY MUST HAVE (or we don't want to see) THIS IN OUR DESIGN:

We would strongly prefer a design that uses just one or two colors, since the logo and store name will appear most often in black against a light-colored paper background. Our local sign ordinance requires that the lettering on our building sign must be a lighter shade than the sign background. This means that blue-on-yellow would not be allowed, but white-on-red would be (for example). The best design would be one that allows us to select the lettering color based on the specific application, while allowing the logo to remain clear and visible. Think contrast rather than specific colors.