In my third term at Raffles, I got to do a project that I believe was the birthplace of my fascination with branding. We had to redesign an existing logo; whichever company we wanted to choose was fine, but it had to be one that could be found in Singapore.
At the start of the school year, I had signed up to volunteer at the local SPCA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals). I even made it as far as the first orientation day. But then COVID hit, and with the first lockdown the shelter, along with everything else, closed its doors. Only experienced volunteers could come in, and adoptions became by appointment only.
I still really wanted to do something related to SPCA, though, because even if in the end this was only a school assignment and not going to be submitted to the actual organisation, I felt like this was an area I could have helped improve upon if I had been able to stay a volunteer.
I also chose it because their logo looked like this:
These are the problems I have with it:
It's a very old-fashioned logo, which relies a lot on text that is compressed into a small space. There is a lack of contrast and negative space, creating a cramped feeling.
Being text-reliant works... fine (maybe?) if you're an English-speaker. If you can't read, though, it would be easy to mistake the building for a human hospital—which, incidentally, is exactly what happened in WW2. It saved the hospital from being targeted during the war, but it doesn't actually showcase what the organisation does.
Why are there two taglines? There's also a signature (left) that tells you the full name of the SPCA. Isn't there enough text?
The logo itself is only in black-and-white, but the signature is blue. Their website at the time was also blue. This might be fine if there were anything connecting them to each other, but the logo looks separate to the signature, and this looks like an inconsistency in the branding.
I fiddled a lot with the design. In this first version I wanted to play up the Singaporean element of it, with the merlion protecting the cat.
Sketches + Version 1
The comments I received were that the different contrasting line weights would make it less readable at different distances and would not work well in print, and that the lion looked... kinda wimpy? Okay, I guess.
The next suggestion was to try doing a wordmark logo instead of a pictogram. I think it was a better direction for sure, but I still had a lot of trouble figuring out what I wanted to do. It became a matter of fiddling with so many little details that the whole thing just became really repetitive and meaningless to me.
Version 2
This wasn't quite the right direction yet, and even though it was nearing the deadline for this assignment, I still tried to keep thinking and sketching for other ideas.
Version 3 sketch
The second one had a lot of potential. It shows a hand and a paw encircling each other, symbolising the mutual benefit and care of humanity's relationship with animals, especially with pets. If you treat them well, your pets will treat you well too.
I was very happy with this idea, which I believe was in line with the vision and mission of the SPCA, and would be appropriate for the new logo.
I kept the blue from the original branding, but used it throughout. For the text in the signature, I used Gotham, a geometric sans serif. It is a blocky type that feels stable and reliable, characteristics that describe the SPCA.
Advertising material
Collaterals and merchandise
If I get a chance to revisit this project in the future, I would love to create more icons in the style of the logo for the wayfinding systems in the building, and possibly for an app that would assist in the adoption process.
I believe that the more cohesion there is in a visual identity system, the more reliable the brand looks to the consumer. This is especially important in a nonprofit organisation like the SPCA, where goodwill and trust is everything.
I learned a lot in this project, and it made me feel, for the first time in my design education, really proud.
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