Taking a break has helped me think a bit more about direction.
Not only that, I feel like I need to think about my craft a bit more. When I came back to this project after about a month away, I really questioned whether Mau was the best name for my shop. While it is elegant and unique, it might feel a bit pretentious. Would it be better to go with something like "Kat Cafe"? I think I'm going to leave that up to where I end up opening shop.
The location will be a big factor in the name of my shop I think. Hopefully, I can open my cafe near a college campus, but depending on the region, I'll need to change my store's name. Mau would probably be really successful in some place like San Francisco or New York. I think Kat Cafe might be a bit more approachable for someplace like Little Rock or a midwestern city.
Now as I'm starting to go through my artwork, I'm realizing it's most likely not bold enough. I think it will do me good to take my work into Illustrator and outline all my shapes so I can adjust the thickness as needed. Currently the cat is not too visible from far away, which is not optimal since it should be second in my hierarchy, next to the M for Mau. I need the stamp to be bolder and more eye catching. There's also a lot of potential for variation in the vegetation that is in the artwork as well. While it's nice to have consistency, I think the type is what I'm going to rely on most for this. I do still like the versatility of the stamp idea though, so I'm going to continue with this idea and potentially produce my own.
That brings me to my next opportunity. Interior design. As I'm going through my branding, I'm also thinking about what I want the interior of my shop to be like. I'd like it to have a warm, cozy feel with a solid space for people to do work and another space for people to play and cuddle with the cats. How these spaces will interact, I have to think about a bit more. Obviously, there can't be cats in the kitchen area, but do I want to keep the study space separate as well, or perhaps add in hammocks under or beside the tables for cats to nap in?
My next steps for this process are going to be reworking the logo, deciding on menu options, pulling together a branding guide, and creating more mockups. Once I've completed those, you'll hopefully get another post with more current work and if all goes according to plan, maybe even a link to donate to donate to help me achieve this dream of mine.