As you may recall, I wanted a branding logo for my book imprint and ran a little contest. It took a while for submissions to roll in and we got some very creative ones.
I wanted animals that are Florida regional.
I wanted something that would be both elegant and menacing.
Endearing was a thought I had to let go of, unless you’re particularly fond of grumpy alligators.
We got some really great submissions: Sly Panthers, Alligators reclining, alligators chasing other animals, alligators holding a fork and knife.
I realized I really had to decide on name for the imprint to make it work and it seemed the alligator was a must have for a Florida regional series.
It’s a P.I. series…so another animal that is stealthy and brave would work well.
The Great Blue Heron came to mind. A majestic bird, he’s brave enough to tread the banks of some of the most hostile waters in Florida. He’s elegant and quick, with a sharp eye. Sharing space with one of the most menacing animals in the State, he fears nothing. I have seen them sitting on the backs and heads of gators in the wild. That’s when the name hit me.
Brave Blue Heron Books.
I got some feedback on the name and it seemed a good start.
Illustrator Dean Kealy stepped up to the plate with an awesome submission that hit the mark. A little tweaking and we had a winner!
What I like about it:
The heron looks stealthy, elegant, abstract, but with realism in detail.
He’s perched on a gator’s head. That’s brave.
The gator, also a bit abstract, has menacing eyes with his face just above the surface of the water.
At first glance, it sort of appears the gator is a mound of earth the bird is standing on. At second glance, you see it is a gator. That’s clever.
The whole image without the text was too tall and slender for my screen printer and he suggested we use text to square/rectangular it off.
Of course, the image of a book imprint is much smaller than you see here. We had to get the image down to 25% and cut out white space to have it fit on the title page at the bottom. I was afraid we might lose too much detail and another artist/typesetter made a vector image that won’t lose too much detail in resizing. It will look more like this on the page:
I think Dean Kealy did a fine job with the concept in creating this beautiful, yet mildly menacing image.
If you have a project for him please feel free to contact him. He’s super friendly and easy to work with, quick to respond, and delightfully imaginative.
Blog: https://deankealy.com/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/Deanzdoodlez/?fref=ts
Twitter: @DEANKEALY
S.K. Nicholls 
Way to go Dean! Really love it! Question though Susan… is it necessary to actually put the text in the logo? I think it would look a tad better without it. Also, make sure you have a commercial license for that font. 🙂
Yep. Necessary. For all printing tall and slender is a no, no. The heron was tall and slender, placed on the gator’s head, even taller. Must be a square or rectangular image, but white space occupying borders creates problems in printing. We originally planned to have the text beneath, or arched some way around it. Had to suck up creativity for technicalities.
Hmm, why not make the text the full height to the side then to square it off more?
Too big and overpowering to the image.
Would also mean making the image smaller to comply with book logo sizes.
Hmm, I wouldn’t think so. It’s a fairly non descript font, so it’s not really over powering anything… I think the image would be okay small.
I mention this, because I love the logo, but I really do not like the text.
Maybe just use the first letter for each word on the side. BBHB running down.
We’ve played around in PowerPoint with all of the possible means to place the text and this best suits us.
Hmm, I have another idea. Have you thought about using inverse space? So remove the text and using inverse space you would get the proper height and width.
I’m sorry. This is our final image and it has already been forwarded to CreateSpace. We are quite satisfied with it. Had you submitted an image in the contest, perhaps we would have been more open to your ideas at that time. As it is, we are very pleased with the final product.
Okay, well, serious though, make sure you do have a commercial license for the font or you could be sued. I am pretty sure you do, but sometimes people forget things like that, so just want to make sure. 🙂
The font is a non-descrip stencil font provided by Cheryl Cuellar who made the vector image. She’s an artist and a typesetter for major publications. I would think/hope she considers such things when preparing work for her clients. I’ll ask her about it, just to make certain.
Good, yes, it sounds like she will have her ducks in a row — but in business better safe than sorry. 🙂
Looks really good. Congrats on the logo. Weird to say, but that’s what came to mind first.
My husband says when he first saw it the black of the gator looked like a top hat. I saw a mound of earth. I kinda like that it’s open to interpretation until you take a longer look at it and realize it’s a gator. That’s what make him more menacing. He’s a sneaky thing.
Just like a real one. Definitely gets attention and curiosity.
Thanks, Charles. Dean did fantastic work.
It’s just terrific. Congratulations on getting that done and taken care of. What a happy conclusion.
Yes!!!! All the little details matter and it’s one more thing to check off the list. I’m very happy with it and think it looks great on the title page.
Fab! 🙂
Bravo Dean. Looks great. I like Herons too.
Makes me smile. 🙂
It looks great, Susan! Great job, Dean! We have a Great Blue Heron that lives at the lake behind our house. Now I’ll think of you whenever I see it. 🙂 I’m sure it’s a relief to scratch this off your list.
yes…it does! Just about ready to upload files. I hate to tweak the ms at this point…have a couple of little details nagging at me though. Do we ever REALLY feel like it’s ready???
NO!
Marvelous. Loving it! Bravo and congratulations. 😎
Thanks, Tess. I think it’s just magical how Dean pulled this together.
It looks wonderful, Susan. Love the name, too. Way to go!
Thanks, Sue.Checking off the list.
I love it. The left side of the gator looks like the handle of a gun.
Ha…I didn’t see that until you pointed it out, but it does 🙂
Looks good. Glad you can check this off your list.
I’ll figure some way to incorporate it onto the site at some point. Still working on the list for now.
I need to make a list myself. If I’m having a September book of short stories, I need to get planning which ones will go in, get covers and art, etc.
Congratulations! Wonderful image!
Thanks. I think so, too 🙂
Congratulations to you and your artist. That’s a fantastic image and makes an eye-catching logo!
Thanks. In light of what happened in Orlando this morning, I think I chose the right words. Still crying.
Love it! Good job to both you and Dean!
Thanks, Marie. I’m so sad this morning. Can’t stop the tears.
{{{{Hugs}}}}