I'm not quite sure how this happened, but with the issue of a new stationary brief, I somehow wound up with another dog related subject (which has me questioning how many members of the curriculum actually compete regularly in Crufts). I was to come up with a brand identity & stationary package for a dog groomer, now, like every 'designer' the initial ideas that come to you are usually the most obvious, and easily disposed of.
Mine.. mine were just verging on bizarre. Take for example the fact that in the first few days of this brief I was referring back to demographic research & dog related product lines from the dogood campaign. (In archive under 'do a little good') Somewhere between that logical step, and coming up with my concept, I found myself sitting in the middle of sketches of yorkshire terriers with combs as 'moustaches', electric shavers with dogs tails, kennels with grooming brushes coming out of them, and god forbid, a large soapy ball of something with a dogs face in the middle of it.
We've always been taught to put everything down on paper, so I had, and in shame I wanted nothing more than to set light to it and revel in the glorious flames of ensuring that no-one would ever see such hideous ideas. Anyone can suffer from creative block, at any time, and it can be extremely stressful and downright irritating at the best of times, in this instance however, it was this inability to do as I was telling myself, that bore the concept.
Disobedience; In disobedience there is a refusal to adhere to what is expected. This revelation made me realise that I was taking 'grooming' far too literally, and that instead of focusing on showdogs, I should focus on behavioral grooming, Creating a company which dealt with disobedience or undomesticated dogs in a friendly yet effective manner. Woof, became this fictitious company and in their manifesto set out to train and 'condition' dogs without punishment & reward schemes, but through using revolutionary 'clicker training'
So the idea was a serious one, but the demographic was still the same, pet-lovers, and more important 'dog people' (not really sure why we're supposed to have preference over cats and dogs, I like both of them, not a fan of sheep though, creepy little buggers) I had to appeal to my market on a friendly and humorous level, whilst still conveying the ethos behind the company.
This evolved into a range of stationary based on aspects of the dogs features, using the 'dog eared' pages, tongue envelope, and verbal puns such as the 'woof compliments' slip.
The business card, as the first point of contact for most people, was an elasticated pull out of a dog that constantly snapped back inside the card, mimicking the dogs disobedience in doing what the owner is asking of it. (when the card is brought to Woof, the corner is cut off, freeing the elastic and removing the dog, which effectively highlights their ability to fix the problem.)
