Designing the logo for Cogshel was a long and tedious process. I started off with sketches of ideas and then took the most successful ideas to Photoshop. I used the colours blue and yellow to create a calm yet playful feel. I was inspired by the name of my game, a ‘cognitive’ and ‘shelter’, and knew I wanted to incorporate these into my design some how.
I was also using the font ‘jellyboost’ because it was a child-friendly font that was soft and bubbly, an appropriate mix for my target audience and game feel. For later version I changed this font to ‘chewy’ because it was clearer to read and a little less childish, but still playful and fun.
Jelly Boost font
Chewy font
It took me several iterations to finalise the logo. I started off with extremely saturated colours, which I felt was appropriate for younger kids, however, feedback helped me understand that it was too ‘babyish’. This led me to test out darker hues and different colours. I moved onto a teal-green which was inspired by nature. After asking for more options, I found that a lot of people mistook it for a broccoli, or they found it difficult to understand that it was a brain. Because of this, I change the base colour to pink, which resembled a brain more closely. I also used the watercolour art style to ensure it matched with all the other assets of the game.
The more simple designs were also most popular amongst the initial versions, so I continued iterating with a minimalist approach in mind. Eventually I reached a composition that I felt accurately represented the name ‘Cogshel’. I used the basic shape/outline of a brain with two connecting lines that formed a roof over it to represent a shelter. I also added ears using the same structure, to point towards the pet simulator genre.
The final step I took was choosing whether or not I should put a background shape/design to anchor the logo with.
I decided on having a two variations. One with a blurred circle of the game background + the Cogshel name, and one without. This meant that I could use it for multiple purposes such as my menu page and promotional material.
Below are the different drafts I experimented with.
