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The Whale and the Elephant
This logo was inspired by an old military saying about "The Elephant and the Whale", the elephant being a country with a great land army, such as Napoleon's France, versus a country with a great navy, such as Britain. Both were the king of the land and sea, respectively, but neither could really engage the other in a fight where they were strongest. I thought this would make for a great logo, maybe for a surf and turf restaurant!
I started out with some pen sketches, trying to play with the shapes, the elephant being more square and the whale being rounded, but trying to have them echo each other. I thought of incorporating the land, but it started to feel like an unnecessary element:
Eventually, I settled with the image below, which I made in Clip Studio Paint. The land and sea were changed into repeating shapes indicating waves and grass for the whale and elephant, respectively.
Upon execution, however, I started to feel that the design felt a little imbalanced, tilting toward the side of the elephant. I shifted the text under the whale, and raised him up to give more of a sense of balance and symmetry. And instead of a seafood and turf restaurant, it became a bar and grill, resulting in the following design:
I added some more iterations of the design, changing it from a bar and grill in black and white, to a place that could serve brunch and tea (with lighter, more pastel colors), and finally a logo I thought would work well at the top of a menu!
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