This project was inspired by my dear pet, Sugar. We lost our sweet nine year old tuxedo cat suddenly, while we were living overseas apart from her. The loss has been very difficult, but recently while on a long flight I had a dream that I ran a crawfish restaurant inspired by her. So here it is... Black Cat Crawfish! And of course, what is the first thing a fictional restaurant needs? A logo!

The first step to creating the logo was creating the mascot... Sugar with a cute little crawfish in her arms. While I didn't include all of sugar's coloring, I did include her particularly colored toe beans, and her yellow eyes.

Next was text treatment, for both the vertical and horizontal logos versions. I'm pretty obsessed with wide fonts right now, and Panchang Extrabold just scratched that itch perfectly. I kept the type treatment a little more modern and trendy, instead of the typical overly-southern influence most seafood restaurants have. I wanted BCC to feel a little more fun and youthful, like a fast casual place to grab seafood.

My next step was creating a quick brand guide, with a place for the company's potential icons, badge, typography, and patterns. I'm pretty obsessed with gingham, and I especially love eating low country boil poured over the top of a cheap Dollar General gingham table cloth. So a bit of the brand was inspired by old summer memories as well!

Now I definitely didn't have to make a full-blown menu for a faux restaurant, but who would I be if I didn't? I really liked the idea of Sugar's place having craft sodas and drinks, tons of dipping sauces and prices by the pound. So that's exactly what I did when creating this in depth menu! (Maybe if I get really crazy in the future I'll include a secondary menu with lifestyle and allergy choices!)

Merch and take home goods came next. I wanted to keep a small bit of that southern feeling, so a trucker hat felt like the perfect merchandise choice for BCC. And for kids and souvenirs, buttons and a few extra cans of craft soda! (Sugar free options are available, of course, because of my older brother Jedediah who has diabetes!)

The last few items I worked on were environment items, such as table tents, take out bags, and signage. These were really just fun little extras, to help the brand feel more real. I'm particularly fond of the cat food bowl filled with low country boil.

Really, this was just a passion project for me and a way to channel my grief over our beloved cat, who we will miss very much. I tried some new skills with this project, including dabbling in making short GIFs and animations!