Visual Advocacy - Cat Brand

Maggie's is a brand that aims to encourage an emotional bond between pet owner and pet. The brand addresses this issues in two parts. The first deals with the misconceptions that cats are independent creatures that do not need homes. The second part facilitates interaction between

DIC Post

Title
Save the Abandoned Cats!

Description
Save the Abandoned Cats! was created to deal with the overwhelming number of cats that are being abandoned and relinquished daily in Kansas City. The reason people give for abandoning these cats are numerous but the cause is a lack of emotional connection between owner and pet. Many preconceived notions about cats lead to a misunderstanding about the needs and required care for these pets. It hopes to change the way we think about our pets while encouraging and facilitating interaction between owner and pets. The brand challenges the way we think about cats by the associations of cats to humans while also including a game component.

Visual Advocacy - Direction?

After looking through my past projects throughout my time here at KCAI. The projects I most enjoyed seem to be in three groups. I enjoy image making that are hand rendered or real environments and photography. Examples would be the info arch website (Recyclables), Image making class (self portrait), user experience (battledore). I also like dealing with typography in book formats. I like the consistency, organization and the fine tuning thats involved with setting type. Examples would be Typography classes 1-4 and specifically the russel wright project, gertrude stein, bembo, conference. And I also enjoy interactive work particularly building websites, navigation, user play. Examples would be sound and motion (interactive piece, and information movie), multimedia xp (bike website), info arch (all).
Some criteria for this project is that I want to fulfilling a need in the community. I want it to facilitate some reaction in my audience and in the end improve their life in more than an aesthetically pleasing way. I want to try to avoid the issues that I have pursued in the past so as not to be redundant or caught in a grove.
Last semester I began exploring the idea and meaning behind image making. So much of the images produced today our merely decorations that have only aesthetic value without any true meaning behind them. Perhaps it is the product of a poorly educated designer or a creation of our image stimuli environment that over produces meaningless images to sell products that do not and never will enhance our lives. I don’t think I want to continuing this project but I think this idea of levels of meaning is still really interesting to me and applicable to many different things.
I defiantly want my project to be something that is “real world” so people can imagine it actually being used. I want to focus on a group that doesn’t get a lot of attention and could really use some help visually organizing things. I don’t want to work to closely with the group I’m making things for because I want it to be my own design and not me working for a group.



Projects I liked in my design classes
Recyclables
Motion piece about natural vs organic
Bembo
gertrude stein
Russel wright
Battledore map
Sewing Interactivity
Umbrella’s from type
box picture
Bike Website
Conference
Type 4 experiments


Projects I didn’t dislike
Bike manual
Conscientious omnivore
Vote Poster
National geographic
Story of the City
coffee (navigation)


Projects I hated
Ziba
Again
Book spreads about sports
semiotics

Visual Advocacy - DIC information

Title
Save the Abandoned Cats!
Cats Off
MinusOne
MinusOne[family]
Throw Aways

Description
[insert title here] was created to deal with the overwhelming number of cats that are being abandoned and relinquished daily in the Kansas City. The reasons for abandoning these cats are numerous but the cause is a lack of emotional connection between owner and pet. Many preconceived notions about cats lead to a misunderstanding about the needs and required care for these pets. [insert title here] hopes to change the way we think about our pets while encouraging and facilitating interaction between owner and pets.

Visual Advocacy - Prototypes

My solution to this problem is to create a brand that address both of these directions. In hopes that it will reach a larger group of people because every cat owner purchases the basic cat essentials such as litter box, kitty food, collars, toys, food bowls, cat food, treats and litter. So by placing it in mainstream shops it will have a better chance of reaching this audience.
This prototype is a medication for tick and fleas that is branded bug spray as a way to humanize it. at the top is a common flea and tick remover for comparison.

The litter box is branded potty trainer to reinforce the idea that kittens and children have to go through similar processes when they are young.

so this another way of addressing the how we think about cats its a suggestion sticker that makes a relation between cats and people through birthday’s.

This is a potential treat container that is branded candy because it is the equivalent to treats for cats. So in this way it humanizes the item. It also has the peek-a-boo game which touches on the other direction for this project that encourages owner and pet to interact through play. This could also be applied to paper bags.

Visual Advocacy - Outside Interaction

So I began this process of contacting outside sources by researching all the local shelters and foster homes. I than emailed asking if they had the time to help me with my project and fill out an interview. Out of about six organizations only two replied; The Humane Society and No More Homeless Pets in KC.

I spoke to Karen from the Humane Society first which was really helpful at the beginning of my project because she helped steer me away from one really bad misconception. That increase in abandoned pets was due to the recession. She said from her experience that people have a problem with commitment when it comes to pets. That the ones that end up in the shelters are usually impulse buys and that when the "fun times" wore off they gave them up. She also mentioned that there seemed to lack a connection or bond between owner and pet.

After talking to Karen I sent out a mass email to the KCAI student body asking cat owners what kind of relationship they had with there cat(s) and some background information. For the most part I got the response I assumed I would get which confirmed what I had been thinking. Some of the responses to how abandoning cats be discouraged where interesting because they were on target with the social change I was considering.


The next person I talked to was Kathy from No More Homeless Pets in KC. I began this correspondence by emailing the organization. They directed me to Kathy and Shirley who lead the Feral Cat program. The emails went no where and they never did respond to my questionnaire so I showed up for the monthly feral cat clinic. Shirley gave me a tour of the facility which was really interesting (they do a program called TNR that traps neuters and releases feral cats.) And then I talked to Kathy about my project and showed her my prototypes. She said that she thought that this was a very important area to work in because every cat deserves a better life which is why she works with feral cats because no one cares about them. Her comments on the prototypes were that she thought it made sense and that it was interesting that i was trying to change the stereotypes our society has about cats. She did question the terms abandon and relinquished cats because to her someone who abandons a cat is doing a much more horrible thing than someone who relinquishes a cat because they at least care enough to give them a chance at survival. She said that she could see it being implemented in a real world situation.

I also showed my prototypes to Josh Herron who is a fellow senior at the kansas city art institute in animation. he recently adopted a cat about a month ago named turbo.
I showed him my prototypes and asked him how he would react to seeing these on products he buys for his cat. He said he thought they were funny but he wasn’t sure how effective they would be on changing peoples feeling of cats. He said that growing up with pets in his family they treated “pets as pets” and they were always part of the family. His mom would prepare special food for their pets. and He said he couldn’t imagine abandoning or giving his cat away for any reason.


My last user was Turbo who enjoyed playing with the toy I made for her.

Beyond the Book - Project 4

Beyond and Book - Project 3

Beyond the Book - Project 2

Beyond the Book - Project 1 sample box and books

Visual Advocacy - Possible Directions

Comparisons Campaign

Cats and Children
This would consists of printed material that would juxtapose cats and children.
-Possible things we do for children that we should do for our cats also.
-potty train, vaccination, doctor visits, birthday presents, treats, introduce them to new things, spend extra time with them, play dates, babysitting, toys.
-Placing suggestions on products that are manufactured for cats.
Litter box, cat bowls, kitty, cat food, cat toys, cat treats, cat beds.
-encouraging owners to think of their pet as more being with emotional needs rather than something divorced from "human".

Cats and Accessories
print campaign that compares cats to accessories that are not necessary for our life but beautify and enhance. such as a tv, dvd player, ipod, digital photo frame, fancy table, decorative object.
-questioning the role that our pets play in our life.



Call for action

Feed the strays
Tracking where strays hang out. Possibly encourages people to leave food out.
Leave a paw print where you see one. marking?
possibly have a comparison or suggestion on the paw print.
-making people aware that it isn't good or normal that domestic cats are outside on the streets.
-Could be downloaded from a website.

Save the Cats
Over population has caused mistreatment. Value rare and unique things yet we all want the object until there are too many.

Cat Endangered
The most endangered cat... the domesticated cat... the one we abandon.


Bonding Experience

Making Memories
Suggestion of games to play with pets.
Would be seen on products that cat owners buy.
-Litter box, litter, cat bowls, kitty food, cat food, cat toys, cat treats, cat beds, collars and tags.
or could be sent out by veterinaries.
-Word associations that compare cats to children.

Visual Advocacy - Research

9.6 million animals are euthanized annually in the United States.
13,000 animals were euthanized in Kansas City Shelters in 2008.
in the last six years this number has dropped from 38,000 animals in 2002 due to the efforts of many adoption facilities that have created no kill programs which enable cats to be rescued from facilities that do still euthanize healthy cats and kittens. This also has increased the number of cats that need to be adopted and has not effected the abandonment rates of kansas city area.


How can graphic design help prevent the abandonment of Cats in Kansas City.

The related problem is that Cats are being treated as a commodity to a lifestyle. Dispensable. Cats are one of the most easily obtainable pet. They are usually free to procure which leads to irresponsibly people impulsively acquiring a kitten. The fun times eventually wear off and these pets end up on the streets or in shelters. This consumeristic attitude towards cats results in thousands of homeless cats throughout the KC area and is a serious problem.

Reasons for Abandonment or Relinquishment of Cats:
- Moving
- Too many animals in the household / incompatibility
- Landlord not allowing pet
- Cost of pet maintenance
- Owner having personal problem
- Allergies in family
- House soiling


Audience
Cats in shelters range from kittens to senior cats who can be as up to 20 years old. Cats live in many situations including in family’s with and without children, multiple animals or with one person. For this reason Cat owners range from young children to the elderly. The common thread between owners who abandon their pets is an attitude that the pet is expendable and not a part of the family.


The goal is to encourage an emotional bond between
pet owner and pet.

One of the reasons stated by a worker at the Humane society that animals are being abandoned was because of a lack of connection or bond with their pet. She stated that often pet owner who relinquished their pets didn’t care weather or not they would be euthanized. as if they were merely “throwing out a couch”.


The number of abandoned and relinquished cats in shelters will decrease with a stronger connection between owner and pet.

More Process

Timeline

The four piece I will be creating are:

schedule, name tag (print media)
interactive piece (screen media)
directional piece (rational)
stickers (emotional)

more explorations

Brand Identity

some of the things I learned from "designing brand identity".

Things that good brands have:

They are bold, memorable and appropriate to the message. They are easily recognized out of context. They provide a consistent image and persona of the company. Work a in different media, scale, color or black & white.

connnnference exploration

Name tags!






Posters!




Buttons!