The “Center of Cats” campaign began with a simple idea: transform my small collection of cat figurines, objects gathered over years of travel, into the foundation for a cohesive visual identity. Their variety in style, era, and cultural origin suggested to me the concept of a multimedia exhibition space dedicated to the global history, art, and cultural presence of cats. From that spark, I developed a brand identity, photographed my subjects, and assembled a series of print and social media materials that communicate a single message: Come Visit.
Building the Brand Identity
I approached creating a simple logo with design principles of clarity, unity, and scalability in mind. Using Adobe Illustrator, I was able to create a stylized cat‑head silhouette from basic geometric shapes, an oval for the face and two triangles for ears. I figured that a geometric construction with clean edges and predictable scaling would help with visual consistency across all the various campaign media sizes.
After exporting the vector, I imported it into InDesign and dropped on top of it my fictitious organization’s name, Center of Cats. I selected a bold, high‑contrast typeface color to establish a clear typographic hierarchy, which helped ensure legibility even at small sizes. The combination of a minimal silhouette and contrasting typography created a contemporary identity that I thought both playful and educational.
Research and Messaging Strategy
From my travels and visits to similar organizations, such as museums, galleries, and themed exhibitions, I recalled how they use emotional appeal, cultural references, and narrative framing to attract visitors like me. For my subject matter, curiosity and nostalgia are qualities I believe cats naturally evoke. Rather than over‑explaining the exhibition in long text, I chose to combine my simple silhouette cat logo with a simple and direct call to action: Come visit.
The tagline plays on the shared curiosity of cats and humans, inviting visitors to explore the exhibition with the same inquisitiveness that cats bring to the world.
In my longer text, not included on the campaign materials in full, I include references to celebrity cats, historical cats, and internet‑famous cats to hint at the breadth of content the Center would offer. These touches reinforce the idea that cats are woven into global culture in ways both serious and whimsical.
Writing the Body Copy
Although the final campaign materials use only short excerpts, I drafted a longer 500–1,000‑word body text to establish tone and thematic direction, as required by the assignment. I imagined the experience of walking through the exhibition: the textures of textiles, the shapes of sculptures, the soundscape of purring or historical narration, and the visual diversity of cat‑related art. This exercise helped me identify which phrases and ideas would translate best into concise copy, which I used sparingly, for the poster, social media, and print layouts.
I have not finalized captions for the photographs yet, but I may add them after peer review. Captions could help clarify the cultural or stylistic origins of each figurine, reinforcing the educational aspect of the exhibition.
Photographing the Figurines
The figurines themselves became the subjects of the campaign’s imagery. Following the assignment guidelines for bold, tightly framed images and the rule of thirds, I removed the figurines from my windowsill and arranged them on my workbench. I photographed them against a plain white wall using my smartphone, intending to remove the backgrounds to make space for text placement.
To create visual variety in the layout, I experimented with angles, framing, placement, and as I wrote background or the transparency thereof. I decided that the images looked best to me grouped together as a sort of universal cat family.
Lighting consistency of the photographed figurines was a challenge. The figurines differed in size, reflectivity, and color temperature, which meant shadows and highlights behaved unpredictably. I adjusted my phone’s angle relative to the overhead light to keep each figurine evenly lit and in focus. Once I had enough variations, I transferred the images to my computer for color correction and editing.
Editing the Images: Background Removal and Color Correction
My first step in post‑production was to isolate each figurine using Adobe Creative Cloud’s background removal tool. Exporting them as PNGs with transparent backgrounds gave me maximum flexibility when placing them in the layouts.
Next, I opened each PNG in Adobe Photoshop to correct mismatched white balance and unify the lighting across the set. Using Camera Raw Filter (Filter → Camera Raw Filter), I adjusted temperature, tint, exposure, and highlights. I also used Curves to fine‑tune contrast and ensure no single figurine visually dominated the others. These adjustments helped establish a consistent visual tone across the campaign photographs.
Assembling the Campaign in InDesign.
With the images and text prepared, I opened the instructor‑provided InDesign templates and reviewed the layout notes for each format. Each template had different spatial constraints, so I approached them individually, importing my edited PNGs using File → Place.
For each of the formats, I used tools including Align, proportionally sizing to avoid distortion, character sizing and type for text, and paragraph styles for the slogan, tagline, and body text.
I attempted to keep all formats relatively consistent by reusing the figurines family in a similar position, as I did with the logo. The intention was to maintain the look of a single campaign rather than separate experiments.
Once the layouts were complete, I exported the project as a PDF using File → Export → Adobe PDF (Print).
Refining the Draft and Preparing for Feedback
Because peer review is part of the process, I intentionally avoided over‑refining the designs at this stage. I expect to adjust color balance, spacing, and text placement after receiving feedback, so my focus was on establishing a strong, consistent foundation rather than perfecting every detail. The current draft demonstrates continuity across formats, a clear visual hierarchy, and a cohesive brand identity built from simple content and accessible tools, at least with which my capabilities match as of today.
Strategic Communications by Kevin 
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