Logo design for Red Robin

On a recent holiday to Melbourne I wandered into the ( soon to be branded as ) Red Robin book store. After chatting with proprietor Robin ( who has red hair, who’d have guessed… ) about an author we both liked, she asked what I did for a living and after discovering I was a designer, revealed she didn’t yet have an visual identity for her up and coming business.

So much for the holiday, hey?

Robin had already decided she wanted her logo design to incorporate a robin, this is a bird in case you were wondering, various breed of which often sport a red chest, face or head.

After developing some ideas the choice for imagery came down to the bird itself, or a blue egg. Though clever and memorable, it was worried that the fact robins eggs are blue might be too obscure a fact and the logo design would seem nonsensical.

Ultimately Robin loves her red and so a stylized robin was chosen instead to perch on the typeface. A serif typeface was chosen as literature is typically printed in a serif font for ease of reading, with the final selection being Bodoni.

Here is a handful of sketches of some alternate ideas, the final logo and stationery is finished in 2 colours.

a,b : using robins egg as graphic element.
c,d : a book used as robins wings.
e : a book used as a birds nest.
f : a birds nest holding a book instead of an egg.
g : a birds nest made from books rather than twigs.

What are your thoughts?

Do you feel this logo design is effective? Would you have done anything differently? Your comments are always appreciated.