Case Study: ThereLit Publishing Company
About the Client
ThereLit Publishing Company was founded to sell full-length electronic books in Microsoft Reader format to the users of the online virtual world There. There already had virtual books within the game world, and a budding community of writers had sprung up that was creating and sharing original poetry and prose.
Unfortunately, There’s books could only hold about a page of text. ThereLit hoped to liberate the authors of There from this restriction, while also allowing them to make a little money from their works. ThereLit’s books would be sold in exchange for the in-world currency, which could in turn be converted back into dollars.
Although the client was pleased with the work I did, the idea for the company was ultimately abandoned when it turned out that There’s software could not support the planned distribution model.
The Challenge
ThereLit wanted a logo that resembled the logos that traditional publishing houses use for their imprints. The logo was to look equally at home on a website or in the front matter of one of ThereLit’s e-books.
The Solution
I approached the design of the ThereLit logo by considering what attracts people to such online communities. There—and its competitor Second Life—allow users to create their own character with a unique look and personality, which can be the same as or very different than their real selves. “Citizens” of these virtual worlds can also create new buildings, vehicles, and other objects to use and inhabit within these virtual worlds. In a very real sense, they are both writing their own stories and the story of the world simply by participating in it. This notion lead me to the creation of a design I called the Worldquill:
To this I added a typographical treatment of the company’s name and its slogan, “Real books for a virtual world.”
Project Summary
- Project Description
- Logo and brand identity for an innovative e-book publishing venture
- Completion Date
- May 07, 2003
- Services
- Graphic design (logo)
- Brand image consultation