This document explains the thinking behind your design direction. For each of the five references we studied, we recorded what we are drawing from it, what we are deliberately refusing, and why. Section 5 synthesizes those five references into a single recommended direction. Section 6 defines the constraints that override everything else in the system. The companion document, SAVAGE-SPEC-DESIGN-002, translates this register into specific design decisions. Reading this document first will make those decisions immediately clear.
Section 1
Purpose and How To Use This File
This document defines the influence set for Savage Cat Food brand and interface work. It is not a style guide and does not specify final colors, typefaces, or layouts. It specifies what is being drawn from, what is being deliberately refused, and why.
- Every design decision we make traces to one of the five influence IDs (INF-01 through INF-05) or one of the six asset candidates (AST-01 through AST-06). This document is what that reasoning points back to.
- The Reject field in each influence card is a firm boundary, not a suggestion. It is what keeps each reference from being copied wholesale and losing what makes Savage different.
- The Constraint Register in Section 6 overrides everything else. If an influence and a constraint point in different directions, the constraint wins every time.
Section 2
Subject Snapshot
2.1 Product Truth
| Attribute | Detail |
|---|---|
| Construction | Whole prey including real animal bone and marrow, hearts, livers, glandular tissue |
| Processing | No High Pressure Processing (HPP) |
| Proteins | Chicken; Rabbit + Lamb; Duck |
| Formats | Packets (diced muscle chunks, pre-portioned) and tubs (same ingredients without chunks) |
| Format rationale | Chunks encourage chewing and gnawing; tubs serve cats with dental issues |
| Sourcing | All raw meat US-sourced, cage-free, raised without antibiotics, growth hormones, or steroids |
| Exclusion list | No soy, wheat gluten, corn, rice, fruits, vegetables, kelp, algae, GMOs, artificial colors, flavors, preservatives, BPA |
| Distribution | Frozen. Independent pet retail recommended; DTC shop and online exclusives secondary |
| Retail support | Store locator, retailer training portal, free in-store samples |
2.2 Current Brand State
- Logo is a low-resolution PNG in a blue-bordered circle, asset dated 2016. No vector confirmed in the public logo pack.
- Site runs a stock WordPress theme. The "Our Trusted Partners" strip is still populated with placeholder
logo-ipsumfiles. - No visible color-coding or naming system across the protein and format SKU matrix.
- Strongest proof claims (bone and marrow, no HPP, exclusion list) are hidden inside collapsed accordions.
- Proof-of-benefit testimonials cluster on four outcomes: litter box odor, reduced waste volume, coat quality, oral health.
- Trademark usage is
Savage Cat Food(R); corporate entity is Savage Pet.
2.3 Assessment
A category-leading product proposition delivered in a below-category visual system. The name carries a strong point of view that the current design does not express. The gap between proposition quality and design quality is the single largest recoverable value in the brand.
Section 3
Brand Truth and Core Tension
Truth: the cat is an obligate carnivore and the honest form of its food is whole prey.
Tension: the buyer is a person who treats the cat as family and who has a disgust response to raw flesh. The name Savage forecloses the escape route most cat brands take, which is softness and humor.
Therefore the design job is: make predator read as premium and competent, never as gore, edge, or aggression. Every influence below is evaluated against that sentence.
Section 4
Influence Register
INF-01
Maev
Raw dog food, DTC subscription -- Reference for: minimalist reframe, portioning as precision
System
White substrate, oversized black display typography, near-zero ornament, product name as hero. Packaging engineered around the consumer's storage reality rather than shelf theatrics. Outcome-led voice (digestion, coat, energy, weight).
Mechanism
Category disgust is neutralized by removing all decoration rather than by adding reassuring imagery. White plus negative space shifts the category read from butcher counter to pharmacy or supplement. The wildness is admitted in copy and denied in design, and the premium lives in that gap.
Take
(a) Portioning as the identity. Savage's packet should become the repeated modular visual unit across pack and site, treated as a dosing system. (b) Outcome-first hierarchy: odor, waste, coat, dental promoted from testimonial paragraphs to large type on the carton face. (c) Ornament count of zero.
Reject
The white-on-white value scheme. Maev is seen on a bright web page and inside a shipped cooler. Savage is seen through frosted glass or from above in a chest freezer under fluorescent light. See CON-01.
Apply
Retain Maev's typographic scale and negative space; invert the value relationship. Deep saturated ground, near-white type, one protein-coded accent per SKU.
Risk
Minimalism has near-zero tolerance for production error. Weak photography, loose kerning, or a cheap substrate finish and the same layout reads as private label. Lowest-budget-tolerance direction in the set.
INF-02
Smalls
Fresh cat food, DTC -- Reference for: SKU system architecture and legibility at range
System
Cat-specific, warm, color-blocked, illustration-forward. Every protein and format is color-locked with a fixed lockup position and fixed information architecture, so the range reads as one family at six feet and as distinct products at six inches.
Mechanism
Not winning on beauty, winning on navigability. Once a brand has multiple proteins crossed with multiple formats, the design problem becomes "build a wayfinding system." This matters most in a channel where staff are the sales force and are stretched thin.
Take
The system architecture. Assign each protein a permanent hue with genuine separation, not three tints of one family. Signal format on a non-color variable, because color is already spent: die-cut window, band, distinct panel treatment, or structural shape cue. Packets versus tubs is a clinical distinction a caregiver must get right on first purchase.
Reject
The softness and the illustration voice. Savage is named Savage; borrowing cuddly tone creates a name-to-design contradiction that undermines both. Take the grid, leave the warmth.
Apply
Produce the SKU matrix document (Section 10, ART-01) before any layout work. That document is the brand system; everything else is styling on top of it. It doubles as the manufacturer artwork spec and the merchandising guide for the existing retailer training portal.
Risk
Systematization alone flattens toward store-brand. Requires one strong expressive element carried across every cell, supplied by INF-05.
INF-03
Cat Person (Mythology for Harry's Labs)
Cat care brand -- Reference for: quality ceiling, wordmark strategy, type system, photographic rule
System
Full identity by Mythology including name, language, visual identity, packaging, and photography. Wordmark drawn from a lightweight cut of Cooper with a "Ca" ligature reading as a cat's tail. Type system pairs Cooper BT's playfulness against Neue Haas Grotesk. Photography rule: cat and person always shot together, never one without the other.
Mechanism
Three separable moves: (a) The wordmark carries a proprietary idea encoded in letterform. (b) The two-face pairing splits the emotional job from the functional job. (c) The photography direction is a written rule, not a mood, so it survives its creators and can be executed by any freelancer without the art director present.
Take
All three, structurally. Custom wordmark is the highest-leverage single commission available since the name is the strongest asset and is currently generic type in a circle. Ligature or letterform opportunity exists in the V, G, or terminal E of SAVAGE (claw, fang, tail, or cut mark). Must survive emboss, foil, embroidery on a retailer apron, and favicon scale. Two-face system is non-optional.
Reject
Cooper, the lo-fi whimsy, the disarming softness. Cat Person sells to people defending against a stereotype. Savage sells to people who have already accepted the obligate-carnivore premise. Different buyer, different posture.
Apply
Candidate Savage photographic rules, pick exactly one: the cat is always shown in a posture of appetite or intent, never in repose; or food never appears styled alone, always in frame with the cat.
Risk
This is agency work with Harry's Labs funding behind it. Aspiring to the finish without the budget produces a resolved front and an unresolved back. Scope honestly.
INF-04
Open Farm
Premium pet food -- Reference for: converting proof into the primary visual system
System
Sourcing and traceability promoted from fine print to primary design content. Clean typographic hierarchy, restrained palette, batch-level transparency mechanic that lets the buyer verify rather than trust.
Mechanism
Every premium pet brand has free access to the same adjectives (natural, human-grade, no fillers), so adjectives have zero discriminating power. Verifiable specifics discriminate because they cost something to be true. The design move is to spend the most valuable real estate on claims competitors cannot copy without changing their supply chain.
Take
Savage is most under-designed here relative to what it has already earned. Unused proof set: real bone and marrow; no HPP; whole prey including organ and glandular tissue; cage-free, antibiotic-free, hormone-free, US-sourced; a nine-item exclusion list. "No fruits or vegetables" is the wedge. Almost no competitor will make that claim because everyone else uses produce imagery to reassure the human.
Reject
The earthy, pastoral, sustainability-forward warmth. That palette belongs to a brand arguing "wholesome." Savage argues "biologically correct." Take the information architecture, not the aesthetic.
Apply
Two artifacts: AST-04 (No HPP mark) and AST-05 (anti-ingredient panel). Both are low cost, both are ownable, both extend to shelf talkers and retailer training material.
Risk
Proof-led design slides toward spec sheet and becomes emotionally inert. Requires an expressive counterweight, supplied by INF-05.
INF-05
Butcher and Provisions Craft
Category-adjacent, not a single brand -- Reference for: iconography, marks, and the core emotional conversion
System
Heritage meat retail identity language: slab and condensed serif typography, stamped or inked marks implying inspection and authenticity, cut diagrams, kraft and butcher paper texture, deep red or oxblood against bone white, numbered systems, hand-drawn line illustration.
Mechanism
Butcher branding exists specifically to make raw flesh read as trustworthy, skilled, and desirable rather than alarming. It achieves this by shifting attention from the animal to the craft: the cut, the trade, the standard, the inspection. Nobody is squeamish in a butcher shop, and that is a designed outcome. This is the only influence in the set that solves Savage's core tension head-on rather than by avoidance.
Take
(a) The prey diagram (AST-03): a cut chart adapted to whole prey, labeling muscle, bone, marrow, heart, liver, and glandular tissue. Explains the product in one image, handsome enough to hang on a wall, and gives independent retailers a real merchandising piece. (b) The stamp (AST-02): a circular or oval inked mark carrying whole prey, no HPP, US sourced, reproducible at any size.
Reject
Nostalgia as total art direction. Full heritage styling dates the brand and clashes with a modern retail-plus-DTC hybrid. Use for iconography and marks only. Reject all gore. The prey diagram must read as a veterinary anatomy plate, not a hunting illustration. The line between "informed carnivore diet" and "dead rabbit on the freezer door" is the line between winning and losing the buyer.
Apply
Schematic and clinical rendering. Line weight consistent with the type system. Neutral or single-accent color, no red used to imply blood.
Risk
Highest variance in the set. Executed well it is the most distinctive thing in the category. Executed poorly it reads as a barbecue restaurant or as faintly cruel. Requires a strong illustrator and a client with the nerve to approve it.
Section 5
Synthesis Direction
Recommended blend
Marks and iconography
INF-05. Prey diagram, inspection stamp, custom wordmark with an anatomical or predatory letterform detail.
Layout discipline and hierarchy
INF-01. Zero ornament, oversized type, generous negative space, inverted value for freezer legibility.
Range architecture
INF-02. Protein color lock, format signalled structurally, fixed lockup and fixed information architecture across every SKU.
Back-of-pack and site persuasion
INF-04. Proof panels, No HPP mark, anti-ingredient block.
Quality bar and type system model
INF-03. Custom wordmark plus display-and-grotesque pairing plus one written photographic rule.
Butcher-craft iconography, executed with supplement-brand restraint, organized as a retail navigation system, proven by an ingredient argument nobody else can make.
Section 6
Constraint Register
Constraints override influences. If an influence conflicts with a constraint, the constraint wins.
| ID | Constraint | Design implication |
|---|---|---|
| CON-01 | Frozen retail environment. Product viewed through frosted or condensating glass, or from above in a chest freezer, under fluorescent light, at roughly six feet. | High contrast mandatory. No white-on-white, no subtle texture. Brand mark and protein name must appear on the top panel as well as the face. |
| CON-02 | Competitive adjacency: Primal, Stella and Chewy's, Instinct, Vital Essentials, Small Batch, Viva Raw. | Differentiation must survive at thumbnail scale in a crowded, mostly warm-palette set. Test all concepts as a shelf mock, not as a hero render. |
| CON-03 | SKU matrix is at minimum three proteins by two formats by two or more sizes. | Color alone cannot carry the system. Format requires a second, non-color variable. |
| CON-04 | Independent retail is the stated recommended channel; staff and in-store samples are the conversion mechanism. | Design must produce merchandising and training assets, not only packaging. Shelf talker, freezer cling, sample card, and retailer one-pager are in scope. |
| CON-05 | Buyer disgust response. | No blood-red, no visceral photography, no gore, no aggression tropes. Predator expressed through anatomy, craft, and restraint only. |
| CON-06 | Back-of-pack ingredient panel runs to roughly thirty items plus a nine-item exclusion list. | Requires a high-legibility grotesque at small size with a tested hierarchy. Display face must never be used for panel copy. |
| CON-07 | Trademark usage is Savage Cat Food(R). | Registered mark placement must be resolved in the wordmark lockup, not applied afterward. |
Section 7
Ownable Asset Candidates
| ID | Asset | Source | Priority | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AST-01 | Custom SAVAGE wordmark | INF-03 + INF-05 | P0 | Highest-leverage single commission. Must survive emboss, foil, embroidery, favicon. |
| AST-02 | Inspection stamp | INF-05 | P1 | Circular or oval inked mark: whole prey, no HPP, US sourced. Cheap, reproduces at any size. |
| AST-03 | Whole prey diagram | INF-05 | P1 | Schematic anatomical plate. Doubles as retailer wall poster and site hero. Highest distinctiveness, highest execution risk. |
| AST-04 | No HPP mark | INF-04 | P1 | Nobody in raw cat food owns this symbol. Turns an invisible process claim into an ownable icon. |
| AST-05 | Anti-ingredient panel | INF-04 | P2 | The exclusion list designed as a confident typographic block, positioned as the counter-argument to produce imagery on competing packs. |
| AST-06 | Packet-as-module system | INF-01 | P2 | The pre-portioned packet used as the repeated visual unit across pack, site, and social. |
Section 8
Anti-Patterns
Do not produce any of the following. Each is a known failure mode for this brief.
- Produce imagery, farm scenes, wheat sheaves, or any wholesome-agrarian cue. The brand's own copy attacks this.
- Blood, viscera, teeth-bared photography, claw-slash graphics, or distressed grunge textures.
- Cutesy cat illustration, whiskers-as-decoration, paw-print motifs.
- Full white minimalism. Fails CON-01.
- Three tints of the same hue for the three proteins. Fails CON-03.
- Display typeface used for the ingredient panel. Fails CON-06.
- Any design that works only as a hero render and has not been tested as a freezer-case mock.
- Placeholder content shipped live. The current site's
logo-ipsumpartner strip is the cautionary example.
Section 9
Next Artifacts
| ID | Artifact | Description |
|---|---|---|
| ART-01 | SKU matrix | Rows by protein, columns by format and size. Each cell specifies color, panel content, differentiating copy. Precedes all layout work. |
| ART-02 | Moodboard set | One board per influence, plus one synthesis board. Boards are annotated against Take and Reject fields, not presented as raw inspiration. |
| ART-03 | Asset audit | Inventory of existing logo, type, photography, and packaging dielines with a keep, redraw, or replace verdict on each. |
| ART-04 | Wordmark concepts | Three to five directions. Each tested at emboss, embroidery, and favicon scale. |
| ART-05 | Freezer-case mock | Concepts photographed or rendered in a realistic case against named competitors. Gate for all packaging approval. |
| ART-06 | Retail merchandising kit | Shelf talker, freezer cling, sample card, retailer one-pager, updated retailer training visuals. |
| ART-07 | Phased scope and estimate | Sequenced plan separating quick fixes from identity work. |
Pre-work quick fixes
Independent of any rebrand decision, three fixes deliver disproportionate return and should be scheduled immediately:
- Remove the
logo-ipsumplaceholder partner logos from the live site. - Obtain or recreate a vector master of the current logo.
- Rebuild the store locator and retailer training pages, since the site itself names in-store as the recommended purchase path.
Section 10
Source Log
| Ref | Source | Used for |
|---|---|---|
| S-01 | savagecatfood.com homepage and brand kit page | Section 2 product truth, current brand state, proof claims, channel structure |
| S-02 | The Dieline, Maev packaging | INF-01 system description |
| S-03 | Creative Boom and The Brand Identity, Mythology for Cat Person | INF-03 wordmark, type system, photographic rule |
| S-04 | Mythology project page | INF-03 scope of engagement |
| S-05 | Category observation, Open Farm | INF-04 |
| S-06 | Category observation, butcher and provisions identity work | INF-05 |