Tsunami Books is an engaging environment where the local and global converge offer a diverse selection of new, used, rare, and out-of-print titles at affordable prices. Most new titles in stock are 10% off the normal retail price.

To prepare for this project, I researched independent book stores in the area, saving photos of their logos.

Although Tsunami describes themself as relaxing, their look and sign is a bit grunge. I challenged myself to create an identity for what Tsunami Books might look like if it took on a grunge look. I also wanted to give them a logo that was properly theirs.

Pouring over wordlists and my catalogued inspiration, I sketched more than 25 thumbnails.

After creating a few concepts from the sketches, one stuck out. This symbol features two lines on top and two on bottom that represent waves. A fifth, solid line in the middle represents an open book, and a sixth line meets it to form a T. The sixth line represents a bookmark. I worked this concept up into the final mark below.

Cool Font Regular serves as a display font for titles. I liked its round corners and irregularities.

Trade Gothic Next SR is a more readable sans-serif available for smaller headlines.

Adobe Garamond is such an appropriate choice for a book store, but it also lends a relaxing stability to the identity, balancing the grunge elements.