2009 was my 2nd full time year in the business, I met a lot of people who regularly asked… “what does Koogar mean” and “where does it come from”… so I thought it was about time I told you the history and the meaning of the name.

Most of my life I’ve had something to do with drawing, painting or generally being creative. I wanted to be an artist when I grew up and won my first drawing competition when I was 6. It was of a horse in a field, eating grass.

I completed GSCE Art and Design, Textiles and then went onto to do A Level Art, Art Enrichment and History as well as A Level Pottery in 6th Form. In the summer months, I attended Art College and went onto do a few Repro-Graphics courses.

In my 3rd year in College, I changed my last year from Foundation Art to Graphic Design.

Most people on this course wanted to be artists or sculptors, who wanted to flick paint like Jackson Pollock or create something out of cardboard to save the earth, which isn’t a bad thing by the way… Just not my thing at that time.

I, on the other hand wanted to see my work on billboards for brands and record sleeves for famous bands.

Inspiration and Brief

My inspiration came from architecture. People like Antoni Gaudi and Victor Horta, the first graphic designer I got to know was the French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and his famous “Chat Noir“. If you know me, you will know I’m a cat person and I love all things feline.

From Withens Lane College we (as students) where moved to Borough Road in Birkenhead, where I went onto do a HND in Graphic Design (learning more a digital art on Computers) and this was where the name “Koogar” was born.

I was given a design brief which was to create as shoe box for mountain shoes.

Tools to be used

• No more than 2 colours (black and white are not classed as colours)
• Paint
• Cardboard
• Glue

The cougar is a mountain lion which is generally based in America. It has a nice design on its face, which is where the idea for the logo came from. The Koogar logo was designed when I was 19 yrs old, and has stuck ever since and sometimes people call me Koogar or Koogs instead of Amanda.

Iconic

In 2013, something needed to change. We needed depth to the brand and added two new colours; a bright blue and a lime green. I also designed and added the blue icon with the face inside it to give a little more personality and meaning.

The only thing that has not changed (until 2019) was the font type.

The face became the main part of our logo with two parts of the face put together within a circle to give the brand a face. It was a little abstract and a number of people have asked what it is…

Is it a crab, a chinese mans face with a whispy beard… what do you see?

Change of Identity

In 2018, I lost my Dad who was very dear to me. Because of this my life, perspective and environment changed drastically and I need to re-connect to who I was and what I wanted my business to do for me and my clients.

Here is a little about why I needed to re-brand Koogar.

I became clearer and more defined with what I do and how I help people.

Read more about our Koogar’s Re-brand here.