The basis of this project was inspired by a Japanese adage: "Neko no te mo karitai", which translates to "I'm so busy, I could even borrow a cat's paw". The meaning is that someone is so stressed that they would even ask a cat for help. I thought this was a great idea for a boutique hotel, where someone could escape all their stress. This also got me inspired by cat cafés, where people can visit to relax with cats.
Thus was born Cat's Paw Inn: the world's first cat-café boutique hotel, (hypothetically) located in Portland, Oregon, USA. Guests would be able to invite cats over to their rooms and give them treats and toys. They could even adopt a cat if they felt particularly attached to one. There is also a café area where guests can enjoy cat-themed desserts and such.
When deciding on the name of the hotel, I was debating between the Japanese translation (Neko no Te) or the English translation (Cat's Paw). While I ultimately decided on the English translation, I kept the Japanese translation (ねこのて) to use in the graphics. I wanted to keep them cutesy and "kawaii", so the main colors I used were white, mint green, and light pink, with a warm brown for text legibility.
The stationery kit is a very shallow container that contains a room key holder, notepad, and pen (all shown in later images). It opens by lifting the cat ears out of the slits, then lifting the other flap from the cat paw-shaped thumb hole.
The inside of the flaps has the same pattern as the outside, but with the colors inverted. They also have the address of Cat's Paw Inn and the tagline, "Welcome to cat paradise!" The room key holder is two separate pieces. The user would remove the top piece and hold the key card against the reader on the door to enter their room. The miniature pen fits along the side of the stationery kit.
The notepad is bound by the top. It has the name and address, as well as the logo, in a mint green bar along the bottom of each page.
The welcome kit is a tray that holds six containers of goodies: 2 coffees, 2 teas, and 2 trail mixes. The containers are modeled after milk cartons, and they are tied together with yarn. The tray has more cat shapes, with the cat ears in the back and the whisker cutouts. The back side of the tray has the name, address, and logo. By removing the goodies, it reveals the tagline along the backside. Like the stationery kit, the tray and goodies have the pattern inverted.
To help with differentiating the goodies from each other, each type has a slight variation on the logo cat: the eyes are turned up on the coffees, turned down on the teas, and the logo cat is unchanged for the trail mixes.
Lastly, the sewing kit is a clamshell container containing needles, pins, buttons, threads, a thimble, and a seam ripper. The container is modeled after a tuna can: short and round. It is light gray like a tuna can, and the pink and green bands do not reach the full height of the "can" like the paper label of a tuna can. Opening the lid reveals the tagline. the back side is flat and contains the address.