Bronze Graphics, Illustration and Visual Communication Design · 2020
Serious Little Squid Visual Identity
by Youjia Gu
- A' Design Award 2020 Bronze Winner in Graphics, Illustration and Visual Communication Design
- Awarded April 15, 2020
- CLIENT: MET Creative Brand
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 9,090
- Verification code B4883F84D3 · Verify this award
About Serious Little Squid Visual Identity
Serious Little Squid is a visual identity created for a restaurant brand. The identity is built around A Zheng, a squid character that stands for urban office workers. Details such as a necktie and a headscarf make the character easy to recognize. The graphic style follows black and white silent films, using cold humor and simple comic scenes. A series of illustrations named the inner theater presents daily life in a large city. The intent is to build a positive brand tone and a close link with young consumers.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- In this case, the designers create a strong sense of image, pretending to be serious but lively IP image to make consumers have intuitive association, and build a brand tone of "sunshine, positive energy, cheer themselves up". They grasp the popular "mourning" but full of positive energy of the target group in the current society, and try to enlarge the positive and optimistic feeling.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- The most representative of black-and-white silent film is Chaplin's series of works, which is funny and ironic. In the design of this case, an inverted expression is extracted, that is, cold humor and hypocrisy. This seemingly silent and less positive state actually expresses some very sunny attitudes.
- Tags
- Visual Identity, Commercial, Restaurant, Modern, Fashion, IP, Small Squid, Sunshine, Positive Energy
- Production Technology
- Designers take spokesman of urban workers as the prototype, and personify the brand to create "A Zheng", a vivid and lovely squid image. In order to highlight the image of "urban life workers", they added details such as neckties and headscarves to make them look in line with the positioning, and at the same time, they are very personalized, vivid and popular.
- Design Challenge
- Through simple and interesting comics and copywriting, and in the name of "inner theater", the life scenes and lifestyle of this generation of struggling young people in big cities are presented in the form of theater, one scene at a time, so as to arouse their resonance and awaken the love to life and ideal pursuit of life hidden in their heart.
- Project Duration
- The project started in February 2019 in Xiamen and finished in September 2019 in Xiamen.
- Operation Flow
- In terms of design techniques, the designers chose the form of black and white silent film as the carrier.
- Research
- Party A hopes to become the most popular leading brand of small squid category that really understands what young people know and think. The IP background is set as the spokesman of urban workers, so as to become the communication carrier of the brand's original intention and shorten the distance with consumers.
- Inspiration
- With the rapid development of society, there are countless young people who choose to work in the first tier cities. They desire to have their own time and pursue freedom. Therefore, designers focus on urban office workers who pursue their dreams in big cities, hoping to cheer them up and create a harbor for their hearts through the healing and strong resonance characteristics conveyed by restaurants. So the serious little squid came into being.
- Image Credits
- Image #1: Photographer MET Creative Brand, Serious Little Squid, 2019.
Image #2: Photographer MET Creative Brand, Serious Little Squid, 2019.
Image #3: Photographer MET Creative Brand, Serious Little Squid, 2019.
Image #4: Photographer MET Creative Brand, Serious Little Squid, 2019.
Image #5: Photographer MET Creative Brand, Serious Little Squid, 2019. - Patents
- Copyrights belong to Youjia Gu, 2019.