
Visual design, art direction, and copywriting.

My role

Back in 2017, oy decided to shift its business focus from production to branding and communication. To signal this change in strategy to existing and prospective clients, we decided to send out a promo piece. The end result had to ooze with conceptual thinking and high-end production. We wanted the world to know that we're great at both.

Making ideas ‘real’ is what oy do best. Which explains their slogan at the time: “We make your story come to life”. This was the perfect opportunity to make oy's own story come to life.

To kickstart ideation I took a quick look at the history of storytelling. Which can be traced back to hunter-gatherer societies. Our ancestors gathered at the end of a long day to share stories by a burning fire. Fables of which plant not to eat, which routes to avoid, and encounters with fantastical beasts. And although we don't do that anymore, our brains are still wired for stories.

Most of us can tell an average story. But it takes a real master to weave a captivating narrative, something that catches on like wildfire. __Think creative brief vs. final artwork__, both are stories but it's the latter that is meant to captivate an audience.

In the hopes of reviving the tradition of storytelling, oy's promo piece is an invitation to sit around a “fire”. In that setting, oy would listen to the client's story, and then go on to make that story come to life.

“We are oy, storytellers, gathering tales from all around. We listen to them closely, understanding the plot lines, and craft versions worthy of sharing around a fire. Like the good old days.

And although times might have changed,  the power of a good story still lingers.

This fire-starter is a reminder of a long lived tradition of storytelling. We hope it sparks the fire that will bring us together to get your story flowing. We’d love to hear it and make it come to life”.

The gift itself is symbolic; a black firestarter necklace, inviting the receiver to “start a fire”. The package and the unboxing experience, however, are what make it special.

Imagine a velvet black sky and the copper of dancing flames and embers. The flying sparks and raising smoke dissolve into the darkness ceremoniously. The coals crackle, and someone starts to speak.

The promo piece got a lot of positive feedback, a couple of sit-downs with prospect clients, and a new account. Which is exactly what oy wanted, a catalyst to get the conversation flowing.



oy firestarter

Welcome to Doha, Qatar. With its thriving economy, it has managed to attract and retain an international expat community. And with it a growing demand for hospitality and entertainment. Which is how Mystique Events became a household name in hospitality concepts. In 2018 they approached me with an interesting challenge, to help them brand a new club with the very peculiar name of “Kapital 4”.

Naturally, my first question was why call the club Kapital 4? But there was no rational answer. The name stuck because of its originality. You can call it expert intuition, but they were certain that the name could trigger a good story, and that that story could be used to attract an audience. But what story would appeal to the expat community of Doha?

There were over 87 different nationalities living in Qatar when the project took place. So you could say that people were coming to Doha from all __4 corners of the world__ to work hard and play hard. All they needed is a place to call their own, their very own __capital__.

I created the logo by combining  4 sides of a compass (4 corners of the world) and then weaved a grid to hold the number 4. The delicate lines of the logo are contrasted by the solid typography of the logo, a neo-grotesque sans-serif font [Neue Haas Unica](https://www.monotype.com/fonts/neue-haas-unica).

Drawing inspiration from club interiors around the world, I chose a vibrant color palette that would stand out in the dark setting of a night club. The structured grid is both, a guide and a glue, but I like to think of it as a playground for endless dynamic layouts.

Kapital 4

Sonos requires no introductions, but a new product always does. [Sonos Playbase](https://www.sonos.com/en/shop/playbase.html) is a wireless soundbar that was launched in 2017 under a global campaign titled “Wake Up The Silent Home”. The pitch brief oy got was simple in theory. We had to design a head-turning retail window for the European market. So we rolled up our sleeves, brainstormed *really *hard, and won the pitch. And then it was time to bring our winning idea to life. 

Sadly, cranking up the volume in retail windows wasn't an option. So we asked ourselves the next best thing, what does sound look like? A lot of googling and head-scratching later, we finally found our answer while flipping through Sonos’s brand guidelines, __like an old-school sound ripple__.

We imagined an entirely black slick Scandinavian living room, and an animated white LED sound ripple in front of a white Sonos speaker. As if the ripple was coming out of the player every time the sound went on. It was a little more conceptual than what Sonos signed up for, but they loved it!

The design had to be prototyped, tested, reproduced, and then shipped to several locations across Europe. So we dove deep into recreating the same concept for different spaces and budgets.

Our different scenarios, technical drawings, and instructions were bundled together into a __detailed style guide__. The guide was shipped across Europe, so that different shops could recreate their own window with our minimal interference.

Coming up with creative concepts is a challenging process. But making them real is a whole other level of thinking and planning. Shout-out to oy’s production and project management skills for making this happen.

Sonos Playbase

Frecious Slowjuice is an organic screw-pressed juicery on a mission: Help people eat more vegetables. Or in this case, drink them. 

And who's a better target for this mission than kids? We've been trying to make them eat vegetables for centuries anyway, so it's about time we try a different approach. But liquid or solid, the challenge remains the same: __how to persuade kids to try the product?__

The juices are made with youngsters __aged 3-12__ in mind. We were already over our heads with marketing vegetable juices to them. So adding insult to injury and calling 12-year-olds kids didn't seem like an effective strategy. After some careful consideration and a quick validation with a focus group, we decided to call the line __Young__ . 

Stories work, especially on little humans. We all grew up listening to tales of brave, smart and hard working heroes, wanting to be just like them.

Frecious was already on a conceptual path when they named their juices after animals, using juice colors for inspiration. The next step was to update the names and give them a good story.

As a naming exercise, we made a list of __cool animals__ and another one of __positive human qualities__, and played a game of name alliterations. The combinations that flowed best and made the most sense won. Simple.

Who wouldn't want to be a Lucky Lion? Or perhaps as Witty and wise as a Whale? __The juices became elixers__ that grant their drinkers the qualities of the protagonist they represented.

We've already established that vegetable juices are not a hot topic for kids. So in addition to visual storytelling and using diversion tactics, we felt like we had to come up with some kind of __persuasive plan__ for when all else fails.

That’s how “Dobbel Trouble” was created: a complimentary dice game __designed to punish parents__ (or whoever is responsible) for the ugly crime of making a child drink a vegetable juice.

Rules of the game: The victim (usually a child) has to down the 100ml bottle in one go. After a quick recovery, they get to roll a pair of dice. One dice represents an animal, the other some kind of action, __the perpetrator must act out the combination__ as payback.

The combinations, of course, are meant to look ridiculous, encouraging kids to drink their juice to get to play. So if you've ever wondered "How do frogs hug?" and have some time to spare, I suggest you give this game a try 🐸

Frecious Young

DIVA is the untold story of Jetta Goudal, a femme fatale movie star from the golden age of Hollywood. Did you know that she’s the only Dutch actress to have a star on the walk of fame? I bet you didn't. Jetta did a great job at keeping her identity and Dutch roots hidden.

Her entire life is shrouded in mystery. She managed to become a world-renowned actress, created unrest in Hollywood by sewing male producers for fair pay, and managed to convince the entire world that she was French aristocracy. You can learn more about Jetta and the book [here](https://divajettagoudal.nl/).

Conceptually speaking, I wanted to recreate the __glamour of the silent movie era__ while paying homage to Jetta’s strong and outspoken personality. For the cover to make the right impression I needed two important ingredients; a font that can speak for itself, and a striking color palette.

To portray Jetta in her full glory, the book was accompanied by a complimentary feature film. Each book was enclosed with a “movie ticket” and a secret code that grants its holder access to the documentary.

Well not me personally, but the book itself received a lot of media attention. Jetta’s secret identity was revealed on national television, and the Dutch could finally reclaim their Hollywood DIVA.

DIVA

Let’s be honest, being a professional creative can be a pain sometimes. Feeling uninspired and a little stuck in my own perfectionist comfort zone, I decided to put my frustration to work.

And that's how [No one saves you](https://no1savesyou.tumblr.com/archive) came to life. A self-initiated creative challenge to help me reboot my process, have fun, and set my judgements aside.

Because no one can save you, only you can save you. If you don’t like your job or the level of your work, if you want to get better, faster or smarter, the only person who can get you there is you. 

And that’s what this project was about really, __saving myself from a creative rut__ instead of waiting for a cool project to drop in my lap.

To fully commit and avoid going all over the place, I created the following set of rules:

1. Make 1 visual per day minimum
2. Use 15 min per visual maximum
3. Create work that's fuelled by emotional states
4. Opt for monochrome designs or a max of 2 colours
5. Commit to 30 consecutive days
6. No skipping days allowed

So at some point life happened, and 30 consecutive days proved to be a little too ambitious. Nearing the end I managed to skip a day which left me extremely demotivated.

Was I at fault for my lack of commitment, __or was it the system that was flawed?__ To get to the bottom of this I decided to give the challenge a second try, using a more realistic approach this time.

Round 2 had some additional rules for skipping days. __I wanted to make sure that this time I'd stay motivated__ instead of quitting altogether. I also removed the colour restrictions to allow myself more room for play.

1. Missing 1 day = 4 visuals in 15 min
2. Missing 2 days = as many as possible in 15 min

In round 2 things got weird and quirky pretty quickly. Focusing less on being aesthetically consistent and more on experimenting, I ended up with some messy and emotionally charged designs. And even managed to slip in some Arabic and Russian typography. It was completely different from my usual style or approach, which was really my true purpose.

Although simple at heart, I learned a great deal by doing this challenge. Like how to go with the flow, approach new things with curiosity instead of fear, and allow myself to trust the process to see where it takes me.

But mostly __I learned about the prototyping mentality__. How to create quickly rather than perfectly, always be open to changing a process, and never stop learning.

Hi, I’m Tania, a product designer who writes articles and hasn’t updated her portfolio in a while (stay tuned). Originally from Beirut, I’m now settled in Amsterdam.