What I did

In 2017 oy went through a mini-rebrand. And to communicate this update they planned on sending out a promo piece to existing and potential clients. The piece had to showcase equal parts of conceptual thinking and production muscle in the hope of attracting more conceptual work.

Making ideas real is what oy do best, which explains their slogan at the time: "we make your story come to life". Building on that thought, I decided to make their own story come to life.

To kickstart ideation I took a quick look at the history of storytelling, which turns out originates from hunter-gatherer societies. Our ancestors would gather at the end of a long day and share stories by the warmth of fire, stories of which plant not to eat, which route to avoid and so on. And although we don't do that exact thing today, we're still wired to appreciate and participate in the act of storytelling.

Most of us can manage to tell a story, but it takes certain talents to craft and present a captivating version worthy of lending an ear to. __Think creative brief vs. final artwork__, the way you package and present a narrative really matters.

Hoping to revive the tradition of storytelling, oy's promo piece is an invitation to join them around a “fire”. In that setting, oy would first hear out the client's story in the form of a pitch or a brief, then they'd proceed to making that story real.

“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 mostly symbolic. We chose a black firestarter necklace, calling on the receiver to “start a fire”. The package that contains it, however, breathes life into it.

Imagine a vast night sky, the copper of dancing flames and embers, the flying sparks and raising smoke; little details come together to create __an unboxing experience full of mystery.__

*Who are oy? Why send a firestarter? Can it actually start a fire?* The promo piece raises a lot of questions. It demonstrates concepting, design and production skills, and most importantly sparks interest. Which is exactly what oy wanted: a catalyst to get the conversation flowing.

oy firestarter

Setting: Doha, Qatar. Opportunity: A booming expat community also means a growing demand for entertainment. Which is exactly what Mystique Events has dedicated the past 6 years to - creating fresh hospitality concepts. And in 2018 they approached me with an interesting challenge, the branding of a new club with a very peculiar name: Kapital 4.

Naturally, my first question was "why Kapital 4"? Except there was no rational reason behind the club naming aside from its originality. You can say it's expert intuition and  call it a day, but like any messiah (mad man? creative?) knows, you need a good story to attract a following. So what story could appeal to the expat community of Doha?

There were over 87 different nationalities living in Qatar at that moment. So you could say that people have come to Doha from all __4 corners of the world__ to work hard and play hard. All they need is a roof to host them, their very own __capital__.

I created the logo mark by combining the 4 sides of a compass (4 corners of the world) and then formed a grid hosting the number 4. The delicate lines of the logo mark 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, the vibrant colour palette is made to stand out in the dark setting of a night club. The structured grid ensures the strategic placement of each element but also allows enough room to create dynamic and playful layouts.

How to reverse-engineer a branding exercise

What I learnd

Kapital 4

As a brand 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 we received was simple: design a head-turning retail window for the European market. So we rolled up our sleeves, won the pitch (yay!), and then it was time to bring the concept to life.

Promoting a cutting-edge speaker without using sound

Playing sound in the window wasn't an option, so we had to ask ourselves: what does sound look like? And after a decent amount of research and head-scratching, we finally found our answer while flipping through Sonos’s brand guidelines: __like a timeless sound ripple__.

Now here comes the art-direction part: We imagined a slick scandinavian black room with an animated LED sound ripple placed directly in front of a white Sonos speaker. As if the ripple was being created by the player every time the sound goes on. It was a little more conceptual than what Sonos had initially signed up for, but they loved it!

After selling the concept our design needed to be prototyped, tested, reproduced and then shipped to several locations across Europe. So as a next step we dove into making the same set up work with different space restriction and styling budgets in mind, without compromising the original concept.

We ended up with a bunch of scenarios, technical drawings and instructions. These eventually came together in the form of a __detailed style guide__ that was sent to all the different shops so they can create their own window.

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

What I learned 

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 kids juices are made with youngsters __aged 3-12__ in mind. We were already over our heads trying to make them drink vegetable juices, so to add insult to injury and call 10, 11 and 12 year olds kids on top of everything felt like too much of a stretch.

So after careful consideration, and some quick user-research, we decided to call the line __Young__ . Because nobody minds being called young, am I right?

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 the colours of the juices as a starting point. 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 set of two 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 🐸

How to design packaging for little humans.

What I learned

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? My guess is that you didn't, as she did a good job at keeping her Dutch roots hidden.

Jetta's entire life is shrouded in mystery. She had managed to become a world renowned actress, created much unrest within Hollywood with her feminist behaviour, and managed to lie to the entire world about her real identity. 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 hommage to Jetta’s strong and outspoken personality. After all, she was the first female movie star to go to court against a major Hollywood producer.

So for the cover to make the right impression, I needed iconic design elements: a font that can speak for itself and a colour palette that would grab the immediate attention of our audience.

To portray Jetta at her at her full glory, the book was also accompanied by a complimentary feature film. Each book contained a “movie ticket” with a secret access code, glued to the inner flap.

The documentary wasn’t communicated as “free” or “complimentary” but rather as __“exclusive”__ and __“special for readers”__. 

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 population could finally reclaim their Hollywood DIVA.

DIVA

Role

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 designer who likes wearing multiple creative hats. Originally from Beirut, I’m now settled in Amsterdam. Take a look at some of my work below ↓