Chooby creation
When I was approached to work on Chooby the client had a business concept, and a name – Great Aussie Toystore.
Design as a strategic tool
After discussing some of the implications and strategies regarding brand names, the client was open to new possibilities. My proposal was to create a brand to enable the company to sell its own brand of toys.
The objective was to create a character-based identity to give the business a personality. I began the naming process with ‘Benny’, and an imaginary animal I called a ‘Koalaroo’. Finally, Chooby was selected, an identity capable of bringing the company’s brand to life.
Creating mischief
A key objective of the brand was to personify ‘fun’. This was translated into the Chooby character mischievously appearing on the letterhead, business cards, and throughout the web site.
Moulin Rouge
Baz Luhrmann makes awe-inspiring films for a mainstream audience. My role throughout the six-month project was as Creative Lead, responsible for driving the vision, distilling the creative strategy into project deliverables, liaising with Baz and managing the Web team for delivery to Twentieth Century Fox (US).
The making of a film…web site
Baz wanted to create an experience that allowed the audience to discover the film’s theme, its characters and the historical background of the Moulin Rouge.
Early concept design…
I worked with Baz to evolve the original concepts through a ‘grunge filter’ to produce a Monty Python’esque view of the Moulin Rouge world.
What if…
The objective of ClubMR was to get the audience to create a parallel between the Moulin Rouge and today’s nightclubs as a way to understanding how the real Moulin Rouge fit into the lives of Parisians. The preferred direction was to create the possibility that the Moulin Rouge of the 1700’s existed in the heart of contemporary New York.
The visuals of the site show the Parisian club in a grungy New York setting, the central attraction for a queue of clubbers waiting behind the velvet rope. Nicole Kidman’s character Satine provides a provocative glimpse of what ‘might’ be in the Club. The visual design was also inspired by the Beatle’s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band album cover, which places famous people surrounding the Beatles.
Stonker appeal
Stonker is a world-class kiteboard manufacturer based in Melbourne, Australia.
My objective was to create a distinctive board and merchandise range for sale in Japan. The project involved market and design research, ideas generation, identity development, visual conception and the creation of distinctive graphics.
Made for stonking
The Stonker logo is based on the Japanese Hanko – an official family stamp that is used as a signature for approving documents. I wanted an iconic emblem that would be immediately distinguishable to the Japanese consumer while retaining a Western attitude.
The elements
Japanese artistic elements in paintings to represent natural elements such as wind and water were utilised to create a graphic library that could then be combined in different ways allowing for a rapid concept prototyping. Although I drew on these traditional Japanese graphic concepts, the final graphics were produced using my own illustration style to create an East-meets-West aesthetic.
For example, the waves in the above sketches are based on archetypical Japanese Ukiyo-e art prints depicting wild seas. The most famous is attributed to Katsushika Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa from his 36 Views of Mount Fuji series.
The board meeting
The board printing process restricted the palette to two colours. Instead of this restriction limiting the creative process, it became the basis for the series.
In ancient Japan, colours played a significant role in defining the class of a citizen. The samurai clans were noted for their omnipotent colours. Subsequently, I chose three samurai clan colours to design the board series: Kokihi (Red); Tokusairo (Green); and Ruriiro (Blue).
Wearable style
The illustrated and extensive graphic library provided the flexibility to create numerous t-shirt designs, and the range reinforces the board series.
