OUGD601: COP PRACTICAL- Finding a company/ product to rebrand

Finding the product to rebrand:

At this point in the project I needed to find a product or company to rebrand. This was going to be a tough decision. Originally I had the idea to relate it to Japanese sweets and chocolate. I did some research into this thinking about different ways in which I could bring this Japanese sweet style into my project. I looked at some of the most famous Japanese brands and thought about how I could bring these to the west. I also thought about switching the roles round and trying to rebrand a western sweet or chocolate for Japan. I experimented with these ideas playing around with some initial sketches and designs. Although I liked this idea of branding a western product for Japan, this would not have been appropriate. I say this as I am not Japanese. Although I have conducted research on Japans and its social and cultural values this does not allow me to understand there culture enough to brand and package for them due to the language barrier. I experimented trying a snickers bar in a Japanese type. Although I felt this looked successful I felt it would be more suitable to choose a Japanese product to rebrand for here.

how would the sweet above look in the uk experiment:

 Snickers in Japanese style experiment:

Moving on from sweets:

After analysing Japanese brands like Muji and Uniqlo and discussing in a crit, I realised that it might be more successful to choose a set of products that don't necessarily jump out at you. What I mean by this is too choose like Muji has, something people may see as boring i.e. a basic range of something. We have seen this done with stationary and basic clothes ranges, in Japanese style. I felt this would be a really good way to get into the design side of this project. Take something in Japan, seen as boring and everyday, and rebrand to give it a new look and appeal to a new western audience. This could work well, encapsulating them with a Japanese ethos and values. After thinking for a while, I decided on choosing kitchen appliances, such as surface sprays and washing up liquid. I wanted to find the perfect set of products. I wanted something that looked everyday and the Japanese version of ‘Flash’. To find this was harder than expected… I searched for quite a while before getting anything solid, I think this was due to the language barrier when searching. This was until I found an article giving me some of the most well known cleaning products in Japan.

About Magic Lynn:

'Since the birth of 1971, Magic Lynn has been changing while looking at people's lives. As life style changes with the times, the type of dirt has also changed. 
Magic Lynn has sensitively captured changes in various times and has constantly developed new products while constantly aware of the lives of the Japanese people. However, I did not think about just cleaning. Magic Lynn cherishes it is a clean residence and a family living there. People gathering there. There are families' conversations and interactions in various spaces of homes, which makes me feel the importance of the day. That's why I want a house to be clean and comfortable. Magic Lynn is a detergent for living in a family.'

This lead me onto finding ‘Magic Lynn’ (translated to English). These set of products looked perfect, not in a design sense but one in terms of being perfect to adapt and change. They have a cheesy aesthetic which matches our cleaning products in the UK. There current branding is very predictable, using bright colours mixed with imagery of clean kitchen parts. The logo straight away screams japan, not just through the type but the use of national colours.   This was important as this gave me free range to create a completely new aesthetic to appeal to western consumers completely differently.