Branding the Real Space in Digital World

Physical branding is not just a luxury, it is a necessity. It gives a brand more channels of expression. Experiencing the brand physically in its entirety cannot be replaced. Today, brand identity is made on social media. Whilst everything moves towards digital mediums, brands that also exist in physical spaces craft connections with their audiences

Studio Big fat believes the tactile aspect of packaging and physical branding makes a brand stand out. They like to approach packaging projects in a way that all aspects of story telling unfurl from it and other communication facets are extrapolated from there.

The most important aspect of their packaging, a baseline test is that the design should empower the product to make for a gift. A simple success formula, but one that is difficult to master.

Their first step is to establish what the brand needs to communicate and to who. Everything is anchored to that. Sometimes ideas that one doesn’t expect to work, is the winning one.

When working on the Subko Coffee packaging the studio’s initial plan was not to use illustrations and adopt a cleaner style. However, once added, illustrations brought just the right amount of contrast to the otherwise minimal design. Hence, it comes from experience when they say, “Sometimes one's intuition can be off and it's good to test out all iterations before shelving it”.

Branding has always been linked to a defining fixed identity, but Studio Bigfat’s project for Anomaly proves it’s not always crucial. It is time to be experimental and not stick to the archaic system for branding. Sometimes the branding is the name itself- what follows can be visual iterations of that name. A more dynamic, open-system for branding is often viable

The design world is always on the move and to keep up with it, they are on a mission to expand their skill-set and dive into the 3D space. They have experimented with AI and MR for clients and believe that it is an exciting space to venture into. With web3 taking over, soon these mediums will transfuse and we will see more branding and packaging projects utilising it.

The studio has also recently worked on the branding of a unique restaurant, Ishaara. A restaurant that serves great food - but also happens to work with staff that's hearing and speech impaired.

Their focus wasn’t to use it as a gimmick for marketing. Instead, their approach is very empowering. The restaurant has basic sign language markers to place an order it's immersive where you meet halfway with communication cues.

The studio has helped in the positioning of many brands over the years and now the founder, Annirudh Mehta wants to develop his own brand, a playground for tinkering with concepts, and for designs to become more tangible. He is deeply interested to dive into facets of fashion, music and art. He believes there's probably a market for every style and visual identity trend and when it comes to building a brand identity, if it’s authentic it will work. Good designs stand the test of time.

The best piece of advice he has received would be to not get complacent and comfortable with where you're at in your creative journey. One shouldn’t settle for mediocrity. It’s one’s duty to try to put out equally inspiring work from the creative ecosystem that has given them so much