A branding system+childhood memories stimulates people’s positive emotional feelings and triggers nostalgia
- Clara Choi
- Apr 20
- 3 min read
Olle: way home
The meaning of “Olle” is “the small alley leading to home from the street” as the dialect of Jeju island in Korea.
This concept book shows the concept about planning the nature market for children. The market provides a nature-friendly environment in order to create a new culture for children based on the concepts of wear, eat, play, and rest. The nature-friendly market sells products related to four sections of children’s lifestyles and creates new experiences in order to have good influences on children’s development.
Emotion to branding
What is the most important function to considerate designing a brand identity? As society expands, the gaps between its components begin to close causing the significance and function of “brands” to gain greater importance. As a result, brand identity, the image a brand aims to portray to its customers, is adapting to meet the new environment. Rather than physical messages such as “functionality” or “long-lasting”, emotional responses such as “I had to show this to you when I saw it. Doesn’t it remind you of elementary school?” are becoming valuable. The term “brand identity (BI)” refers to the recent trend of consumers considering a brand they like as more of a person than an item. Through this personification, a brand can express personality and emphasizing these emotional aspects to consumers is known as “emotional branding.” (Gobe, 2010) Emotional brands have a significant impact when the consumer experiences a strong and lasting attachment to the branding, companionship or love. Brands are closely related to emotions and can serve as an indicator or reactions and responses. This is why branding is of such importance to business and commerce. Adding an identifiable “brand” to an otherwise insignificant product can add value and this value is primarily based on emotion. A brand which is emotionally tied can become a long-lasting part of a person’s life. The aim of this research is to find how a branding system incorporated personal childhood memories stimulates people’s positive emotional feelings and trigger nostalgia. Through this research, I will look to connect to the parents’ nostalgia as well as encouraging an interest and appreciation, creating an emotional tie to the brand.
The concept book is made with a 3D paper folding structure that provides a playful aesthetic. I use hand drawings and a traditional Korean window paper texture pattern on the paper because this project is based on my childhood memory.
Childhood memory as a motif
Why a branding system is based upon personal childhood memories? Every designed artifact implies designer’s own experience and thought. Childhood memories guide present behavior and personality. (Tour, 2007) A branding system based upon the memories of my childhood will be designed for this research.
As a child I would often visit my grandmother during breaks. She lived in a traditional Korean home with interiors reflecting her handicraft skills. I can still recall how fragrant trees in the backyard mingled with the smells of delicious food in the kitchen, such as my favorite vegetable pancake that my grandmother prepared with vegetables grown in her garden. The soundtrack was provided by the hum of her sewing machine as she made clothes and toys for me. I have memories of selecting fabric from her large, assorted piles that had different patterns such as small flowers, leaves, or animals on each of cloth. The home decorations featured shapes and patterns from nature and deeply interested me. I remember her door knob shaped as a lotus flower, butterfly furniture handles and blankets patterned with leaves and vines. Traditional doors were made with wood frame and paper inside of her house with the door paper being replaced at the start of every new season. My grandmother always used seasonal elements as decorating pieces such as dry flowers, leaves, and dried fall foliage.
This emotional response is what I hope to visualize into a children’s brand that can connect to a parent’s similar nostalgia. Because kids are the target audiences but the parents have power to consume for children’s products. This branding system will be based on my childhood memories along with my personal connection to nature environment. The branding goal, however, will not be to just appeal to Korean customers, but to the nostalgic feelings of global customers as well. Captivating a wide audience can prove to be difficult as tailoring design to one audience may then exclude another. Research will be based upon the following conceptual framework, showing how the integration of emotion theories and practice to graphic design, especially emotional branding design allows the designer to create BI for arousal positive emotion to build relationship between brand and consumer.
Comments