Case Study: Branding the Beast
I recently had the pleasure of working on a logo for a company my friends and I are starting up. The modus operandi is fairly similar to what I do in my freelance life: UI/UX, Branding, and Motion Graphics primarily. We're still working on getting it off the ground, but I was excited enough to brand our venture.
We settled on the name Kaiju. For the uninitiated, kaiju refers to giant Japanese monsters (think Godzilla and Mothra, but also things like Pacific Rim and Colossal). The term kaiju refers to both the monsters themselves as well as the movie genre in which those monsters feature. We love these creatures, and interact with them in a variety of media. I've played board games like King of Tokyo and Monsterpocalypse, and loved (admittedly horrible) movies like Godzilla: Final Wars. So we wanted our love of the genre to show through the branding. It also fits us quite well. That is, we want to create brands and experiences that will, so to speak, 'shake up a city'.
From Left to Right: Iello's King of Tokyo, Privateer Press's Monsterpocalypse, and Toei's Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah
I tried a few approaches, but eventually settled on using the kanji for kaiju, which is 怪獣. For the logotype, I chose a serif font (Caslon) to pay homage to, but not emulate, the Japanese use of serifs in translation software (see below for an example). I kept the original accent on the u (something that won't render in the type here on Squarespace) in order to preserve some of the flair of the original. The monster in the kanji is a modified silhouette with some extra splatter thrown in to help the logo feel more full and alive.
The rest of the auxiliary assets came very naturally. I was staring this bright red-on-black beast in the face, and it occurred to me to create a sizzle reel informed by the mood and sound of AKIRA, the seminal Japanese post-apocalyptic animated film. A second mark of sorts, based on a calligraphy ink stamp I received as a child, was a logical next step. The color scheme is straight out of my love for media like Battle Royale, AKIRA, and more recently, Isle of Dogs. I wanted this to feel like a Love Letter to Japan.
I've been slowly experimenting with the other elements as well. Tweaking colors, adding textures and backgrounds, and doing my best to make Kaiju feel alive. I'm rather proud we were able to snatch up the kaiju.city domain name for when the website goes live. Here's hoping we have a long and fruitful career of punching buildings in Tokyo.
