For this project, I created a hypothetical candy brand which would be used as a promotional item with the release of the Wes Anderson Film, The Darjeeling Limited. Along with the design of the candy brand, I created a marketing campaign to sell the candy. For the overall branding, I combined the visual style of Wes Anderson, with some motifs and color representative of the Indian culture as well as some of my own design flair.
For the outdoor promotional campaign, I decided to create a sticker/chalk stencil that could be placed on the floor of malls/outdoor centers to advertise the candy. I was inspired to create this advertising strategy from the traditional Kolam design. Kolam is a form of traditional art. It is produced by using rice flour/chalk/chalk powder/rock powder often using naturally or synthetically colored powders in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and some parts of Goa, Maharashtra, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and a few other Asian countries. Kolams are thought to bring prosperity to homes. Every morning in Tamil Nadu, millions of women draw kolams on the ground with white rice flour. Through the day, the drawings get walked on, washed out in the rain, or blown around in the wind; new ones are made the next day. I felt this was a beautiful way to incorporate more of Indian culture in a way which helped authenticate the theme of the movie as well as strategically promote creative marketing strategies.
The design is an 8.5" x 11" stencil which would be placed over a piece of plain 8.5" x 11" paper. Spray mount, or some lasting glue would be sprayed over the stencil onto the plain sheet of paper. The white sheets of paper will be handed out with a small package of blue holi paint (same dark blue color of brand design). The package of Holi paint will have a sticker with the simple instruction: “Throw on to paper.” When the customer throws the holi paint onto the blank paper, the Holi powder will cling to the glue, revealing the design. A big part of the candy branding identifies with Indian culture. Holi is a big festival in India in which you throw powdered paint at one another to celebrate. We could integrate this into the design as a fun representation of Indian culture, as well as a way to make the advertisement more engaging. Information about the ingredients and which part of India they are from will be on the paint package also to connect the branding with India. In addition, it plays to more current, popular trends in which people value their food based on where the ingredients come from. These fliers would be given out at Holi festival events thrown throughout the US. For example, there is an event in Redondo Beach where people throw Holi paint on the beach, and a live DJ performs. I would give out fliers at this event because it targets a group of people who are already interested in Indian culture.