The aims are many, but amongst them is the aim to convey an identity that goes beyond ‘brand’, that says something deeper and profound about the subject that viewers will instantly connect with and understand, and to achieve all of this in less than ten seconds. In this format, the company/entity is metamorphosed into the protagonist in a suggested narrative, where every visual and audible cue is a plot point that fans out story-lines in myriad possible directions.

The story is directed but only to the point of creating enticing possibilities of narrative in the viewer’s mind. This process establishes an intimate relationship between protagonist and viewer, to the point where the viewer sees themselves as the main character of the story – the viewer in effect then decides his/her fate in the narrative based on their desire for adventure on the one hand, tempered by their self-preservation instincts on the other.

This is a seriously powerful moving image technique that promotes brand affiliation through breaking down the subject – object relationship between consumer and consumed. The aim is not to explain, but to suggest and entice. It is a fine art.

Here then the company name offered a real possibility to explore this narrative technique. I designed a logo that exudes ‘mystery’, drawing on our collective unconscious understanding of the archetypal, deep, dark woods and using an Aubrey Beardsley style of pen and ink, art-nouveau drawing. This set the mood and from this point the narrative and the viewers’ imagined adventures could begin to take shape.

I could waffle on all day about this but it’s probably best if you watch the sequence below and see if anything I have said makes sense.