The sportswear brand is adapting its communication to target back-to-school children in many countries.
Nike's swoosh is virtually impossible to miss; the logo has become widespread, and it can be a challenge to introduce something new where so many have done it before. That's why designers at U.S.-based studio Burn & Broad set out to enhance its identity for a young audience.
As such, the New York-based creative firm has imagined several variations for Nike Kids, including a half-chewed watermelon, a fluffy cloud, a dripping popsicle and a space-filled smile. The colorful artwork is a component of the brand's Never Done Playing campaign, which was unveiled this summer.
The target audience of the campaign
Never Done Playing, a back-to-school focused project, aims to "go beyond the competitive side of sports." Instead of demonstrating to parents and children how sport can open up "an imaginative world of play, laughter and fun," this is what it does. Describe studio co-founders Vicente Garcia Morillo and Eugene Serebrennikov.
The campaign combines a live video made by Soursop with typography and 3D graphics created by Burn & Broad to highlight how children's imaginations and "ever-changing" inventiveness can be incorporated into familiar scenarios.
Burn & Broad sought inspiration for the project directly from the children themselves. The studio was also able to change the direction of the campaign, moving away from the "over-the-top treatment" and into more natural territory by watching children play with their family.
The creative process
"As designers, we feel that we possess some childlike imaginative qualities; however, there is no better expert on imagination than a real child," Eugene and Vicente say. "Children see the world differently [...] A banana is a telephone, cracks in the asphalt are channels of hot molten lava, and a skateboard is a space vehicle. That magical, imaginative ability to dream while awake is what we wanted to capture in our designs." The campaign realizes this concept - of imagination bursting into the real world - through an inspired combination of 3D and live action.
"Throughout the creative process we drew hundreds of sketches inspired by sports, summer and the adventurous spirit," the studio continued. After several experiments with both 2D and 3D approaches, Burn & Broad settled on 3D accented lettering for the Never Done Playing logo. Meanwhile, for the graphic execution, the studio fuses 3D space with a "touch of 2D energy lines for layering and depth."
