Todd Huynh shared a branding project that he worked on for Artkey Universe, a creative studio specializing in manufacturing technological handmade accessories with the main product being art mechanical keycaps. The brand's manifesto is to turn desk accessories into works of art through the artist's ingenuity and imagination. Additionally, transforming the experience of discovering and owning products into unique exciting journeys is the goal of the brand's mission as well. The brand identity has been designed to reflect those missions and affirm Artkey Universe's pioneering in the field of artistic and technological craftsmanship. With that groundbreaking modern art spirit, Futurism became the inspiration in the design of the brand identity of Artkey Universe.
The brand's logo is inspired by the connection between technology, the Artkey Universe, and the skillful hands of the artisan. The characters in the logo are structurally cut with strong, modern curves. The inspiration for it comes from space exploration. In other words, in the journey to explore the universe, planets and objects are strongly illuminated, creating extreme boundaries of light and darkness . Moreover, this delicate chiselling of the structure, also speaks to the ingenuity of the artisan when he has to create very small but delicate and highly handcrafted details for each product.
Creating a discovery experience is the brand’s core design philosophy. To pair with the strong and evocative spirit of the logo, the key visual was created on the idea of establishing a series of energy gates leading to Artkey Universe, inhabited by interesting characters and planets not yet to be discovered.
This energy gate became a symbol of curiosity and appeared throughout the brand identity. In addition, the energy gates are also transformed in terms of display and form to appear consistent throughout the process of discovering - experiencing - owning - unboxing products of customers. Artkey Universe makes that journey more enthusiastic and appropriate through interactions with both physical and digital publications.
“Gift from the universe” is the message from Artkey Universe to their customers. The keycap packaging is carefully calculated so that customers can interact with the gateway to get to the miracles within. With the combination of novel structure and key visuals of the brand, the unboxing experience for customers becomes more thrilling and exciting. In addition, the accompanying collectables are also attractively designed to bring the story of space exploration to the customers.
Credit
- Client: Artkey Universe
- Art direction & graphic design: Todd Huỳnh
- Showcase photography: Geno - Chiron Duong
- Product Photography: Artkey Universe - Thuat Vo
- Illustration: Uyên Nguyễn
- Production: Bằng Lâm
- Motion designer: Trung Nam
- Support: Thanh Duy
