Pull Pie Pint | Branding and Marketing Design
Pull, Pie and Pint is a YouTube series that will be launching soon starring four guys (some with reality TV backgrounds) and their quest to win a date with a lucky CDO 'Chief Dating Officer' (a single woman). Essentially, in each episode these four men will be given a series of tasks to try and impress a woman. In the end, she’ll decide who gets to ‘pull’ (go on a date) who gets pied (dumped) and who she wouldn’t mind going for a friendly pint with. The show’s concept was all set, now they needed a visual identity.
My Role:
- Logo Design
- Animation
- Print Design
Problem I Was Solving:
My role was to come up with the visuals to match the Pull, Pie and Pint concept. This included the logo, the posters for marketing and the graphics for the YouTube videos. They really wanted the series to be able to stand amongst, and compete with, other online dating shows such as Chicken Shop Date, so they needed the visuals to match. This included a title sequence, coming up slate, bottom thirds, custom transition swipes, badges, winner’s graphics and closing graphics. It was a combination of stills and animation needed.
My Research and Initial Ideas:
My first step was talking with the producers of the series (which included one of the cast members) to get a better sense of what they wanted the show to embody. It was extremely helpful that they already had some ideas in terms of the poster aesthetic and logo. Even though the series was being supported by CLiKD app, they didn’t want that to be a heavy influence in the design. For the logo, they initially suggested a graffiti style, as they felt that aesthetic would appeal to a Gen Z audience.
This was a great starting point, but upon further research into the Gen Z audience and their aesthetic, the graffiti logo idea felt a bit like a more ‘mature’ audience trying to pander to a younger one and say that they ‘understand’ them. The footage for the first episode had already been shot, so by looking through some of it, I was able to have a better gauge of the show. From the venue, The Little Blue Door, to the banter between the guys, I got the sense that the visuals needed to reflect the approachable, but cool vibes both exuded. The Little Blue Door is a site that’s meant to make you feel like you’re at a mate’s house party. The guys had the easy camaraderie of a group of friends meeting up for a cheeky, fun drink. I wanted the visuals to capture that.
I thought it would be fun to play with the idea of signage, especially styles that use a neon light effect. With a show that’s about dating, having the logo as a neon lights sign could put people in the mindset of going to trendy bars with neon light fixtures and it would be a way to visualise the show’s name and its meaning. Not only that, but neon lights are a popular aesthetic (especially amongst Gen Z) that conveys fun and a level of sexiness.
Design Process and Deliverables:
For the logo concept, I knew I wanted to go with the neon lights signage effect, so I started deciding how to represent each aspect of the Pull, Pie and Pint title. For ‘Pull’, I decided on pink lips to represent pulling (English slang for kissing) someone and also, how you hope a good date will end. For the ‘Pie’, I created a literal slice of cream pie (which worked well as the CDO used cream in a pie dish to actually pie the contestants she wasn’t interested in.) Lastly, for ‘Pint’, I made an actual pint.
I had all of these elements encircled. The outer red representing love/passion and the inner blue circle as a subtle nod to CLiKD app. For the lettering, I used the font Bangers and had each of the words in the corresponding colours as the element representing them (i.e pink lips for ‘Pull’ and having the word in the same pink.) The logo concept worked perfectly for an animated title sequence as well (as seen above.)
The colours from the logo (specifically for the Pull, Pie and Pint icons) became the backbone of all the other video assets. I made it into a gradient, which I felt captured some of the show’s vibrancy and would keep a running theme throughout the episodes. This included the closing credits (see above) the bottom thirds, the transition swipes and the poster. I also continued to use the Bangers font, but also combined with Proxima Nova for titles. With the logo, it was the word outlines used to create the neon lights effect, so having the same font with the fill for text in the videos was a good way to continue the link, but have them look different enough.
For the bottom third, you want it to be noticeable and give the relevant information, without taking away from the footage on screen. I still wanted it to connect with the other elements, so I used the same gradient as a thin (animated) strip between the person’s name and their role in the show. I felt this would make it stand out just the right amount. I chose a simple animation with the gradient strip sliding in from the left and slightly expanding as the words emerge from it, then the gradient strip retracting and sliding out the other side of the screen.
For the transition swipes, I had rectangular blocks in the colours of the logo icons slide in and cross each other, before the gradient background fades in and stays (for any text needing to presented) then it fades out again, before the rectangular blocks fade in and cross each other again.
Initially, I also had white lines animated over the gradient, but this ultimately felt too busy and so I removed them.
The coming up slate was pretty simple. Similar to the colour blocking of the rectangular blocks from the transition swipes, the coming up text uses the same colours and the text has both the fill and the outline styles, additionally they flash on the screen in the corresponding colours.
For the videos, they wanted badges to be able to show how the contestants were doing. For example, were they getting close to being pied or possibly on route to getting ‘friend zoned’ with a friendly pint? Initially, I thought of having the badges in the style of Boy Scouts badges to reflect the cheeky, youthful nature of the guys, but this felt like quite a departure from the sophisticated, yet fun style that had been cultivated in the visuals so far. So, I took the icons from the logo and continued with the neon effect and having the icons in circles.
For the pièce de résistance, crowning the winner, the graphics needed to be eye catching and celebratory. To achieve this, I made a psychedelic swirling background, had the text ‘WINNER!!’ spin in and pulsate, as well as have the winning man’s cut-out slide in from the bottom and sway. The cut-out wasn’t meant to be refined, it was meant to be as if it was literally cut from a photo or magazine and added to a scrapbook to give the visual a more playful look.
Lastly, all that was need was the posters to market the show. Majority of the marketing would be done across social media, predominately Instagram and Facebook, so they needed square and stories sizing. Using the initial mood board as inspiration, I wanted to create a poster with the Trainspotting sort of aesthetic as a nod to that period and British male camaraderie. The on-set photographer provided me with a range of shots of the boys, so I removed the backgrounds of one of the photos, made it black and white, then used that as my base. I overlayed the previously used gradient on top (twice, to increase the colour’s intensity) and added a slight grain effect for that nostalgic touch. I experimented with other fonts, but ultimately keeping Bangers felt right and added an aspect of playfulness to the posters. The decision to not have the logo on the posters was one that I felt added mystery to the show’s concept and could entice viewers. So now, we just wait for the show’s launch date.
Client’s Opinions:
They absolutely loved the visuals and felt that they captured the exciting, cool nature of the show.
Tools/Programmes I Used:
- Adobe After Effects
- Adobe Illustrator
- Adobe Photoshop