We Are Family
client
Blue Zoo
services
Strategic Insight Production Design
Brand Identity
Guidelines
date
Launched 2022
In a fix? Call this can-do crew
Step into the world of Big Tree City – a colourful, stylised series created by animation studio Blue Zoo in collaboration with Netflix.
When there’s trouble in town, Big Tree City Rescue (led by Major Prickles) are on hand to save the day. From tech whiz Tricks to firefighter Flame and medical pro Kit to plumber Splash, there’s an expert for every emergency.
Skew at your service
With a tight production schedule and high-pressure deliverables, Blue Zoo needed us to quickly step in and start on the show's brand identity, character identities and title treatment.
Working alongside director and showrunner, Adam Shaw, we climbed on board and leapt into action…
Playing by the rules
Our client needed a brand identity that worked within both worlds – the show itself and Netflix. The colourful cityscape of Big Tree City is built in a modular, soft style with blocks of colour and no hard corners. So our work would need to fit into this landscape whilst working for commercial purposes, too.
When it comes to children’s entertainment, you’re up against all things bright and bold. In order to stand out, simplicity is key – so everything had to be stripped back in order to create something instantly recognisable in a streaming service library.
To the rescue…
By treating brand identity as brand extension, you can take your brand a whole lot further. So by thinking way beyond the title treatment, our client actually got an identity system that could be used everywhere from billboards to app icons.
The client needed our work to be digital first, with ‘instant appeal’ to stand out. By doing hundreds of sketches, simplifying (then simplifying again…and again) the show’s production design – we crafted the characteristics of each team member into a logo that children would easily understand, recognise and recall.
Mission Major Pickles? Accomplished
With nine identities in total – including seven for the characters, one for the team, one for the show as a whole and a title treatment, too – we finished up with a super effective, instantly recognisable identity suite that could extend to Netflix and beyond. Go team!
Amazing work from everyone involved at Skew. Always so creative and a delight to work with. The branding is gorgeous.
— Adam Shaw, Director and Showrunner, Blue Zoo
