Genki is the Japanese word meaning "lively" or "energetic", and I wanted the designs to reflect this meaning. The big inspiration for this project is the Japanese harajuku street fashion scene, more specifically the harajuku sub-fashion called decora-kei. Decora-kei is easily identified by bright rainbow colors and an overload of hair clips and accessories. I wanted my brand to have the same bright, over-the-top flair of decora-kei, but I also wanted to incorporate darker colors along with the rainbow colors.
With all the product dielines, you can see that many of the products have darker colors, like the dark gray or the navy blue, to contrast with the bright rainbow colors. Another design element I wanted to focus on was stars. All of the products have stars in either the graphics or in the shapes of the products themselves.
The clothing hanger is a triangular-shaped hanger made from sustainable material. The lighter section in the middle is perforated so the user can punch it out to use the hanger to hang their clothes or accessories. It has the starry sky background used in other products, and a cute waving alien in the corner. The back side gives information about Project NightBack, a very real organization that works to reduce and educate about light pollution. Because stars are so heavily featured throughout the brand and the tagline is "Looking to the stars!", light pollution is a serious danger for our ability to see the stars at night, and I wanted to partner with a very real organization that works to address this serious danger.
The watch box contains a watch face and two interchangeable sets of watch bands (shown below). The box itself is secured by two strands of yarn that wrap around the raised clouds, similar to string tie envelopes. The outer flaps are light blue with clouds and rainbows featuring the main four brand colors, and the inner box has the same starry night pattern as the clothing hanger. The sides of the lid form a star shape with the inner box, which also reveals the darker color.
These are the two sets of watchbands included in the watch box. The first watch band features star-shaped bands, which secure with knobs that press into the holes. The second watch band is a squiggly band, which secures into the watch face by weaving in and out of the two holes, and secures around the wrist by interlocking the squiggles. My goal with these watch bands was to experiment with unique watch band shapes, so I kept the colors minimal. I wanted the watch face to have the two holes so users can make their own watch bands, whether it's a Kandi bracelet or a friendship bracelet or what have you. DIY is a big part of the decora-kei fashion scene, and I didn't want to deter users from making their own bands.
Shoebox: The shoebox is a trapezoidal prism, with the opening face in the shape of a trapezoid. The long sides have a dark gray background with the graphics in rainbow colors, reminiscent of rainbow scratch paper, and again referencing the dark colors with rainbow. The other four sides all have a rainbow dripping pattern. The opening face has an enlarged version of Hoshiko, the logo character, looking up at the top of the opening flap with a curious expression, as if she wants to know what's inside. This also guides the user to where the box opens. The bottom of the box shows the shoe size and some background information about Chroma Bear, the character featured on the shoe design.
Shoes: The shoe style is a slip-on canvas shoe. Each shoe has a different design on the top: the left-foot shoe has the head of Chroma Bear and his name in Japanese (クローマ • ベア ), and the right-foot shoe has his full body. They both have the same dripping pattern as the shoebox, but with the main four brand colors. The pattern on the left-foot shoe drips straight down, while the pattern on the right-foot shoe drips at an angle. They both have rainbow leopard-print pattern on a dark gray background on the sides and backside. The rubber soles are in blocks of the 6 rainbow colors, and the toe has the same starry sky pattern as the clothing hanger.
The last pieces of Genki Flash are these clothing hang tags made from sturdy, doubled-up cardstock paper. One features Hoshiko, the other features a shooting star. The pink dashed lines around Hoshiko are meant to resemble stitching, as if it were a sewn plush. The text on the shooting star reads ゲンキ ★ フラッシュ or Genki Flash. The backsides of both are different from the front: Hoshiko looks at the viewer and gives an open-mouth smile, and the shooting star has no text on the back. They are held up by strings of yarn, the same yarn used for the watchbox for more cohesion. As someone who grew up with tons of keychains on every single zipper on their backpack, I wanted these hangtags to double as keychains that someone could put on their backpack or purse.