Nakano First Vending
CONSULT: We met with client in true Japanese fashion—in Japan! Initially just on vacation, Leslie & Christopher met with Nakano-san simply for the pleasure of his entertainment. This soon developed into a business conversation, and a new logo concept began to emerge for the vending machine company.
RESEARCH: Japan is the vending machine capital of the world, where hot and cold drinks are dispensed from the same machine. Logos are literally everywhere, and we studied them with enthusiasm as well as took note of all the local packaging, which typically used bright colors and bubble letters. Nakano specifically sold Pepsi products and was based out of Matsumoto, a small town outside of Nagano (where the 1998 winter Olympics took place)—this was researched as well.
EVOLVE: It was decided that a simple iconic logo would definitely be the answer. Leslie and Christopher returned to the States and began doing sketches and creating workable ideas.
ASSEMBLE: With the advent of the worldwide web, we were able to send jpegs of 3 proposed logos across the global village to Nakano-san.
TAILOR: In an unprecedented move, Nakano approved the second logo without any changes.
EXECUTE: We worked directly with a local printer and sign shop (Graphic Arts of Gulf Breeze), designed labels for all of the vending machines with the logo and a contact number as well as vehicle lettering. T-shirts were designed and sent to a local screen-printer, then shipped overseas. We also set up a logo disk with several usable formats of the logo.
