Kiki Yip

Off/On
  • Typography, Graphic

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Off/On: Bringing back nostalgia and unconventionality to Hong Kong’s songscapes

Sep-Nov 2024

Project typeCommercial work
Category
Typography, Graphic design
Project roleSong title typography, poster graphic design
Client
Collar
Credits Creative Direction | Lamdee @nocompany, Creative & Assistant Director | Jo Choi @nocompany, Song Title CG Artist | Brian Lam @nocompany, Song Title Typography | Kiki Yip @nocompany, Graphic Design | Roma Leung & Kiki Yip @nocompany

Overview

"Off/On" is a catchy pop song by Collar, one of Hong Kong's most popular girl groups. During my internship at nocompany, I was in charge of designing the song title typography for Off/On that will be used 4 touch points: the thumbnail image, the music video, the cover of this single, and the promotional materials on their social media. I was also in charge of designing the promotional materials on their social media using collages created by the photographer. The song title and promotional posters are designed to reflect the boldness and unconventionality of the artists and match with the nostalgic Y2K aesthetics of the music video.

About the song

Like flipping a light switch, the song captures those moments when we're either bursting with energy or desperately need to slow down. Sometimes we're restless and want to dance, other times we're overwhelmed and need a break. The lyrics conveys a sense of energy, urgency, and rebellion, encouraging everyone to live in the moment and be unafraid of change.

Brainstorming ideas

I started by looking into three things for inspiration:

1. The theme of the song
The two core themes are living in the moment and flipping between opposite states—either bursting with energy or "shutting down." It prompted me to think about expressing contrast through typography. Such contrast could be expressed through various juxtapositions: wide and narrow font widths, bold and light weights, ordered rigid fonts against chaotic freeform calligraphy, or modern sans serif versus classic serif...

2. The art direction of the music video
The music video is Y2K-coded. The artists are styled in fashion popular in the 2000s. It prompted me to think about what else was popular at that time. From my research, apparently chunky, slanted fonts were popular, used by Björk on her eccentric record covers and The Powerpuff Girls as their logo; an iconic font at that time was Planet Kosmos. Glittery, holographic motifs seemed to be everywhere. These could serve as the inspiration for my type design and graphic design.

3. The imagery used in the music video
The imagery of girls chewing bubble gum appeared multiple times throughout the song, from the start to the climax. What if I craft letterforms that resemble the shape of bubble gum, in that sense making the letters blobby and round? What about rendering the logotype in 3D software to create realistic bubble gum textures?

Iterations

After ideating, testing and reviewing several logo design options, I adjusted the logotype to create a more organic and random aesthetic by randomising stroke thickness, slightly misaligning letters, creating rougher curves resembling ink splats, and making each letter unique. Two versions were tested: letters facing different directions and letters with unified orientation. We concluded that the unified orientation worked better for the music video, being more dynamic and creating a stronger composition. 


Final design

For the song title typography, A 3D version resembling chewing gum was developed for the music video, while the 2D version was used for still images.

For social media promotion materials, I drew inspiration from the sparkly and iridescent aesthetics popular in the 2000s. I created glittery versions of Collar's logo and added holographic sticker name tags for each band member on the posters. 

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