QUEEN BEE BINGO
This was the first project I worked on at TAU, which at the time was a game changer for the company. It was described as “The best brand the company has ever developed so far” and I could not have been happier.
The original concept that the company had was quite flat and lacked of an appealing back story. I then came up with 3 different scenarios and characters, and the chosen concept was fully developed into a website and other marketing materials.
THE CHALLENGE
TAU was working with a concept that lacked of a back story, it was just a bee with honey. This idea lacked of depth and I thought we could make it a bit more fun.
We needed a character that was likeable and a vibrant visual identity.
THE PLAYERS
Our main bingo players were women in their 60's and 50's, already familiar with other bingo sites; we wanted to bring new players that had a background knowledge for this type of online gaming.
DESIGN PROCESS
We need an eye-catching design, and to be able to tell a story, not just create a character and a logo. This will help to move the brand forward and will benefit the marketing team and the copywriters to set the grounds for the promotions to come.
FIRST STEP
I created 3 back stories, with 3 different characters and we picked the strongest option.
QUEEN OF BEEKINGDOM
Queen Bee is the Royal Ruler of the Bee Kingdom, one of the many kingdoms of The Garden Realm.
Her domains are made entirely of Honey and Flowers which the bees bring from afar.
Everyday, all the bees play bingo, as it is the National Game of the Bee Kingdom.
MARYBEE ANTOINETTE
MaryBee Anoinette loves Bingo so much that sometimes she loses her head over it.
She always plays bingo with her friends, the duchess and countess of the Realm.
She is an independent strong bee who loves flirting and always gets what she wants.
QUEEN BEE BEAUTY PAGEANT
Queenie Bea has been crowned Queen of the Royal Hive Beauty Pageant. All the Bees want to be like her or to date her.
She's the Marilyn Monroe of bees; glamorous, bubbly and has the brightest smile you've ever seen.
When she was crowned she received a honey spoon sceptre, a yellow diamond crown and a life-time supply of Honey and Bingo Tickets!
SECOND STEP
Once we decided to go for the Queen Bee Beauty Pageant concept, we looked into some inspiration for the graphics:
DEVELOPING THE BRAND
I wanted to develop a logo that would work well with and without the character, and would be strong and versatile so that it could be readable both on light coloured and dark coloured backgrounds.
I wanted to have a feminine and powerful identity, therefore I chose a script font combined with a Bold Sans Serif, more generic font. This logo had to coexist with a cartoon environment, therefore it had to be fun.
I created a character that was flexible enough to coexist with other Gaming assets, and could be submerged into other visual scenarios.
I wanted to use a colour palette that would represent the bees, therefore the starting point was a scheme that held Yellow and Dark Brown. We then expanded it to orange and blue, as they work very well together.
I thought that using another typography different from the logo, for the main messages and buttons was the way to go. However I still wanted to go for a fun and up-beat font : Luckiest Guy.
For standard text, Muli was the best choice: it was delicate yet strong.
THE RESULTS
Queen Bee Bingo set a standard for all the brands to come in TAU; it has depth and provided a strong back story for the upcoming promotions that the Marketing Team wanted to launch.
All the assets were thought in detail, as part of the Queen Bee universe. This made the brand truly eye-catching and that translated into a very successful launch.