Project Showcase
Pop Kids
New Oriental is the largest education company in China with over 400 POP Kids learning centres in 60 cities throughout China and more than 30 million student enrollments.
The Bee's Knees
About New Oriental
A character design and development project for one of the world's largest education providers, New Oriental, with over 400 learning centres in 60 cities throughout China and more than 30 million student enrollments.
Lost in translation
Fudge were approached by New Oriental to reimagine a mascot for their POP Kids brand which provides English, Chinese, maths, and art lessons for children aged 3-14 years. The design for their previous mascot had been successful but the sting in the tail for the design was that it was tired and dated and the brand team found it limiting and difficult to adopt throughout their content and the wider brand. The client wanted a fresh approach that was simple enough that it could be used in a modular way through the brand but which was also interesting, engaging and fun for young learners.
Hitting the books
During the consultation phase Fudge worked with the client to agree on a bee character. In Chinese iconography, bees are associated with happiness, good luck, prosperity, and peace. The studio was a hive of activity as we began taking an anarchic approach to the initial character design sketches, providing well over 100 inceptive concepts. These were then whittled down in an iterative design development phase until the client was set on a version that they loved.
We were thrilled when Fudge agreed to re-imagine our POP Kids brand mascot. The team went above and beyond to ensure our thoughts were considered and our understanding of the cultural application of the designs were taken on board. As expected, the feedback from our focus groups has been that the children love it as much as we do!
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