Cowboy Anime is a anime content studio based in Amsterdam. Their aim is to elevate brand experiences by creating anime based content. That is since anime has risen significantly in popularity and this kind of content adds a lot of personality to brand campaigns.

The main problem the client had was that she wanted to really show her potential clients what the brand was about and so capture the brand's essence in a more obvious way in the branding. It should be clear that it was all about anime but it shouldn't be tacky and overly obvious.

During strategy, we discussed the target audience, her goals, and her ideas at length. We especially covered lots of visual ideas she had in this session. She also explained the meaning behind the name of the brand and how she saw it as an underdog coming out on top concept. I thought there was lots of potential there. In the end, we wanted to show the 'cowboy aspect in the logo but make it subtle and we agreed we wanted something illustrated there as well.

The design process involved lots of exploring. Also in terms of technical aspects related to anime. Since we discussed the meaning of the brand, I wanted to see if we could do something with that. The thought process was as follows: anime is usually very keen on eyes so I wanted to create and illustration that would encompass the brand message and idea in eyes.

In the end, I came up with an illustration that gives a bit of a mysterious vibe (you don't know what she's looking at or thinking) and relates to the underdog idea: don't know what to expect. I wanted to make this illustration completely integral to the brand so I created several variations of it so it could be used everywhere.

For the word mark, I managed to integrate a bit of a nod to the 'cowboy' with the little star / sparkle - this also being a nod to anime with stars being used in eyes quite a lot.

All in all, the client loved this concept and felt it was exactly what she was looking for. I think the thing that made this project so enjoyable and efficient, was close collaboration with the client where she was able to provide input and ideas because in the end, that's what helped in creating these final concepts. And it was my job as a designer to take her ideas and mine to create a concept that would speak to her audience and what she wants to carry out. The outcome is Cowboy Anime as you see it here - branding that will grow as the brand grows where it can realise its potential.