ISUX Design Trend Report

In this article, we will share our insight about the character industry, the second theme of the ISUX Design Trend Report. Characters are frequently used as a marketing tool because they can provide friendly and positive images by applying them to services or products. As the number of ‘Kidults’ has increased, the character market is expanding a lot recently. In the past, while characters were treated as things for young children, now the culture of consuming character-related products is more focused on the 20–30s. People are eager to buy the limited editions of character items designed by character collaborations.

This research will first share the overall flow of the character market and introduce some recent character branding cases along with notable character collaborations.

As all the countries have their own culture and emotions, popular characters in each country can be different. But when we look through the characters that are popular in various countries, we can see that well-branded characters can get global popularity. Traditionally, characters in animation, comics, and games have become popular but nowadays, characters from online messenger stickers are loved by many people regard to the usage of messenger apps. The characters created from online messengers are not only staying online but they are applied to various products and compete with traditional characters in the offline market.

According to the Korea Creative Content Agency, the global character market grew about 180.6 billion dollars in 2018, which increased about 20 percent from 2009 (151 billion dollars).

We’ve found there are 4 characteristics of the character market. First, unique storytelling is very important. Second, it is easier to cross borders and be loved than simple consumer goods, so multicultural sensitivity is important. Third, the license business is very important because it accounts for more than 50% of the total sales. Fourth, there are many cases of ‘One source multi use’ that transforms and expands original content into various forms.

Traditionally, characters born in comic books, TVs, and games have been very popular for a long time. But recently, online sticker characters that help express emotions on messengers are becoming more popular as the use of messenger apps such as Kakao and LINE increases. In addition, as the character industry develops, artist-based companies create character brands with unique stories which a lot of brands wants to collaborations with. China’s Molly, Korea’s Sticky Monster Lab and Super Fiction are the representative examples.

If you look at the characteristics of popular characters, there is a unique and easy-to-remember story that is not so different from our everyday life which we can easily sympathize with. Niniz and BT21 characters which were designed recently also have interesting background stories.

As the characters are used as online stickers, witty characters that can convey various emotions are becoming more popular. Rather than simply a cute character, somewhat nerdy and unique characters are popular.

A simple and cute shaped character is popular. A simple looking character is not only cute and pretty in shape, but also can be applied to various products using the basic character shape.

As 3D technology develops, 3D characters with vivid textures are also loved by people. 3D characters with detailed textures can be attractive even for adults.

China

1)Various animal characters are popular. 2) Characters from other countries are also popular in China.

Korea

1)Characters from online stickers in messenger apps are popular. 2) There are many characters family brands rather than an individual character brands.

USA

1)Characters from animation are popular. 2) It is a somewhat in rough form, but funny characters are popular in internet memes.

Japan

1)There are many characters in unique hand drawing style. 2) Many characters are from games and animations. 3) Characters are used in various field of industries such as local governments and transportation cards.

Recently, there are many cases in which character businesses are expanded by collaborating with various industries. And there has been a collaboration with trendy fashion brands, popular artists or products with state-of-the-art technology which tend to expand character’s brand images. From the standpoint of a company or a brand, it is possible to convey a friendly and positive image through a character. We have summarized the noticeable cases of character collaboration.

This is a collaboration of Korea’s street brand Covernat and Ryan, which is one of the most popular character of Kakao Friends. A character collaboration can easily become cute but since they only applied Ryan which has with no expression on his face, it matched well with Covernat’s unique street brand image.

Anti Socal Social Club has used their flexible logo applying various phrases or brand names. In this collaboration, they applied their logo with the BT21 character, brand name and logo which is not too cute or awkward and harmonized well with the ASSC’s unique brand style.

This is a campaign that Nike collaborated with Super Fiction on 2019 Airmax day. The user can create a character lottery ticket taste and can upload it on the instagram with a hash tag. The character identity of the Super fiction was applied well on Nike, and the campaign using SNS attracted the young consumers.

Global fashion brand Uniqlo has launched the KAWS X SESAME STREET UT collection, which is a collaboration between global pop artist KAWS and a popular children’s TV program SESAME STREET. UT (UNIQLO T-Shirt) is a unique T-shirt applying the pop culture concept such as music, art, film and animation which Uniqlo has selected.

Korea’s leading cosmetics brand Etude House collaborated with Disney’s lovely pig character Piglet to celebrate the golden pig year of 2019. ‘Happy with Piglet Collection’ is a limited edition, offering a cute package and various products that can create a lovely makeup which will bring good luck to the new year.

As K-beauty market grew, VT Cosmetics applied BT21 and BTS as the main models for their brand. They used BT21 characters in package designs and recently opened a pop-up store.

The fashion magazine Esquire described Ryan as a real selves and applied him as their cover model. They designed the cover by compositing the 3D Ryan with a real background which make the character feel more like a real model.

This was a collaboration project of Super Fiction and global fashion brand Maison Kitsune. They designed a toy figure reflecting the identity of fox character of Maison Kitsune. In front of the first Maison Kitsune store in Korea, a large sculpture of this fox is being exhibited.

LINE Friends had a very unique collaboration with Helvetica, the font that represents Swiss modernism. This collaboration has got attention from the design industry and also gave consumers a fresh impression since it was the first collaboration between un-materialized font and a character brand.

Kakao Friends had a collaboration between calligraphy artist Kelly Park and Apeach to open Kakao Friends Tokyo store. Kakao Friends Tokyo runs ‘Studio Kakao Friends’, which collaborate with creators from various fields around the world. The first project was with Korean calligraphy artist Kelly Park. Apeach’s lovely pink identity and Kelly Park’s powerful and stylish calligraphy were combined and created trendy and unique products.

This is a collaboration between Japan’s camping brand Snowpeak and LINE Friends. Snowpeak is well known for their craftsmanship in the camping equipment industry and also famous for excellent design quality and nature-loving spirit. Snowpeak tried to apply the warm and friendly brand tone of LINE Friends into the their products which was outstanding.

This is collaboration between LINE Friends and french stationary brand Rhodia, which is a especially loved by artists and designers. This is a case that LINE Friends’ lovely character image was well applied to Rhodia’s luxury and artistic brand image.

Café and bakery Quartet opened their second shop on the third floor of the Kakao Friends Gangnam flagship store and released the collaboration menu and goods. In addition to all the packages used in the cafe, the bakery also applied Kakao Friends’ characters, which gave the fun and wit to the Quartet brand.

This is a collaboration between Tencent ISUX’s new character ‘PUPU’ and Naixue, a popular fruit tea brand in China. It is introduced along with the PUPU Fantasy Travel exhibition and is being sold at Naixue stores throughout Shenzhen, China.

This is a collaboration project between Brown and Bang & Olufsen, a Danish company that manufactures expensive audio devices. Brown’s symbolic color and face were restrictively applied to the minimal design of Bang & Olufsen to maintain their high-end brand image.

This is a collaboration between Xiaomi and Line Friends which is based on Xiaomi’s “Super Me (SUPER MI) concept. This edition applies the story of Brown, who has gained superpowers and became ‘Super Brown’ after he met Xiami. Xiaomi and LINE Friends will continue to have various collaboration.

Clova Friends is an AI speaker brand made by LINE Friends’ mother company, Naver. Using the LINE Friends character Brown and Sally, they designed a cute and friendly artificial intelligence speaker. A lot of cute characters are tend to be applied to AI speakers since characters can make people feel more friendly to the device and have emotional access to it. Recently, they have designed some special editions through collaboration with Doraemon and Minions which were very popular.

A collaboration of the popular PC game Battle Ground, which is being serviced by Kakao Games. Kakao Friends designed a Ryan doll who dressed like a character in the game and also few items that fans of Battle Ground game would love.

Supercell’s famous game Clash Royale and Kakao Friends made a snack game together in which the characters of Clash Royale were redesigned with Kakao Friends characters.

Mobile games using Walt Disney’s IP are being released one after another. Sundaytoz has released ‘Disney Pop’ which is a mobile casual puzzle game.

As various characters are created, there are a lot of attempts to make each characters distinctive from other brands since character business is getting more and more competitive. We have summarized the most prominent cases of character branding and also organized the characteristics of character-related businesses.

Recently, there were few cases to design a character resembling a star or develop new characters by participating in an idol star for the making character concept. The fans of the star naturally become a fan of the character so the character brand can easily get the popularity. By using a star in the brand strategy, it can also help to give a story to the character which makes the brand more interesting. Recently, the BT21 character is very popular which was developed by LINE Friends with the world-renowned K-pop artist group BTS.

LINE Friends created a character brand based on the sketches of BTS members, and this BT21 characters were able to use the worldwide fandom of BTS to enhance the popularity. Over a year, BTS members participated in all the processes from initial sketch of the character to the overall design, character personality and the background story. As the process was revealed in a making film, BT21 received explosive responses from domestic and foreign fans even before its launch. The number of SNS followers for BT21 already reached 16 million on January of 2019. The fashion brands such as Converse and Antisocial Social Clubs collaborated with BT21 characters and those products were sold-out 1–2 hours after their release.

Roy 6 character was created by LINE Friends with China’s next-generation idol 王源 Roy Wang. Roy Wang participated in the character development with LINE Friends and first launched the Roy6 in China. The campaign song of Roy6 ‘Will you’ was a big hit that it took the first place on the main music charts of China right after it was released.

This is a 3D animation that LINE Friends made with the ‘Running Man’, an TV entertainment program which is very popular. Each of the characters were designed based on the real stars in the program. Based on the popularity of the program, animation has also become popular all over the world. In addition, a mobile game was also made with this 3D animation characters.

A character made by YG Entertainment, Korea’s leading agency that produces a lot of stars. Krunk can be easily seen in music videos and events or advertisements related to YG, with the concept of being a star singer. And various goods and figures of Krunk which is for promotion of YG artists are also popular.

Popular characters are also tend to be loved globally, so character brands try to promote their characters by opening offline shops or holding events in overseas. We have researched the cases that have recently succeeded in globalization of the character brand.

Kakao Friends opened a character brand shop in Omotesando, Tokyo, with the theme of Apeach. The Apeach character released in Japan is different from the original character which was modified to suit the unique sensibility of Japan. People can experience the character brand through various desserts and large sculptures of Apeach character in Apeach Omotesando shop. Based on its popularity in Japan, Apeach was selected as a main character of Tokyo Tourism Corporation.

Recently, Kakao Friends opened a pop-up store in Shanghai which was a start for their business in China. This pop-up store had a concept of a ‘first trip to China’ that they placed big character figures around for people to have photos with it. China is one of the country where there is a big potential in character business so Kakao Friends will be also looking forward for their success in China market.

Line Friends opened a small theme park called “LINE Village” in Thailand last year using their chaaracters.When people visit this world’s first indoor attraction,they can see in real size characters and enjoy 23 rooms with different theme.The LINNE Friends store is a place not just for selling goods,but a place where people can have fun and have a new experience .They are also ready to open another theme park in Shanghai this year.

Kakao Friends designed a baby version character family ‘Kakao Little Friends’ which is not much different from the original characters, but has more soft and warm image. This version is applied to various products of Kakao Friends and especially goes well with the children related products.

Various characters were newly designed for BT21, conveying the concept of designing the family and friends of BT21. These various character versions were also loved by BTS fans.

By collecting character figures, consumers can possess their favorite characters in the most complete form. The value of a well-made figures is increasing rapidly as the number of Kidults are growing. A lot of special editions are designed and people love collecting them. Following this trend, character brands make their characters in to a toy figure, allowing people to feel more affection for their characters by possessing it.

Bearbrick is a collectable toy designed and produced by the Japanese company MediCom Toy. They design various editions through collaboration with famous brands and artists in bear-shaped figures which become their signatures, and they are loved by the collectors for a long time.

Molly is a character created by Hong Kong designer Kenny Wang, and is produced as a toy figure through collaboration with various brands. This grumpy but cute-looking girl character has a lot of fans around the world, and they are enthusiastic about Molly’s limited edition.

Super Fiction makes a lot of high quality figures of their characters and also designs a large size of sculptures as an art piece.

Avofriends is a character brand designed by a small studio in Korea, and it is recently getting popular in China and Hong Kong. They had a collaboration with one of the electronic payment system in Korea, Lpay which used Avofriends for their promotion.

By opening a character exhibitions in offline, it can make people understand more deeply about the character brand. And since people like to take photos in an interesting places to share on their SNS, a lot of character brands tend to open an exhibition to promote their characters and let people take photos with their favorite characters.

Celebrating their 25th anniversary, street brand Bape opened a large collaboration exhibition in Tokyo. 10 artists customized baby Milo characters which was placed in the exhibition and various brand collaboration products were introduced.

The global character brand LINE Friends opened the exhibition ‘I am Sally’ at the Shanghai landmark Oriental Pearl Tower in China. This first solo character exhibition of LINE Friends was opened on the birthday of Sally, and more than 60,000 local fans and tourists visited over the weekend. In particular, 4.6 meter tall mega Sally placed in the exhibition attracted attention and various exhibition booths and pop-up stores on Sally’s theme were designed.

Momo Planet opened an art exhibition in China with their newly designed graphic posters which delivers different image from their original character brand.

As we know, a lot of character brands try to expand their business by collaborating with various brands. But in recent years, companies who owns their IP have started different businesses with their original field, especially in F&B business.

Kakao Friends launched ‘Sunday cheezzzball’, a unique snack brand which used Ryan as the main model. Started with a background story that Ryan loves cheese ball, Kakao Friends expanded its distribution network to offline with their own snack brand ‘Sunday Cheese Ball’. They also designed a pop-up store with the concept of ‘A healing snack for people who feel somewhat lonely in the busy daily life’.

In addition, based on this cheese ball theme, Kakao Friends are preparing to open the first VR adventure park in Namsan N tower in Seoul. People can enjoy VR attraction as well as various food, drinks and goods applying Sunday Cheezzzball story.

LINE Friends’ first ‘Brown and Friends’ theme restaurant ‘BITE & BITE with LINE Friends’ was opened in Hong Kong International Airport. LINE Friends’ partnership based F&B business brand was designed to provide the best taste and enjoyable experience with LINE Friends characters. LINE Friends has been introducing a various of popular beverages and snack products, and has continued to expand its F&B business capabilities by operating cafés such as ‘BROUND’ in Korea and China.

Naver Webtoon has made ‘Babi Snack’ which was part of the story in the popular webtoon ‘Yumi’s cell’. ‘Babi Snack’ is a product that tried to make the same taste with the 30-year-old traditional tteokbokki that appears in the webtoon. Yumi’s cells attracted readers with their philosophy of tteokbokki and its excellent taste description in the story. Currently, they are selling this tteokbokki in the online store and Barbie food trucks have traveled throughout the country for six months for their fans.

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Now the character is no longer a thing that appears in children’s movies or animation. There are high-quality characters that can be treated even as an art, and many Kidults with purchasing power are enthusiastic about it.

The 3D technology or VR allows the characters to be expressed in a high quality, and it is possible to show the characters more vivid and realistic. We are looking forward to the growth of the character industry which is rapidly developing and changing.

Thank you for reading to the end, and the next report about avatar design trend will be coming soon.