Yanmar
Character Design Renewal as Part of Corporate Branding
btrax helped revitalize Yanmar’s nostalgic characters Yanboh and Marboh by aligning them with a modern brand identity through inclusive design, public voting, and global promotion.
INDUSTRY
Industrial Equipment Manufacturer
TARGET MARKET
Japan/Global
DELIVERABLES
Project Planning, Proposal, & Execution Creative direction and production Promotional Strategy Planning & Execution
Challenges
Updating the nostalgic and recognizable characters Yanboh and Marboh to align with Yanmar’s contemporary, high-tech brand identity.
Involving a wide range of stakeholders, including employees, fans, and younger generations, in the redesign process.
Ensuring the new designs retained the essence of the original characters while incorporating modern elements.
Conducting a public vote to choose the final design, ensuring widespread participation and acceptance.
Generating significant media attention and public interest to expand brand awareness.
Our Approach
Worked with Yanmar's Design Department and external creative directors and artists to define the project scope and develop a detailed proposal.
Led by Creative Director Kota Hikichi and artist YKBX, we engaged in conceptual design and rough design direction, followed by the creation and refinement of sketches.
Conducted workshop-style discussions with Yanmar’s design team and external collaborators to generate and refine design ideas.
Organized a public vote to choose the final design, ensuring inclusivity by involving employees, fans, and younger generations.
Developed a promotional plan, including creating a video directed by YKBX and music by cubesato, to unveil and market the new characters across various platforms.
CREATIVE PLANNING
Overall Concept Design
The new designs needed to express the new corporate image that Yanmar is aiming for, while taking into account the existing profile and personality of the Yanboh and Marboh characters. So, the concept of the new character designs were refined with the help of Creative Director Kota Hikichi, and the ideas that would form the basis of the designs were clarified.
IDEATION
Conceptual Design and Rough Design Direction for Yanboh and Marboh
We actively generated ideas with members of Yanmar's design department, an outside creative director, and artist YKBX, who was in charge of the character design. We had a full workshop-style discussion in a co-creative manner on how Yanboh and Marboh would be renewed, how they would play an active role in the animation story, and more detailed concept design, etc
Character Design Renewal as Part of Corporate Branding
Development of Rough Sketches, Design Refinement and Creation
Rough designs were created based on the ideas that came out of the workshop, and numerous designs were considered through repeated discussions and updates from the group. In the end, we narrowed down the design direction to three ideas (A, B, and C) and finalized the designs.
PUBLIC VOTE
Public Vote
Yanmar decided to hold a public vote from November 16 to December 7, 2023, to let not only employees, but also fans who have been supporting the Yanboh Marboh characters over the years to be a part of deciding on the new designs. After the voting period, 76,568 votes were collected. As a result, Design B, which received 49,628 votes, was selected.
NEW DESIGN REVEAL / PROMOTION PLANNING
Unveiling of the New Characters / Video Promotion
The new characters that were selected were only in a basic frontal pose at this point. In order to showcase the new characters with movement, we created a video directed by artist YKBX, and produced music to go along with the video. The music was produced by artist cubesato under the direction of Mr. Nagaya, CBO of Yanmar, and the result was an exciting atmosphere that evokes the arrival of a new era. We promoted the finished video on various social networking sites, including YouTube, and the video trended at No. 1 on X immediately after its release. Additionally, the video received nearly 2,000 comments on Yahoo! News, and was featured in the Nikkei, Yomiuri, Mainichi, and Sankei newspapers, as well as on TV Asahi's "Good! Morning" show, and Nippon Television's "Monday Night News" show. In the future, the Yanboh and Marboh characters will be used as merchandise and at the Yanmar Museum.
Team
Brand Character Renewal Project
Brand Direction: Design Office, Branding Division, Yanmar Holdings Co., Ltd.
Project Producer: Brandon K Hill (btrax)
Project Lead: Mitchy Kaneko (btrax)
Creative Direction / Art Direction (Release KV): Kouta Hikichi
Visual Direction / Character Design / Art Direction / Director (Release PV): YKBX
Sound Design (Release PV): cubesato
Planner / Designer: Mari Kimata (btrax)
Manager: Yuji Ozawa (btrax)
