I’m a fake brand, in a fake world: The secrets behind designing a great fictional brand for TV and film

The film stars Margot Robbie as Barbie and Ryan Gosling as Ken, and follows the characters as they embark on a journey of self-discovery. As such, the aesthetic needed to be recognisable, but equally a little adult, satirical and self-referential. Doing just that, the overall look and feel of the film – helmed by set designers Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer – is fun, charming and gives a strong nod to the toy itself, referenced through shiny, doll-house-style buildings, faultlessly blue skies, fun splashes of pink and references to the Mattel archive. The set is inspired by Old Hollywood technicolour films and Slim Aaron’s flash-lit, dramatic and overly staged photographs of Palm Springs.

“We tried to approach the graphics in a similar way – the most joyful part of graphic design in the toy was the stickers and illustrated decals [a durable and transferable design prepared on special paper],” says the graphics team. “We chose to keep this element but refine the style so it wasn’t as crude or childlike.” Another key reference is Wayne Thiebaud, an American painter recognised for his colour depictions of everyday objects: lipsticks, cakes and ice creams. Describing his work as “timeless” and “textured”, the Barbie graphics team wanted to pull these elements into their own designs, resulting in a plethora of vibrant, digital paintings in their decals. “With typefaces for signs and newspapers, we went to old typeface books from 50s America rather than fonts,” the team continues. “This softened our designs and avoided them looking too new and modern.”

When it comes to branding in films, a common approach entails designing a mix of different brands housed under a particular time period or era that the film is set in. In the case of Barbie, the brand was already conceived and every graphical element throughout had to be synonymous with what it stands for. “In a sense, creating the packaging for the Barbie world was the opposite to how we would usually approach branding,” says the team. “It was refreshing to be creating one look that ran over everything. When the brand is the world, each individual item essentially becomes brandless – which was an exciting idea to play with.” Keeping everything in a cohesive Barbie look, the products seen on screen include milk cartons (oat, cow, soy, quinoa, rice, hemp and nut), a Barbie Weekly magazine, a newspaper, stamps, Barbie mail, cookie dough, mayonnaise and various other fridge items inspired by American menus from the 50s. For newspaper headings, magazine captions and product branding, the team were inspired by sign writing from the same era.

Barbie is an apt example of how a world-renowned franchise can steer the visual language of a film. “Graphic design is incredibly important to push the script forward, whether that’s through signage and packaging, or personal elements like handwriting and drawings,” says the team. “It is a tactile link between the character’s story and the set – a physical manifestation of dialogue and the character’s personality.”

When it comes to the make-up of fictional brands, Erica notes how, if done correctly, they can make the stylised world feel like a real place, and can become a playground for the characters to fully express themselves within the storyline. In Asteroid City, for instance, all of the roadside cafes have menus written on the facade, because cars don’t have time to stop for a menu. “The cafe is the canvas of the menu board,” she says. Additionally, one of the characters named Shelly constantly carries a book entitled Invisible Spectrum Elemental Surface Atomic Spectroscopy. There’s also a Girl Scout character who’s always walking around with her Jam Krispies. “Often the brands have a purpose for existing in the script. It’s about understanding what the purpose of that action prop is, and what they’re trying to say about a particular character.”

This is just one side of the coin. According to Erica, there are two different categories for fictional brands: the hero and the background. The former are those that are memorable or scripted to help establish a character; the latter are those that blend into the background, or those that the design team have to create because they don’t have the legal clearance to use real ones. “On every film, it’s different,” she adds. In The French Dispatch, for example, the team fictionalised almost every single product – even the hot sauce had its own identity and design. By contrast, Asteroid City is awash with real brands like Ketchup, Tabasco and Campbell’s baked beans in order to give a sense of realism and familiarity. “These are iconic Americana brands that help situate the story and take you to a real time and place. I think it depends on what the director is aiming for.” When incorporating a real brand into the mix, Erica explains how she would usually try and find the precise product from the exact era, or at least be as close as possible. “Ultimately it’s about creating something that represents the essence of the story or the particular character, and is bold and memorable.”

A sense of normality can (sort of) be seen in another show named Royal Crackers, created by Jason Ruiz. Likened to a “low-stakes” Succession, the show follows a family fighting over a cracker empire and home of the “most basic” kind of cracker going – the saltine. There’s no wacky universe here; instead the plot follows two rival snack companies as they battle for business. “There’s this whole worldview based around packaged snacks,” says Michael. Not too dissimilar from Barbie, the entire Royal Crackers universe is based on this cracker brand, from the logo, packaging, plot line and aesthetic to the ads featured within it. The team even went as far as creating a real-life billboard made entirely out of crackers to advertise the show. “It’s fun for animators to exercise their marketing muscles,” says Michael.

In Michael’s view, a fictional brand is made successful by its USP. “It’s the same thing that makes a great real brand,” he explains. “The only difference between real brands and fake brands is it benefits fake brands to be hilarious, for something to be inherently wrong about the brand from the word go. That doesn’t usually work for real brands.”