MG General Insurance is a south Korean insurance provider that prides itself on offering specifically targeted products catering for young professionals’ lifestyles.

In Korea it is common to have a mascot to represent the company in a friendly, approachable way.

This quirk in the market has meant that the visual branding landscape has become saturated with characters, and it is important to be distinctive in this front as a part of the brand identity.

When MG approached us to design their brand character, we were delighted by the terms of the brief, they were looking for something targeting young professionals and coherently it had to be unique and refreshing.

We sought to give it an inherent story that would be relevant to the brand values while feeling new and exotic to the Korean market. We were also interested in a visual style to rival the prevalent image of the “mascot” which is often overly detailed and corny.

We were originally inspired by creatures from Slavic folklore which help with house chores and protect from bad spirits, anthropomorphic yet unfamiliar, which gave us the core meaning for the project.

There are variations depending on types of insurance, but they all remain simple and coherent. They work well in print, animations and three dimensional merchandising. The color palette for the basic JOY revolves around the corporate colours of MG, and the rest of character variations use plain color, always bold and lively.

The name of the character is JOY (pronounced JO-EE). In Korean, “JO” means helpfulness and “EE” means beneficial. The English “JOY” has also very positive and life affirming connotations.

 

Credit: Folding paper toy image provided by MG General Insurance