Work / POPULAR Rebranding
What does a curious mind begin with?
POPULAR is a Singaporean household name synonymous with education and lifestyle essentials, which also offer English and Chinese books, assessment books, stationery, multimedia items, and gifts. There are over 50 stores across the island. POPULAR is known as the "go-to brand" for stationery and books for school. However, despite its popularity, POPULAR does not utilise this unique selling point as the leading bookstore selling educational and self-help books to rope in more customers.
Thus, we decided to take up the challenge of rebranding POPULAR into a brand that will encourage people to always continue learning, no matter their age. To start, we decided to give POPULAR a new image, inclusive of a new logo, website, and even a store makeover, so as to make POPULAR more memorable, and to make the retail experience better for all of its customers.
Corporate Stationery: Letterhead, Namecard, Staff Guidelines, Staff Pass, Binder
We came up with a few strategies to ensure that POPULAR would stay relevant, while still holding true to its educational value. With this in mind, we decided to steer the rebranded POPULAR’s image towards a more typographic art direction. We changed the staff uniform into a simple T-shirt to show that we are friendly and approachable.
We also put the phrase, "I am a POPULAR staff member" in front, and "A Curious Mind Begins With _" at the back. The second phrase is intentionally left blank for the customer’s own interpretation on how curiosity begins. With every sale, POPULAR uses at least one plastic bag, even for items as small as a single pen. Therefore, we designed these tote bags with phrases on them; relevant to everyday life, to encourage the use of reusable bags.
Staff Uniform and Tote Bag
Continuing to drive home the message of education, we redesigned our exercise books and pencil cases by placing fun facts on them. We created five different variations of exercise books, each with a different kind of random fact.
Thus, the people who buy these items would gain shareable tidbits of knowledge. In the stationery aisles, you'd also be able to find interactive testing sheets. These sheets are placed there to make the user experience of testing pens more enjoyable.
House brand items: Pencil case, Exercise books, Interactive sheets, Membership cards
POPULAR Casefilm