PROJECT INFORMATION
Flavored with Blessings
「No language can express the power and beauty and heroism of a blessing from the heart. Better to taste it with heart.」
BRANDING CONCEPT
Blessed Bliss is a handcraft brand centered entirely around the lucky cat, offering premium products including ceramics, stationery and handbags. The brand later decided to launch a new product line — red wine, and commissioned us to create the LOGO and packaging design for it.
- Brand Goal: To bring people a red wine experience filled with love and blessings
- Brand Mission: To redefine the meaning of blessing
- Brand Personality: Trendy, Blessed, Loving, Interactive
The Lucky Cat, Space and Humans: An Intimate, Synergetic Bond
Driven by a passion for exquisite products, the founder conceived the idea of launching a Blessed Bliss red wine line, ideal as a festive gift for friends. Our market research revealed that while sensory experiences (touch, smell, taste) account for a small portion of the premium market, they are pivotal in shaping customers' perception and experience of a product.
In designing the Blessed Bliss identity, we sought a culturally universal Western aesthetic rather than overemphasizing traditional Eastern design. Simplicity and clarity have always been our guiding principles, yet translating the vivid, tangible lucky cat into an abstract brand symbol was a creative challenge.
Step into a home, and you are immediately wrapped in a warm, cozy atmosphere. On a bright sunny day, sunlight pours unsparingly through curved windows, and the cat stirs at the sound. No matter where the cat is in the space, it brings a sense of comfort and security — this is the magic of the lucky cat, an Eastern romance that flows freely, with effortless grace.
In every home, whether exquisite, cozy or vibrant, there is a unique lucky cat tailored to the owner’s identity and wishes, weaving distinct life stories through their symbiosis with humans.
Space and its inhabitants are inextricably linked, radiating charm together. Humans infuse cold spaces with warmth and humanity, turning everyday objects into carriers of memory — and giving the lucky cat a complete, meaningful identity.
When conceptualizing the LOGO, we uncovered the profound meaning of the name Blessed Bliss: Bliss signifies good fortune, making the name a beautiful embodiment of "blessed good fortune". Gifting or giving is, in essence, bestowing a blessing, and the recipient becomes the one who is blessed.
We therefore designed the lucky cat as a black silhouette. Leveraging the two letter "S"s in Blessed Bliss, we created a mirrored effect — one "S" forward, the other reversed. This transforms the two "S"s into interlocking hands and a heart, a tangible expression of "blessings between people", where the heart finds its home. The blessed heart coexists with the cat, infusing the static brand with a dynamic, flowing beauty.
A “Blessing” in a bottle
We wanted people to taste the blessing, so we defined the product’s core concept as "The taste of blessing", and expanded the symbolic meaning of the lucky cat. Beyond representing wealth, it embodies a multitude of blessings — just as the Japanese lucky cat symbolizes not only fortune, but also love, career and health, with blessing as its most essential meaning.
Thus we created a series of narrative illustrations for Blessed Bliss, themed around Wealth, Longevity, Love and Vitality. These illustrations tell a story of the lucky cat’s blessings, elevating the brand’s recognizability.
Our vision for the illustrations was a fashion-forward style that retains the lucky cat’s blessed meaning. We are grateful to illustrator Charly Cheung for her sensitive capture of the subtle, abstract emotional flow and changes behind each lucky cat’s blessing, and for using fashion and attire as a narrative medium.
When customers select a lucky cat red wine for themselves or as a gift, they naturally imagine the personality of themselves or the recipient — whether elegant and exquisite, bold and straightforward, independent and distinctive, or even a reflection of their innermost self, a case of "the cat in the illustration is the mirror of the heart".
"I had no fixed display plan before receiving the product, but the moment I held it, I knew the perfect spot for it. A sudden idea came to me: instead of using the usual mobile display cabinet, I opted for a wooden box to create interaction with customers. I’m absolutely delighted with the final effect."
Like the vitality the lucky cat exudes through its stories, it permeates every simple, vivid moment of life.
Sensory experiences and visual design together form the brand experience, forging a deep connection between the brand and its customers, and evoking a profound sense of affection and desire for the product.
Creative Statement | The Perfect Balance Between Recognizability and Relevance
In identity design, we focused on selecting lucky cat graphic elements that strike the perfect balance between relevance to the IP and strong brand recognizability. We positioned the lucky cat graphic as a core brand attribute, linking it closely to the brand name, founder and brand development journey.
The hand-painted lucky cat illustrations, by contrast, serve as product attributes, shaping and extending the product’s form and characteristics. We rejected the common practice of treating VI extension (standard colors and auxiliary graphics) as the brand strategy itself.
Throughout the creation of the Blessed Bliss brand, we approached design from the perspectives of user cognition and brand system building. We crafted a unique visual system, and in turn, established the brand’s distinctive identity symbols, value labels and cultural icon.
