Our branding made a startup look the part

A world first

Naru sits between audio-only story devices and high-stimulation tablet entertainment. They are defining a new category of immersive home storytelling that blends tactile physical interaction with digital projection, an approach that prioritises imagination, emotional wellbeing, and curiosity-led learning over passive screen consumption. This was an exciting opportunity to create something together that would make a huge impact on their business.

Quite often in the world of tech startups – certainly in Scotland – branding can be one area that suffers from a lack of investment. Logos, websites, and other branding elements often suffer because money is seen to be better spent elsewhere. At Imaginary Friends, we know that great design is an investment that makes a meaningful difference to the fortunes of brands. And at this early stage in the Naru journey, that’s what we sought to do.

Designed for impact and meaning

Naru themselves couldn’t have put it better: “a defined and professional brand identity is commercially critical as Naru moves toward market entry.”

From the first immersion session with the client, two important things became clear. Firstly, their mission was clear: to reduce children’s reliance on screens by creating immersive storytelling experiences that strengthen imagination, emotional wellbeing and development, and curiosity. Secondly, there was the not insignificant challenge of having no physical product at this point to showcase. The drive was there, the product was not (yet).

We were going to need to get creative in more ways than one.

Timeless and simple

Starting with the logo, we wanted something that was approachable, friendly, and timeless. While this is a product for young children, the target market will be their parents and carers, so it couldn’t be too childish in its appearance. Naru wanted something that can be etched on the product itself and last for years to come.

The logo is sturdy, rounded, and friendly. Like all the best logos it looks like it could have been designed 60 years ago or 60 minutes ago.

Accompanying the logo was a brand emblem that contained a combination of two key Naru components: the projection feature itself – represented by a star – and the emotional and wellbeing growth that Naru seeks to help children with – represented by the flower.

Capturing the magic

Beyond the logo and emblem, we wanted to convey a sense of how magical these products promised to be. Naru is for parents and caregivers of children who are concerned about rising screen dependency and who value purposeful, developmentally appropriate play, positioning itself for households that invest in high-quality products and prioritise wellbeing, creativity, and intentional technology use within their home.

How to do that with no product to show was the biggest challenge.

Colourful thinking

Colour would play a huge part. While the Naru product isn’t made solely for dark rooms, that is primarily where it will be at its most effective. We believed the glow of the projection and the colours within that glow were a key element that we could lean on.

A series of soft but vibrant gradients give the impression of the projected colours, with more than one version alluding to the variety of content to come. These gradients can be contained within the logo or simply used as background textures, being scaled up and down, rotated and flipped, to bring variety to all touchpoints and assets.

A sense of wonder

Still, we needed something to convey a sense of wonder that Naru will bring. And ‘wonder’ became a key word in this process. So much so, ‘Rediscover Wonder’ became the brand tagline, a subtle call to move away from screens and immersive oneself in these magical, educational worlds.

A bright idea

Taking inspiration from a tried-and-tested movie technique – the reaction shot – we generated a series of images in Adobe Firefly that showed young children experiencing Naru, their faces lit up with colour glows, their reactions ones of wonder, while the product was ‘off screen’. By focusing on the reaction, we conveyed the emotional responses.

Given the timeline and budget for this project, Adobe Firefly allowed us to work quickly and cheaply, with the aim being that we will return to this project when the product is ready to shoot these images for real.

A window to other worlds

We just needed one more thing to hang it all together, and that came in the shape – literally – of the product itself. While there wasn’t yet a product, there are detailed plans for it and a prototype, too. We took a simplification of the product’s side-on view and turned it into a portal of sorts, a holding device for imagery, or a graphic structure for backgrounds.

With all these visual identity fundamentals in place, in the space of a week Naru had a toolkit of assets and brand guidance to help accelerate their journey to market, helping them attract investors thanks to a professional and modern look and feel.

Watch this space for the product launch.

What is ‘Realise’?

‘Realise’ is our brand sprint product designed specifically for early stage startups. For a fee that even startups at the start of their journey can afford, we work closely and intensely with founders for a week on a new, professional, and credible visual identity. At the end of the process, founders walk away with a new logo, visual identity (including mini guidelines covering colour and type choices), and key messages, as well as guidance on how something like a new website could look, with all assets supplied for their ongoing use.

(‘Realise’ is also available as a brand strategy sprint. Both strategy and visual identity are available together at a discounted cost spread over three weeks.)

Find out more about ‘Realise’, email martin@imaginary-friends.studio