Red Herring Laboratories is a campaign to raise awareness about the issue of global overfishing. It includes motion graphics, packaging and a website.
Concept: Red Herring Laboratories is a fictional corporate entity which invents the solution to global overfishing: Fish-in-a-Flash. Fish-in-a-Flash is a fictatious capsule-based product which, when dropped into water, will instantly hatch into a fish. It comes in various 'flavours' such as Bluefin Tuna, Salmon, Mackerel and Red Snapper, and is meant to be harvested for cooking when the fish grows to full size.
Definition of "Red Herring": Something which is used to distract viewers from the actual issue at hand. In the same way, this campaign uses satire to draw attention to the issue of global overfishing.
Branding: The logo is an amalgamation between a fish symbol and a DNA strand. PANTONE Reflex Blue and PANTONE 3272U (teal) were chosen as the primary brand colors, with PANTONE 113U (yellow) as the accent colour. For the art direction of the campaign, we chose a geometric, minimalist style to suit the futuristic theme of the campaign.
Motion Graphic: This short infographic anchors the campaign, and talks about the story of how Red Herring Laboratories came to invent Fish-in-a-Flash, and how the product is supposed to work. Embedded in the narrative are several important environmental messages: how fish stocks may collapse in the year 2048, and the destructive nature of industrial fishing.
Packaging: This design imagines what the packaging of Fish-in-a-Flash might look like. Inspired by fighting fish tanks and tuna cans, the structure of the packaging was based upon the hexagon, a shape which is often found in science, emphasizing the hi-tech nature of the product.
Website: Inspiration for the design of the website came from the recent trend in small, Kickstarter-based companies, which usually only featured one product prominently on their website.
The concept of the website revolves around a fictional 50-year timeline recounting the history of Red Herring Laboratories, allowing viewers a glimpse into a possible future where worldwide fish stocks have been depleted.
Call to action for the website encourages viewers to 'order' Fish-in-a-Flash.
The order page gives some short trivia on prominent food fish species around the world.
Attempting to order the product leads to a link to the World Wildlife Fund website on overfishing, which is the key message of the entire campaign.
Exhibition Design: The booth was exhbited for 8 days at the School of Art, Design and Media at Nanyang Technological University as part of ADM Grad Show 2014.
