Structure & Morphology
What’s the first movie that pops into your mind?
For me, I wanted to work on an animation or something I am very familar with and growing up watching. That’s why my group and I chose the movie “Spirted Away” for our project. Miyazaki and Japanese animation have had a huge impact on me, shaping the way I see storytelling and design.
In this project, I’m working alongside my classmates Helen and Ruijie. Our task was to select a movie, analyze its narrative structure, and explore the underlying morphology of the story.
Instead of simply retelling the plot of Spirited Away — a film everyone already knows — we decided to dig deeper. We wanted to understand what the story truly represents, what Japan was experiencing at the time, and what Miyazaki was critiquing through his work.
This led us to the Aburaya, the bathhouse from the film, a place where desires come at a cost. Inspired by its symbolism, we created a branding project for a fictional company named Aburaya.
This company exists to fulfill human desires, test their limits, and reveal what people are truly willing to sacrifice.
The question we ask is:
How far would you go to satisfy your own greed?
Would you give up everything?
Challenges
Throughout the process, we encountered several major challenges that tested our teamwork and problem-solving skills.
1. Merging Different Design Styles
One of the biggest challenges at the start was style integration. With three designers working together, ensuring a cohesive branding outcome was not easy. Since this was a branding project, consistency across all outputs was essential. Through discussions with James, we refined our approach by analyzing elements from the film, including its environments, symbolism, and atmosphere. We established a branding guide focusing on key elements like the logo, typeface, and color palette, which finally aligned our vision. However, by the time we solidified these fundamentals, we had only about a week and a half left.
2. Color Consistency Nightmare
Another major challenge was color accuracy. Printing the brochure alone took over 20 test prints. The same color information looked different depending on:
The printer we used (even the same printer might be acting differently on the SAME DAY)
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The computer exporting the file
The paper type
This inconsistency drove me insane. We spent too much time trying to correct it, constantly worrying about whether the final printed version would meet our expectations.
3. The Never-Ending Feeling of “Is This Enough?”
This wasn’t necessarily a technical issue, but as the deadline approached, we constantly questioned whether our project was complete. Were we missing something? Could we push it further? To ensure a fully immersive experience, we decided to add more deliverables beyond our original plan. In addition to the menu, brochure, branding guide, employee manual, name cards, name tags, poster, and banner, we designed stickers, postcards, and a motion graphic to enrich the branding package.
Each of these challenges pushed us to refine our workflow, make quicker decisions, and improve our adaptability. In the end, overcoming these difficulties made our project stronger.
“Welcome to the aburaya Career Fair”
Finally, it’s D-day! Everything we’ve discussed and brainstormed has come together. We’ve created an immersive experience for everyone in our class, introducing our company through the perspectives of Employee 1, 2, and 3.
Thanks to everyone who participated in our career fair! A big thank you to Andi, Lucy, and Zhiyu for helping out and making this experience run smoothly. Your contributions helped us effectively present our company philosophy and design behind our work.
At the end, we have a guide video to our career fair exhibition.
