Communication strategy for a stationery brand «Intelligent Children»
Contents
I.The author’s reasoning about how communication theory works in the field of design
II.Presentation of your brand for a general audience
III.Presentation of your brand for a professional audience
IV.How This Strategy Was Developed
V.A list of literature and sources of images
I.The author’s reasoning about how communication theory works in the field of design
When working on the stationery brand project, we faced a question that seems simple at first glance but hides a complex problem: how to turn product information into an image that people not only notice but remember? A graphic designer can create a beautiful logo, but that doesn’t guarantee the buyer will understand what makes the brand special.
We then realized the fundamental difference between graphic design and communication design. A graphic designer is a master of aesthetics, a creator of visual forms. A communication designer is an architect of meanings, a mediator between the brand and the audience, whose task is not to decorate space but to create dialogue.
Ermolaev Bureau.Cheburashkini Brothers Dairy Packaging.2015
ONY.Музей советских игровых автоматов.2025
From Information to Meaning
The essence of communication design lies in transformation. Raw product data — features, prices, functions — must be reconfigured into visual and textual images that evoke emotions and convey value.
For instance, the ONY studio project developed the brand identity for Level.Travel. «The style turned out light, bright, and modern — it reflects the emotions accompanying travel and emphasizes the platform’s convenience. This visual style is a way to tell that every journey is personal, and the service understands that.»
ONY.LEVEL TRAVEL.2025
ONY.LEVEL TRAVEL.2025
This transformation requires deep audience understanding. Before creating visual form, we must answer: Who is our consumer? What unconscious needs hide behind the desire to buy? Which cultural codes and associations resonate with their world? Consider the Flowwow brand — a marketplace where you can buy flowers and everything given as gifts that brings joy. If joy is a gift, Flowwow delivers it. The brand’s new world is a magical fantasy created with artificial intelligence.
SHUKA, Fractal Branding ®, AI prompt, illustrations.Flowwow.2025
Elements of visual language
Core Tools Communication design operates with a systemic set of tools, not decorations but a coordinated system where each element reinforces the message.
Color: One of the most powerful tools. It doesn’t just attract attention; it creates associations. White and gray speak of purity and order, natural shades of quality and eco-friendliness. The entire palette must be consistent and functional: highlighting the main points, structuring information, creating unity.
Typography: The brand’s voice. Font choice conveys the company’s character: serif fonts signal tradition, sans-serif modernity. But it’s not just picking a pretty font — it’s choosing how to speak to the audience.
Composition and Hierarchy: The skeleton of the message. Proper element organization on a page or screen guides the user’s eye along the intended path: main elements first, then details. This is crucial in today’s information overload.
Imagery and Illustration: The emotional layer. An image can tell a story faster than words. For a stationery brand, this could be an image of the creative process, an organized workspace, or a moment of inspiration.
All elements work in a unified system. Logo, packaging, website, social media, ads — everywhere the same visual language, the same meaning system.
SHUKA.1520.2025
Dialogue over Monologue
The key difference between communication design and graphic design is orientation toward dialogue, not monologue. Graphic design can be an author’s statement, an artist’s vision. Communication design is always a conversation with a specific person.
Empathy becomes the main tool. We must feel the consumer’s pain, joy, world. Why does a student choose this brand? Perhaps it helps focus, creates a reflection ritual, becomes part of their identity.
When working with empathy, the visual system becomes a mirror of audience desires. The buyer sees not just a product, but a reflection of their values and aspirations.
Conclusion
Communication design is not art for art’s sake. It’s a responsible practice shaping how people perceive the world. Every color choice, word, composition influences culture, consumer choice, attitude to quality and value.
It operates at the levels of meanings, emotions, and strategy simultaneously — a system transforming information into understanding, data into trust, product into experience. When done with respect for the audience — through research, strategy, and empathy — design becomes truly communicative.
II.Presentation of your brand for a general audience
From the perspective of communication theory, a brand is not an object, but an interaction process in which meaning is born between the sender and receiver of the message. Modern communication moves away from the linear model «brand → consumer» toward a dialogic one: meaning forms through experience, interpretations, and the audience’s emotional responses.
The INTELLIGENT CHILDREN stationery brand is built as an emotional-semantic mediator between childhood experience and adult reality, between routine and creativity, between functionality and pleasure.
Core Message (based on meaning-making theory)
«INTELLIGENT CHILDREN» logo and slogan
INTELLIGENT CHILDREN is designer stationery goods and accessories that turn everyday tasks into a pleasant and mindful experience.
This is a brand for those who grew up but haven’t lost the ability to enjoy color, texture, and process.
When you’re an adult but still charmed by wax crayons, when in a meeting your hand instinctively reaches to draw in a notebook — INTELLIGENT CHILDREN becomes a bridge between childlike sincerity and adult elegance.
Philosophy and idea
The brand idea roots in childhood and youth — in experiences where creativity didn’t aim to be «useful,» and process mattered more than result.
INTELLIGENT CHILDREN: interprets childhood experience into adult life; restores legitimacy to play; makes routine tactile, beautiful, and alive.
Diary
«You don’t need to be a child to carry colored crayons in your bag.»
Moodboard for visualizing brand sentiment
Collaborative Creativity: The brand doesn’t impose a ready-made «inner child» image but offers a set of possibilities: from stickers and crayons to planners with provocative slogans like «F*CK THEM, IF THEY CAN’T TAKE A JOKE.» The final narrative emerges in dialogue — the designer sets playful codes (nostalgia for school notebooks), and the consumer completes the story through personal notes, drawings, and UGC on social media.
Imagination: Abstract recognizable forms are «open signs» like an eraser as the brand icon or sets of clips/buttons hinting at childhood mischief. They guide fantasy (references to the «enemies notebook») without rigid frames, leaving space for imagination: the user themselves turns routine into ritual by filling the notebook with their ideas.
Emotional Comfort: The message builds on contrast: the activity of routine tasks (planning, notes) concludes with coziness and comfort of the finished experience — an elegant planner with quality paper, tactile packaging, and a sense of «craft ritual.» This closes the emotional cycle: from task chaos to the nostalgic calm of the «adult child.»
Brand Values
Creativity — as a way of thinking, not a profession. Playfulness — as a form of freedom. Inspiration — through objects. Quality — as a manifestation of respect for the user.
The brand’s character is playful and nostalgic, yet elegant and refined. It unites childlike wonder with the adult need for quality and style.
Pencil packaging
Tone of Voice
The brand’s tone of voice combines childhood playful provocation with adult elegant irony: self-ironic, nostalgic, yet confident — like a conversation with a friend who remembers your school pranks.
Target Audience
Young people aged 20-35 who work in creative and technological fields.
They value not only functionality but also the emotions evoked by an object. They enjoy surrounding themselves with beautiful, unusual things, bringing elements of play and inspiration into their daily lives. Their income is above average.
Package & experience
Packaging is part of communication: Accessible: kraft bags, canvas pouches, tape, and labels. Premium: multi-layer tactile designer paper. Every brand contact is a micro-experience that strengthens emotional connection.
Packaging example
Communication Channels
Instagram and TikTok serve as primary spaces for visual-semiotic storytelling. Short videos here demonstrate the magic of transforming routine into ritual: how stickers, crayons, and planners come alive in the user’s hands, becoming part of their personal narrative. The short format facilitates interaction and audience engagement, while the main feed turns into a gallery of user creations (styled notebooks, drawings with provocative slogans), serving as living proof of successful communication and strengthening the sociocultural community around the brand.
The website with an interactive configurator acts as a key cybernetic tool. It allows users to «play» with product combinations online (assembling a set from pens, clips, and stickers), receiving instant visual feedback — a preview of personalised packaging or collection.
Example of social media content
III.Presentation of your brand for a professional audience
Brand platform
Mission: Turn routine into an inspiring craft experience. Vision: A world where adults don’t abandon play and creativity. Brand Essence: Interpreting childhood experience into adult life.
Packaging for crayons
Design System Logic (Cybernetic Tradition)
Input: The «inner child» insight for 20–35-year-olds (nostalgia + elegance) sets initial parameters—playful forms (crayons, «enemies notebook»), provocative slogans («F*CK THEM»).
Process: Visual system encodes the message—minimalist typography + child motifs (kraft paper, tactile textures, gold accents on pens/rulers); collections as modules (sticker packs, planners) for combinations.
Output: User generates content (reels of notebook styling, desk photos), decoding the system into a personal routine ritual.
Feedback: Reaction analysis (likes, reposts, collab requests) adjusts the system—new colors, products (extra clips), packaging (from kraft bags to multi-layer designer).
This transforms static design into an adaptive mechanism: the brand evolves, amplifying the emotional cycle «routine → ritual → community.»
Diary
Paper clip packaging
Semiotic Layer (Semiotic Tradition)
Within the semiotic tradition, the brand is viewed as a system of signs, where meaning forms through the interpretation of visual codes.
The INTELLIGENT CHILDREN visual system is built on a combination of restraint and play. Clean lines and structured compositions serve as signs of the adult context—order, rationality, and quality. At the same time, color and graphic elements introduce codes of childhood experience, spontaneity, and freedom.
Meaning emerges at the intersection of these codes: the brand visually conveys the idea of coexistence between adult responsibility and inner playfulness, reflecting the core philosophy.
This maintains a balance between structure and play, ensuring the brand’s flexibility and scalability.
Color palette
Sociocultural Insight
The brand’s sociocultural insight draws from the context of a young urban audience aged 20–35: in an era of digitalization and stress from routine tasks (deadlines, meetings), a longing persists for childlike sincerity, play, and emotional support expressed through material artifacts with «soul» and history.
Key insight: «I’ve grown up, but inside me still lives that child who delights in bright trinkets and loves to draw. I want even ordinary tasks to bring pleasure and inspire new ideas. I value things that are not just useful, but beautiful, with a story and soul.»
T-shirt for one of the collections
Phenomenological Experience
Sensory Immersion: The tactility of designer paper, the weight of the gold pen, and the nostalgic scent accompanying each order create an embodied experience—touch evokes nostalgia for childhood drawing, transforming routine into a cozy ritual.
Emotional Constitution of Meaning: The 20–35 audience experiences contrast—task chaos → «inner child» comfort through slogans like «THE ARTIST IS THE CHILD WHO SURVIVED,» forming a personal narrative of self-irony and creativity.
Intersubjective Layer: UGC (reels of notebook styling) strengthens community—the brand becomes part of collective experience, where individual use (co-creation at brand events) reflects the shared cultural code of nostalgia and elegance.
This makes INTELLIGENT CHILDREN not a product, but a phenomenon: the brand «thinks through» the user, integrating into their daily life as a habit of comfort and inspiration.
INTELLIGENT CHILDREN is not just a stationery brand. It’s a communication system in which: the object becomes a medium, the user becomes a co-author and childhood experience becomes a valuable resource for adult life. From the perspective of communication theory, the brand successfully forms a stable semantic image based on emotional engagement and the audience’s personal interpretation.
IV. How This Strategy Was Developed
The cybernetic tradition forms the foundation of the entire dynamic brand system, where communication is a closed feedback loop. The INTELLIGENT CHILDREN brand launches the cycle through products and slogans like «F*CK THEM, IF THEY CAN’T TAKE A JOKE,» provoking the audience to create UGC (reels of planner styling), then adapts the lineup (new clips, collaborations) based on feedback, transforming static stationery into an evolving routine ritual.
The semiotic tradition defined the brand’s visual and material language as a sign system. Communication is an exchange of signifiers and signifieds: crayons and the «enemies notebook» denote school stationery, connote nostalgia for childhood mischief, and in myth form the image of the «inner child» for 20–35-year-olds, where the user generates a unique sign—a personalized notebook full of personal ideas and self-irony.
The sociocultural tradition set the context and rhetoric for audience communication, where meanings are born in social practices. The brand doesn’t just sell goods; it invites participation in creativity rituals: planning in the planner becomes an act of DIY-nostalgia in opposition to mass consumption, and provocative inscriptions serve as a form of self-ironic family or personal leisure, integrating INTELLIGENT CHILDREN into the cultural processes of the young urban elite.
The phenomenological tradition structured the strategy around bodily experience, where the brand constitutes meaning through sensory immersion. The tactility of kraft paper and the weight of the pen create pre-reflective comfort, turning task chaos into a cozy narrative of the «adult child,» and the brand becomes part of the user’s lifeworld, enhancing emotional identity through daily touches and the intersubjective UGC community.
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