ABOUT THE PROJECT:

HEALTH CONCERNS?
Indians' initial point of contact is always their parents or grandmothers, followed by their neighbours or family friends. Doctors and other healthcare service providers are only brought in at the very end of the process, when the person requires clinical treatment. It’s all about whom you trust the most with a “what jugaad can be done” psychology.

^{TATA1mg is a leading and trustable healthcare company but what it required at the time of this project was to become more memorable. To increase the recall factor and add human touch to the digital healthcare world, I came up with the idea of HOOMIES, a character family to bring sunshine into healthcare.}

Understanding Indian psychology and crafting relatable content that feels like home using characters is a timeless strategy. From Parle-G to McDonald's, countless brands have mastered this art.

Although the approach of building a family over a mascot was different, many mascots were thoroughly studied to collect key observations and strategic choices to build the foundation for Tata 1mg's character illustration system.

A lot more illustration families were studied to understand the strategic decisions taken by the teams to make the characters work in today’s wide market, this study ranged from google and apple’s illustrations to quick commerce brands like dunzo and gojek.

BODY FORM IDEATION:

Numerous field trips were done before beginning the designing in order to make sure that the characters felt naturally related to the Indian audience. Direct observation of human anatomy, behaviours, individual gestures, and the minute aspects of people's everyday lives were noted.


This method made sure that the character designs showed realism and were rooted in the actual world for increased relatability.

FINAL FORM
(based on Indian body structures)

   FACE VARIATIONS

Each character's face shape reflects their role and emotional influence. Squares convey stability and reliability, perfect for the doctor or the customer care lady. Circles feel soft and approachable, ideal for the phlebotomist and delivery boy. Triangles suggest dynamism and energy, shaping active personalities like the infulencer or a multitasking mother.

(but at this stage all we had was the mould, the shapes and this low fidelity sketch)

The treatment testing for any character is an important layer to build on, it reflects how the character is shaped together as one entity through the colors, textures and even the patterns on display.


Various look-boards were created to reflect on the treatments and how to approach them.Varying from different styles, such as flat 2D, shape dominated structures and others.  

WE COULD HAVE THEM AS MASKS IN NEWSPAPERS

The idea was to have them in newspapers and interact with users by asking them to share thier ‘sunshine’ stories meaning thier real life incidents in which they’ve helped someone and post it with an #mysunshinetstory.


^{TATA 1mg’s attempt at bringing positive stories of consumers in front that resonates with the brand as well as encourages users to do good in society:)}

MERCHANDISE

With the new branding concept of bringing sunshine to people.

THEY COULD BE THIS AND MUCH MORE...︎

A few reviews from the user testing:)