The Rebrand of Luninha

Last year (2023), we presented the redesign of our logo. It was the prelude to a change. I thought the company was already ready and mature for a new image. But it wasn't. It was just the first phase of a cycle of renewals. Experiencing a structural and strategic change made me feel the power of rebranding.

A communication job requires us to know our business and our value proposition in depth, because they need to be literally written and designed. It was at this moment that a character helped me reconnect, and that’s how Luninha returned.

Who is Luninha?

Luninha emerged as a character to share some ideas, questions, and viewpoints on design, creativity, and our society. The goal was also to have a reason to draw more often. I was hardly drawing anymore and missed that creative and artistic moment.

I created an Instagram account for Luninha, and soon its popularity began to grow. What seemed like a good sign became a problem. Now, I had to post comics almost daily. It turned into work, an obligation. I didn't feel secure investing so much time there. After all, there was no reason for him to exist. This is the difference between a character and a drawing: its existence.

Luninha was as lost as its creator. I hadn’t realized that Luninha expressed my passion for characters and the enchantment of giving life to a drawing. Gradually, I distanced myself from my cartoon version and almost let my memory erase it.

Comic published on Instagram - 2019

Drawing characters

For many years, I worked as an illustrator. That’s how I started my creative journey. I created illustrations and characters for logos, packaging, campaigns, exhibitions, magazines, etc. It was fun, but I only saw them as drawings. They weren’t characters like those from Disney or Pixar, those that people talk about as if they were entities that existed for real. Of course, I know it's Disney, but safeguarding proportions, I wanted my drawings to last longer than a scroll through the social feeds. That’s when I understood where I was going wrong. I wasn’t giving life to my drawings or to my company. I was handing over this responsibility only to the reader or potential client.

I worked many years as a designer and developed dozens of visual identities. I studied Branding, which soon became a second passion. Just as I like to give shape to characters, I also learned to visually translate the essence of a company. Colors, typography, tone of voice, graphics; a world of possibilities for a business to be visually represented. But until then, they were still two separate worlds.

By bringing these two passions together, I found mascots: brand characters that should represent and speak for a company. I knew that now I had a clear purpose, despite 20 years of experience in the field; it feels like something new.

In the blacksmith's house, a steel skewer

If you believe in something, you genuinely practice it. I wouldn't reposition Lunar to create Mascots without having one myself. That’s when Luninha returned.

I needed an avatar that communicated creativity, design, and added a touch of magic. The character in our communication brings an element of warmth and personality, making our brand more accessible and memorable. I didn’t want to be a creative studio with just a minimalist brand. I felt that something was missing, something that could differentiate me. After all, each creative mind expresses something different. I had the right element to complete the company's rebrand: Luninha. He was alive again, but he needed and deserved a redesign.

Luninha gained vector traits to have a greater association with graphic design. Thus, we also gained agility in applications. Choosing the graphic style wasn’t just a matter of style. I had to meet the production needs and available resources. It was a strategic decision. I defined archetypes, his role, his values, opening a new virtual world for him to exist and grow.

This process was not just about changing our appearance. It was a journey of self-discovery and reaffirmation of our values. And that is indeed Branding. In our blacksmith's house, our "skewers" are made of art, creativity, and design! With Luninha, we are ready to connect with our audience in a more meaningful, memorable, and fun way.

By Renan Luna