The television icon-character of the eighties is ready to “return” as the protagonist of a series of consumer products, thanks to the creativity of the IED Milan Master students and five partner companies
The Brand Extension and Licensing Department of Mediaset and the imaginaries of television of forty years ago; the planning of the talents of the IED (European Design Institute); a number of licensees, companies producing consumer goods. It is the meeting of these elements that will allow the unmistakable features of Uan – protagonist since 1983 of the children’s program Bim bum bam – to appear in notebooks, T-shirts, lighters, suitcases and puzzles, sympathetically reactivating the nostalgic common memory of a pop culture well known especially to Millennials and Generation X.
The didactic project of the Master in Graphic Design IED Milan with Mediaset has just ended, which saw five groups of young designers (for a total of 27 students involved) working on the updating of the irreverent animated puppet to create visuals inspired by him, aimed at personalizing capsule collections thanks to the collaboration with Blasetti (paper converting), CiakRoncato (luggage), Ravensburger (toys), Sabor (apparel), Clipper (lighters).
The proposal of Amelia Annunziato, Cecilia Benedettini, Silvia Bernardini, Daniela Bonfirraro, Enrico Fazzi was chosen among the five projects presented to update the television icon, enhancing its message of positivity and leveraging the nostalgic value of the imaginary that surrounds it.
The group, led by the teacher Alessandro Busseni, interpreted the brief by reworking the image of Uan with a minimal illustrative style, which allowed to decompose the subject into its most characteristic features (nose, ears and large eyebrow) creating original and funny applications: the visuals mention the character and his irreverence without complications of style, subject or content, accompanied and completed by the slogan Uan is Back that contextualizes the images revealing the subject and evoking its historical and emotional value.
Among the students’ other proposals are 80s nostalgia – Uan more time (by Canziani, Cerboni, Crivelli, Manfredini, Pavano); Uan to the future (by Corvasce, Li, Lindez Valle, Montanari, Radi, Termine); 80 voglia di Uan (by Bersi, Bertelli, Monzani, Tabò, Tranchida, Zhang), The Uan and only – The ’80s are back (by Bramati, Di Donato, Dolci, Mattolin, Vinci).
