Building a brand around the next big story
Client
Next Big Thing
Country
United States
Disciplines
Brand Identity
Sector
Entertainment
Next Big Thing Studios is a TV and film production company focused on developing commercially viable entertainment for a global family audience. Its ambition is to create accessible, broadly appealing projects capable of travelling across markets and connecting with audiences internationally.
The brief
Next Big Thing Studios asked BakerWilcox to create a complete visual identity for the new production company. The commission centred on establishing a distinctive logo and supporting brand system that could represent the business across its corporate and entertainment-industry communications.
BakerWilcox understood exactly what we wanted the brand to express and found a beautifully simple way to bring it to life. The identity feels warm, distinctive and full of optimism, and the response from everyone who has seen it has been fantastic. We couldn’t be happier with the result.”
ChairmanNext Big Thing Studios
The execution
The identity was built around a simple visual idea: a small, familiar character casting the shadow of something much bigger. A penguin becomes an emperor penguin, a tiny dog projects the silhouette of a powerful guard dog, a wooden rocking horse becomes a real horse and a young panda casts the shadow of its fully grown self.
The concept captures the optimism inherent in the company name. Next Big Thing becomes more than a statement about discovering successful new entertainment; it becomes an idea about potential, aspiration and what something small might one day become.
There is an intentional softness to the imagery. The pale backgrounds, restrained typography and almost storybook quality of the compositions allow the central idea to breathe, while the contrast between the subject and its shadow creates an immediate visual moment that requires very little explanation.
That simplicity also gives the identity unusually broad appeal. Children can respond instinctively to the transformation and humour of the images, while adults recognise the wider metaphor of ambition, imagination and possibility. It felt particularly appropriate for a production company creating entertainment intended to connect with family audiences across generations.
There was something beautifully universal about this idea. A small character seeing something much bigger in its own shadow speaks to imagination, ambition and possibility, whether you are six or sixty. It captured the spirit of the name perfectly: every ‘next big thing’ has to start somewhere.
RICHARD BAKER
