Work · Event brand · Pro bono, 2023

Assembly Market 吹雞: the name became the mechanic

A two-day outdoor market at the Markham Museum for Hong Kong Canadians, 7 and 8 October 2023. We built the brand, a 3D mascot, an Instagram AR effect you set off by blowing into your phone, and the print. We did it pro bono.

  • Positioning
  • Identity
  • 3D mascot
  • Instagram AR effect
  • Print and signage
  • Social content
  • Event photography
The Assembly Market mascot: a round yellow 3D chick with small wings and stick legs, on a bright yellow background.
Client
Assembly Market 吹雞, a community market for Hong Kong Canadians in the GTA
Where
Markham Museum grounds, Markham, Ontario
When
7 to 8 October 2023
Our role
Pro bono creative partner, June to November 2023
Result
8,500+ visitors over two days, organizers' count

01The brief

A name, a mission and a date

The 2022 edition was a smaller indoor fair, before us. For 2023 the organizers moved outdoors, onto the Markham Museum grounds, for their first outdoor Hong Kong Canadian market. The theme was "You Are Not Alone": newcomers from Hong Kong in the same field as established Chinese-Canadians.

The weekend had City of Markham support, a title sponsor and a sponsor board. So it had a fixed date, other people's names on the board, and nothing yet to put on the banner.

You Are Not Alone.

The theme for the weekend, so that nobody who had just moved here from Hong Kong would feel on their own.

02The idea

We did not translate the name. We used it.

吹雞 is Cantonese for calling people together. Word for word it means "blow the whistle", and it is also the name of the rubber chicken whistle every Hong Kong kid knows. We made that pun the mechanism: a 3D whistler-chicken mascot, then an Instagram effect that only starts when you blow into your phone.

  1. A man looks into his phone camera with the Assembly Market Instagram effect on. A small yellow 3D chick sits at his mouth.

    Open the effect. The chick waits at your mouth.

  2. The same man blows into the camera and the 3D chick swings out from his lips like a whistle.

    Blow. The chick blows like a whistle.

  3. A 吹雞 speech bubble with the market logo pops out beside the chick at the man's mouth.

    The 吹雞 bubble pops out. Post it.

The effect, live

Our test recording of the effect. The AR build files run from 3 to 28 September 2023, before the gates opened.

03Identity system

One chick, a lot of jobs

A brush-script 吹雞 in a yellow speech bubble, the chick, and a Hong Kong night skyline. The same three parts ran on the stage banner, the lawn signs that walked people in from the road, and the sponsor board.

The Assembly Market stage banner: the yellow 吹雞 logo over a night view of the Hong Kong skyline.
An Assembly Market lawn sign: a big yellow arrow turning left on black, with the 吹雞 logo.
The same lawn sign with the arrow turning right.
Two of the yellow arrow lawn signs in place on the Markham Museum grounds, pointing visitors along the drive.On site

Logo, stage banner and lawn signs (print files), then the signs on the museum grounds, October 2023.

04Before the weekend

A countdown in the chick's voice

On Instagram the chick did the talking: countdown tiles in Cantonese street slang, then a visitor guide with the way in, the map and the stage times. Vendor interview videos gave each small business its own post.

  • Instagram tile: a giant yellow chick and the words 全民吹雞 現正上線, 8 days left.
  • Instagram tile: 不准回流 in tall black type beside a close-up of the chick.
  • Instagram tile: the chick's face and the words 葵廣の on yellow.
  • Cover of the visitor guide post: 吹雞市集 終極懶人包, All you should know, with the chick standing in the corner.
  • Visitor guide page: How to get here, a map of the museum grounds with the entry and parking marked.
  • Visitor guide page: the stage performance schedule for Saturday and Sunday.
The @assemblymkt Instagram grid in early October 2023, the week of the market: a wall of yellow chick tiles counting down the days.The grid, October 2023

05The weekend

Two days in the field

The banner went up on the bandstand, the signs went in along the drive, and we shot photo and video on site.

A yoga teacher in light blue sits on a mat in front of the bandstand, smiling, under the yellow 吹雞 stage banner.
People lie on yoga mats on the museum lawn while visitors walk past behind them.
Two young visitors pose and make peace signs on the busy market lawn.
A group of about fifteen people in coats and scarves smile together under the bandstand roof at night.

Saturday 7 October on the bandstand and the lawn; Sunday 8 October after the evening band set. Photos: 852 Tangram.

06The result

What we can count

8,500+ visitors over two days, by the organizers' count.

Sing Tao and CCUE covered the opening day.

We took the job unpaid.

07What came next

Six weeks later, a lease

The lit Kaleido logo on a dark wood slat wall inside the finished venue, August 2024.

Kaleido, Richmond Hill

Six weeks after the market, the same organizing side came back holding a lease on a unit that had to be a café, a market hall, an exhibition space and training rooms. This time it was a paid brand build: strategy, identity, a booking website and the interior direction.

See the Kaleido case
More nonprofit and cultural work

08Credits

Who made it

  • 852 Tangram, pro bono: positioning, identity, 3D mascot, Instagram AR effect, print suite (stage banner, lawn signs, sponsor board), social content, event photo and video.
  • Assembly Market 吹雞: the event, the vendors and the programme are the organizers'.

Running a market, festival or community event?

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