Chapter 13. Colonizing Company’s printed appearance

As I have already mentioned in the previous chapter, Colonizing Company goes through four stages of the Journey Map to realize its product and services: engagement, conviction, sale, and provision. The printed appearance of Colonizing Company is created to provide the service to a customer.

Colonizing Company is not only loud and massive but also luxurious. Their services are enormously expensive, therefore, they aim to create a special experience for those who paid more. That is why the main product of Colonizing Company, the Red Card, is delivered to the client as a part of the specially designed Colonizer Starter Pack. The Colonizer kit is a toolbox for Mars colonization. It comes to a customer in a premium package – a suitcase for the future space travel – and literally tells way more about the offered services than the website – people also have to pay for the information.

The appearance of the toolbox says a lot about the company as well. Every design and word choice made by me during the production of the kit is intentional. All of the solutions were found according to the impression, graphic props needed to make. Overpackaging and the use of non-eco-friendly materials show that Colonizing Company does not care about the environment that much after all. It represents the luxurious arrogance we can often see in the brands of the premium segment.

The Colonizer Starter Pack is contained in a steel box wrapped with a branded paper ribbon. The ribbon says that we should not worry because “we’ve got planet B.” This line is often used in Colonizing Company’s communication.

Colonizer Starter Pack

© Vasilisa Aristarkhova

The first thing the client sees after he removes the paper ribbon and opens the box is a compliment card in case the ticket was bought or a greeting card if the ticket was won in the lottery. In the kit presented in the installation, the character received a greeting card where he, “dear 00006721730,” was congratulated on winning. Nameless greeting shows again that Colonizing Company focuses more on its product rather than on its customers. From the text, we learn that there are already more than 10 billion people living on Earth, and only one thousand applicants win the Red Card Lottery every two years. However, on the backside of the card, Colonizing Company Inc. is trying to sell its products again, this time through Selling Company.

Greeting card

© Vasilisa Aristarkhova

The next piece of the Colonizer Starter Pack is the Red Card itself attached to the carton cardholder. The Red Card is made of transparent acrylic glass with a personal QR-code printed on it. The Card plays the role of an ID, a Martian visa, the ticket to the spaceship, and the key to any door on the spaceship or in the colony on Mars that is allowed to be accessed with the card of the current Level. On the cardholder, we can find the number of the Red Card which is a code representing the exact date of the flight, ordinal number of the passenger on the ship, and his Level.

First three elements of the Colonizer Starter Pack: greeting card, the Red Card and a business card

© Vasilisa Aristarkhova

The Red Card cardholder

© Vasilisa Aristarkhova

The QR code on the Red Card leads to "My Red Card" website page

© Vasilisa Aristarkhova

Business card with contacts of a personal sales representative

© Vasilisa Aristarkhova

Under the ticket, there is a business card with contact information of the personal sales representative as well as a promotional sticker pack with a call to buy more merchandise on the website of Colonizing Company.

Promotional stickerpack

© Vasilisa Aristarkhova

The last part of the Colonizer kit is a Mars colonization guidebook – a 24 pages brochure explaining in detail the exact journey after purchasing or winning the ticket. It starts with the history of Colonizing Company, then reveals how the Red Card works and also tells more about the colony. Colony 1 is a Martian habitat founded and built by Colonizing Company. Its name simply means “the first colony”, which leaves space for further establishing of colonies on Mars and on other worlds. It functions as a state but is managed by Colonizing Company Inc. The ruler’s title in the colony is Director. Its flag is designed especially for space where radiation makes every color white. It is initially a fully white cloth with a round cut-out in the middle representing the icon of Colonizing Company. Later on in the brochure, all the necessary procedures, baggage rules, the spaceship model, the exact process of departure and arrival are explained. Advertisements are also included in the guidebook. They have the same look as other content not to annoy but to engage clients to buy more products.

The second most important element of the colonizer kit is a Mars Colonization Guidebook.

© Vasilisa Aristarkhova

As a part of the diegetic prototype in this design-fictional project, the Colonizer kit narrates the common story of the world through its many pieces. From the first sight, the Colonizer Starter Pack makes an impression of a thoughtfully designed premium toolbox for colonization. The contents of it are consistent, natively promoting goods that Colonizing Company Inc. aims to sell. But the material used for most of the printed items (the cardholder, the greeting card, the business card, and the cover of the guidebook) is a metallic shimmer paper that looks more like a spacecraft material than real paper. It has a fancy, futuristic, but at the same time unnatural and unfriendly cosmic look. From the Colonizer Starter Pack we learn that, while the Earth is overpopulated, the new Martian world is extremely commercial. Colonizing Company Inc. is not only discriminative, but horribly capitalistic, brand-centered, and not interested in any environmental changes on Earth.

(See the unboxing of the Colonizer Starter Pack at planetb.colonizing.company)