Fantasy Branding: VideoVenture

There was something special about going to the video rental store... the smell of a blockbuster,  seeing all the movies on the shelves, inspecting each cover, picking out candy in the checkout line. It seems like a lot of kids who grew up in the video rental store era are incredibly nostalgic about it, and for a good reason. It was such a special experience that is now completely dead. Combining my passion for VHS and storytelling I decided to create my own video rental store. Blockbuster was an iconic rental powerhouse, but my favorite places are the little local stores. Some of them are still hanging on out there, time capsules of a past decade. 

After playing around with this idea in my head for awhile, I decided to consult my friend Kevin, a VHS expert. I text him and asked him what he would name a fake VHS rental store. He immediately responded "Video Venture" 

"I first thought: video adventure, then that"

I decided to stylize it as one word. I used Pump Demi Bold for the logo type. To me it's very reflective of the 80s. The address is written in Futura Heavy. I used the old address of a Blockbuster in Chicago. Kevin just moved there so it's a tribute to my crazy VHS collecting best friend and the midwest is very 80s/90s cool to me. Ferris Bueller, Home Alone, Breakfast Club, Adventures in Babysitting, Wayne's World. 

I started to think about the logo and how it would be used. Where it would be applied. I started to imagine what the inside of the store might look like. Eventually I thought about a marquee light box with the logo, maybe behind the counter. So I made a colorized version of the logo. 

Now what would the staff be wearing? 

Ringer tees, to me, are super reflective of the time period I'm going for. I used Souvenir font on the back to indicate that they're staff. Souvenir is a perfect 1980s font. It was used in E.T. for the  credits and on the poster. 

Next I made a name tag and once again used Souvenir. Years of working at theme parks definitely influenced this part.

Now that I had created all these digital materials, I wanted to make something real. I started to think about things I could actually make myself. Well, every video rental store had a membership, and with it came sweet membership cards.

I weathered the card to try and make it look like it was actually 30 years old and poorly laminated. 

Next I wanted to recreate one of my favorite things about old VHS tapes from rental stores. Stickers. 

So I went out and got some sticker sheets to make some actual stickers 

I wasted a few sheets due to misalignment but eventually I got it. My be kind rewind stickers are a little offset and I decided to keep them that way to add a little homemade charm to them. I weathered the silver foil sticker based on some actual stickers I have in the same spots and of the same type. 

Once I branded a tape, I wanted to make a box. 

At Blockbuster, they had all the beautiful boxes on the shelf, and you're sent home with a generic Blockbuster branded clamshell. Most VHS rental stores would do this, keeping the plain, branded boxes behind the counter. So I wanted to make my own VideoVenture version of those. 

My "Campout at Walt Disney World" VHS was missing it's box so I decided to give it a home. I used Andale Mono on the insert and tried to include all the information that would actually be on one of these rental boxes. The shell itself was old and used so I didn't even have to weather it. 

For now, that's all for VideoVenture. It's a project I think I can always expand upon, and maybe even make actual shirts in the near future. So if you're interested in this little project, let me know.