Taking on the giants in the cell phone market

Enter AG Cellular, an innovative business based in Johannesburg, and Anthony Goodman, their MD. Always up against the multi-nationals AG Cellular looks for product niches or emerging categories where they can produce high quality offerings. These offerings are manufactured internationally for local conditions and are of a quality level equal to that of any other producer.

Anthony's idea was to launch a range of customised fashionable cellphones endorsing local elements with an international flavour, with preloaded songs, ring tones, ear phones, AG “bling” accessories, MP3/MP4 capability, Bluetooth, 1.3 megapixel camera and 512MB memory card. The pay-off for the AG phones is "customised interval". Rockstar is the first phone to be launched in this range.

The Rockstar phone was designed to appeal to the rockstar in all of us, targeting the daring, innovative individual, and is endorsed by Danny K and Kabelo. It is hip, funky, gritty, fashionable and alternative. He commissioned Design Oval to develop the brand identity for this new phone.

Key to the brief was the imagery and positioning of the phone. The package is designed to appeal to young, trendy South Africans who love music, and the phone comes preloaded with popular local tracks. The design was to be applied to all packaging elements, point of sale and advertising material. All these elements had to work together to communicate the phone's trendy, rockstar positioning with the focus being on the imagery rather than the features of the phone. Thus a strong, modern and impactful Rockstar logo was developed, along with a design architecture that could be applied across a range of elements.

Also significant in the design strategy is AG's intention to launch more concept phones onto the market. Therefore a brand architecture and structure had to be developed for AG that would allow a common AG branding across a range of phones, each with their own unique identity.

The result is a phone and package that will appeal to young, trendy South Africans and that can compete with the big players due to its unique positioning and imagery that will make it stand out at the point of purchase.


About Design Oval
Design Oval is a young, dynamic, professional, highly motivated and highly skilled team of designers and marketers with over 10 years' design and marketing experience across a broad spectrum of categories within the industry. We work closely with our clients to develop design solutions that are synergistic with their strategy, helping create brands that are based on deep consumer insight and understanding. We are driven by a desire for excellence not only in creative design, but also in innovative thinking and strategic understanding of brands. We believe in forming lasting professional relationships and put a high value on excellence, reliability and consistency of performance.