thing to which every human being can relate. Then, through a twist of fate, a radioactive spider bites him, giving him great powers of strength, balance, agility, and a sixth sense for danger. Being a nerdy, scientifically oriented kid, Peter Parker then develops the technology to create and deploy powerful webs that he can swing from and use to entrap criminals to protect the innocent. In a recent interview with Collider, Kevin Feige, film producer and president of Marvel Studios, obviously concurs. “We want to play with Spider-Man in the high school years because frankly, there’ve been five Spider-Man films and the amazing thing about it is … there are so many things from the comics that we haven’t done yet. Not just characters or villains or supporting characters, but sides to his character. The most obvious being the ‘young, doesn’t quite fit in’ kid before his powers, and then the fella that puts on a mask and swings around and fights bad guys and doesn’t shut up, which is something we want to play with and we’re excited about.” Unlike Batman’s Robin or Captain America’s Bucky, Spider-Man doesn’t have an adult mentor; he isn’t a sidekick, but is very much on his own. As such, Spider-Man has become a galvanizing figure for teens from his creation, as he deals with feelings of self-doubt and inadequacy while learning that “with great power there must also come great responsibility.” Adults who grew up idolizing Spider-Man still do, fascinated by his personality, internal conflicts, love interests, and prowess in
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fighting the bad guys; they also respond to his mantra. Marvel Entertainment is constantly updating the licensing program for the fan-favorite wall crawler. Our design team is intimately familiar with Spidey’s backstory and ongoing adventures. This has helped us to leverage the key visual assets associated with the property in diverse styles, inspired by current design trends that are relevant to today’s fans. We’ve also incorporated imagery of characters from The Amazing Spider-Man storyline to help licensees capture the essence of the film, for example. The key is to ensure consistent representations at retail while allowing licensees some latitude to interpret visual and verbal design elements in a manner that works best for their products and packaging needs for toys, apparel, home décor, and countless other product categories. Depicting the superhero in poses that leave no doubt as to who is represented in licensed consumer products and packaging, whether he’s crouched down, swinging from a web or crawling up a wall, helps fans to easily spot Spidey. Even from a distance in retail stores, fans can hone in on the outline of Spider-Man. Background imagery of spiders and webbing, as well as imaginative ways to suggest these elements, capture the visual assets associated with Spider-Man that are unique to this character. Bold splashes of color and well-chosen fonts do the rest of the work of imparting the magic and fantasy of this comic book folk hero. Given the power of fantasy and the blurring of the lines between toy and entertainment brands, the future is filled with infinite possibilities. More consumer product brands might take a page from these industries to ignite consumers’ imaginations to turn them into fans—and to make the brand an in■ dispensable part of their lives.
Ted Mininni is president of Design Force Inc., a leading package and licensing program design consultancy in the consumer product and entertainment industries. Mininni blogs about packaging and licensing program design at www.designforceinc.com. He can be reached at (856) 810-2277.
MAY/JUNE 2015