Black Rabbit
A physical media project Designed to empower local tattoo artists and connect queensland creatives
Black Rabbit is an independent tattoo-culture publication brought to life by Inkblot Press, celebrating tattoo artists and illustrators across Brisbane and South-East Queensland. Designed as a monthly collectible magazine, Black Rabbit gives emerging and independent tattoo artists a platform to share their work, promote their practice and connect with potential clients. By bringing artist discovery into a physical format, the publication offers an alternative to the constant scrolling and unpredictable visibility of social media.
The first edition brings together eight featured artists alongside a connected suite of digital and printed brand materials, creating a recognisable identity that extends beyond the page and into the local creative community.
Black Rabbit’s Visual Identity
Black Rabbit’s visual identity is grungy, textured, yet deliberately simple. Calling to themes of ink and illustration with its charcoal tones, its limited colour palette purposefully accentuates the artworks it features. The typography system features gothic inspired serifs and monospaced body fonts, connecting visually to alternative style influences, and the range of monotone textures add visual interest to compositions and link to the brand’s prioritisation of physical media.
The Magazine
The first edition of Black Rabbit brings together eight (hypothetical) featured tattoo artists from across Brisbane and South-East Queensland. Designed as a collectible publication, the magazine combines artist showcases with feature articles exploring tattoo culture, creative practices and topics of interest to the local community.
Each artist showcase highlights the creator’s individual style, artwork and practical information, helping readers discover new artists and connect with their work. Transparent pull-out sheets allow readers to try tattoo designs against their skin before committing to a tattoo, adding an interactive and tactile element to the publication. Alongside these features, free stickers and curated editorial content encourage readers to engage with the physical magazine over its digital presence.
Social Media
Despite being a primarily physical brand that focuses on print media, Black Rabbit also has a designed Instagram page. This page, however, does not operate like a regular branding page, and instead acts as a permanent digital archive for each publication’s featured artists. This simple, easy-to-navigate layout allows Queensland creatives in search for a tattoo artist to easily access a wide list of options and browse at any time.
The designed assets for this included an artist feature template, submission call out post, about the brand highlight, profile picture, and edition announcement header post.
Augmented Reality, stickers and promo
The main promotional piece for Black Rabbit is its street flyer and accompanying temporary tattoos, serving as a wearable interactive business card. Using Eyejack and AR technology, customers can tear off a tab from the street flyer which will include a temporary tattoo and QR code that they can then scan in Eyejack to watch the tattoo animate. Not only does this add an innovative element to the brand that is unique, but it creates a fun and memorable experience that will make engaging with brand promotional material far more tempting to users.
Accompanying the street flyer, Black Rabbit also has a designed set of stickers, both regular and integrating Ar technology. The regular pack of stickers: two rabbit illustrations and complimentary sparkles, come with each edition 1 of the magazine. The separate AR sticker serves as a business card to be stuck in public spaces, where passersby will be drawn to interact and investigate the brand.
From the printed magazine to social media, promotional materials and augmented reality, each of Black Rabbit’s deliverables contribute to a connected brand experience. The consistent visual language makes Black Rabbit distinct and recognisable across different formats, while each medium offers its own way to discover, engage with and participate in the local tattoo community.
Thank you for viewing my project! If you’d like to see more from me, my portfolio and instagram have been linked below. Happy designing!
