Rug Rat

Rug Rat: A Critical Commentary on Energy Drink Marketing to Youth:
Rug Rat is a speculative branding project that critiques the normalization of energy drink consumption among children and teenagers. Developed in response to a university brief exploring minor yet meaningful social issues, this fictional energy drink brand was designed to provoke, disturb, and ultimately raise awareness.

The brand uses visual irony, semiotic inversion, and satirical framing to mirror the real-world marketing strategies used by energy drink companies tactics that often blur ethical boundaries when targeting youth. As a result, Rug Rat poses a single, discomforting question: “Why would this ever be a good idea?”
The intentionally exaggerated aesthetic bright colours, playful mascots, high-energy type acts as a coded critique of the industry. By borrowing from the visual language of commercial advertising, the brand lures the audience in before subverting their expectations, encouraging reflection through contradiction.

“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” — Steve Jobs

While Jobs referred to functionality, the phrase applies here to critical design thinking: Rug Rat’s ‘function’ is to make people stop and think. It intentionally disrupts passive consumption of visual culture, aligning with Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby’s philosophy that “critical design uses speculative scenarios to challenge narrow assumptions.”

The project reflects my evolving approach as a designer one that prioritises purpose-driven storytelling, cultural critique, and visual communication as social intervention. The use of contrast, character design, and irony are not just stylistic they are part of a larger framing strategy that positions the audience within the ethical tension of the message.

“Design can be a powerful vehicle for social change when it challenges, rather than conforms.” — Paula Scher, Pentagram

Though developed early in my studies, Rug Rat demonstrates foundational skills in illustration, identity design, and ethical storytelling. It also exposes opportunities for growth: deeper cross-platform application, process transparency, and user testing.

Still, it remains a pivotal project in my portfolio one that captures a growing belief:
Design isn’t neutral. It frames narratives, encodes values, and can catalyse real conversations.