Meet the New Matsumura Fishworks
Raise your hand if you’ve rebranded a company whose entire existence is contained in episode 175 of The Simpsons. Anyone? Just us? Right, that makes sense. Anyway, if you’re unfamiliar with “In Marge We Trust”—episode 22 in Season 8—here’s the synopsis:
Marge volunteers as an over-the-phone counselor for the church, and the congregation starts turning to Marge more than Reverend Lovejoy. Meanwhile, Homer goes on a quest to find out why his likeness is featured as the logo of a Japanese detergent company.
We didn’t touch the A story, but thanks to our roots in Japan, we were all over the B story. In this episode, you see, we were introduced to an unforgettable character: Mr. Sparkle.
You probably remember Mr. Sparkle. What you might not remember are the two fictional companies that merged to create him: Tamaribuchi Heavy Manufacturing Concern and Matsumura Fishworks. Incredible company names, by the way. Exactly what you’d expect from the legendary period of The Simpsons.
For this branding exercise, we imagined that Matsumura Fishworks approached us wanting to distance itself from Mr. Sparkle. It landed in 1997, after all. So, the Ivor Andrew design team got to work giving the company a visual identity that could carry it through the 21st century.
Despite the hypothetical work, it collected some real hardware: a Platinum Award from Hermes Creative, and Featured Logo status in LogoLounge’s Book 12 (there were a few hundred winners out of tens of thousands of submissions).
This branding exercise came about when a stranger barged into our new office, shouting “WHO ARE YOU?” and “WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?” It was weird. He demanded to know who our largest clients were. Keith said, "If something like that happens again, just tell them our biggest client is Matsumura Fishworks."
It was quickly decided that we needed to create an actual section on our portfolio for the company. The page in our Work section is told with a straight face, making it look like Matsumura is a real Ivor Andrew client.
It’s fake, of course. But we solemnly swear all the other Work pages are 100% real.
