It takes a skilled pair of hands/creative agency to make you fall in love with a fictional character (lore-laden backstory and all) who is literally a big blob of fat.
But as has become increasingly apparent over the years, Universal Favourite (The Dinner Ladies, Monkey Baa Theatre Co., LBDO) is more than a skilled pair of hands – I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if its next project saw it turning straw into gold, à la Rumpelstiltskin.
So who exactly is this wee chip off the ol’ fatberg block? Er, Butter Baby of course – which sounds ridiculous, but such is the magic of the brand universe (almost literally speaking here, since this character is apparently an alien) weaved by UF that within moments of seeing him, it feels pretty much logical, and irresistibly charming.
Butter Baby (the brand) is a dessert store in Jakarta, Indonesia, which now spans three outlets and promises more to come in future. Butter Baby the mascot, meanwhile, is a hell of a lot more whimsical (and a hell of a lot more bonkers): he is, as Universal Favourite puts it, “An adorable butter alien” – a brave explorer from the paradise planet Butterlandia, [who] travelled through space to save his home.”
The studio continues, “He discovered weird and wonderful worlds before eventually crash-landing on Earth, where he found rich, abundant butter and friendly humans, or as he called them ‘humblabubs’. Captivated, he decided to stay and share his traditional Butterlandia treats from his humble store in Blok M, Jakarta.”
Of course! Us here on Earth, practically bathing in butter like a knock-off Cleopatra. To the untrained ‘humblabub’ eye, Butter Baby is a surreal and peculiar confection blending Sanrio-land cuteness and Clangers-esque shonky outer-space travel nonsense and Staypuft and the Michelin Man and something to do with the Teletubbies – all of this moulded together into a mascot design that is, if nothing else, startlingly original.
But it’s a lot more than just original. It’s so weird it works. Universal Favourite worked across the entire verbal and visual identity, designing the IP (which boils down to the Butter Baby character), motion design, copywriting, illustration, art direction, animation, packaging and website design; ultimately forging a brand identity around a character – an interesting approach that sits in contrast to the usual character design as part of a brand identity.
We will come back to the character, but the rest of the identity is worth celebrating too. Naturally the colour palette is overwhelmingly yellow, a shade that sits alongside a “vibrant blue that adds brightness, a grounding space grey, and a soft milk tone that brings balance” in the words of Universal Favourite.
This extends into physical packaging in ways that are both tactile and give a sense of gentle premiumisation, where silver foiling is used liberally.
The wordmark and main brand copy uses the typeface Ozik Soft by US foundry NuForm. While perhaps a bespoke wordmark would’ve been interesting, Ozik definitely works: the display font’s rounded forms and gently playful, soft vibe nicely reflect those of Butter Baby himself while remaining punchy and legible.
Söhne by New Zealand’s Klim Type Foundry is used as the supporting typeface – a resolutely functional Helvetica-like sans chosen to give balance to the wilder, more expressive letterforms of Ozik Soft.
The whole thing translates beautifully across the stores’ interiors: as with the rest of the identity, they pull absolutely no punches and go very, very hard in terms of articulating the Butter Baby lore. They’re gloopy and yellow and totally unlike anything else we’ve seen in terms of dessert vendors – or indeed any other kind of vendor, bar perhaps M&Ms World, but that’s another kettle of fish entirely.
Are mascots having a moment? Perhaps. There’s been some lovely work recently that’s involved them: Hank’s Bagelry by Studio Ongarato being a standout, alongside Gander’s Yellowbird hot sauce, the revival of Double Diamond beer, and Ding by Wildish & Co. (a brave use of character design in the overwhelmingly dull home maintenance category).
But I’d argue that few brands are going out on a limb to base their entire world – their core raison d’être – on a singular character, in the way that the Honey Monster repped Sugar Puffs or the inimitable impish trio Snap, Crackle, and Pop sold us Rice Krispies or the use of a cow, who is laughing, acting as the face of Laughing Cow cheese.
When done well – as it is here – however, that bold move really pays off. Universal Favourite describes the Butter Baby character as “a distinctive and out-of-this-world brand identity”. It continues, “Somewhere between strategy and sci-fi, the result was the creation of valuable IP and a brand world that extends far beyond desserts.
“Spanning immersive retail experiences, merchandise, collaborations with artists and celebrities, digital content and new product development, the Butter Baby brand is positioned for global franchising and multi-platform engagement.”
My only niggle here is how well the Butter Baby might translate globally: is everyone, the world over, ready to embrace an infant formed of dairy-based fats? Perhaps in a post-Atkins world we are; maybe us vegans have evolved into a sense of humour that can separate the art from the artist. It’ll be interesting to find out.
That being said, maybe the concept of butter is stronger than its physical reality. The word alone has come to connote many nice things: buttery soft, gliding like butter, butter wouldn’t melt, ‘bread and butter’ as central, most basic elements of a more sprawling whole. There’s even something alluring in verbalising ‘butter’, with its hard consonants, the way it shapes the mouth when saying it aloud in a way that’s inexplicably, ASMR-adjacently satisfying.
Only time will tell how successfully this alien baby made of butter from the planet Butterlandia will travel, but global expansion or no, I’m obsessed with this project – it’s absolutely fucking bonkers, delivered via a masterclass in conviction and craft.
