Gogo Tea - GOGO-NO-KOCHA

In this spot for Japanese brand GOGO-NO-KOCHA, Hornet Director Yves Geleyn pulls out a few of his most iconic stops: vivid animation, fairytale sensibilities, and a simple yet sweet story about a young girl striving to carry on her family's legacy.

English Translation: 

"I was born and raised on a tea farm in Sri Lanka.
My father once told me: 'From the soil of this small island, I want to produce the world's most sought after, high-quality tea.'

The spirit of my father's legacy is what I want to carry on. My tea leaves this year will become GOGO-NO-KOCHA.
Since 2013, GOGO-NO-KOCHA has been supporting Sri Lankan tea farms through the help of the Rainforest Alliance."

Partnering with Australian-based production company Unlisted and AOI Pro—Asia’s leading creative production company—this is the first time GOGO-NO-KOCHA has produced an original animation in collaboration with an American animation company and one of Hornet’s first forays into the Japanese market.

With intricately thoughtful character design, gloriously lush backgrounds, and a nostalgically classic animation style, Yves delivers a spot that—dare we say it—is everyone’s cup of tea.

Design and Style

One of the more interesting creative challenges was ensuring the animation style stayed true to the local environment in every way. From background landscapes, to intricate character details and colors, everything needed to feel authentically Sri Lankan. Yves and his team—including Lead Animator Sami Healy (who Yves singled out for her invaluable contributions)—responded with a beautifully rich 2D film full of heavily considered lighting, shapes, shades, and colors—and a distinctly European-meets-Japanese animation style infused throughout.

In the Director's Chair

According to Yves, this campaign had everything. “It was a dream project in terms of creating a more classical animation style; having a worldwide animation team delivering across time zones—from South Korea and Canada, to France and New York; and having respectful clients who really loved the art and got excited about seeing what we were producing. Everything was really fun and there was a lot of positive energy in it.”