Projects

Onya

A meerkat for a delivery network that runs on people already going your way.

Discipline
Brand Mascot
Tools
Procreate · Illustrator
Year
2023
Onya brand mascot design title band with the Onya logo

Onya is a peer-to-peer delivery service: instead of dispatching a courier, it matches a parcel with a traveller already heading in that direction.

The mascot had to carry that idea: a business whose whole model depends on strangers co-operating.

Story

Onya was founded in 2019 with a mission to optimize resourcing and time to deliver products.

Tapan, one of the founders, wanted to sell a product within the community marketplace, but buyers wanted the product to be delivered to their home place. He decided to drop the item himself, travelling 30km to drop the item. Later that afternoon, he found Yuvi (cofounder) was travelling in the same direction. Yuvi said he would have dropped the item had they connected earlier.

Later that month they decided to create this connection channel for travellers heading in the same direction, to connect with senders and drop the parcels, earning money on their way.

Why A Meerkat

The "personality" of the business: for a service that flourishes on human co-ordination and highlights co-operative social behaviour, the reference was an animal described as the most social creature on the planet: the meerkat.

Character Design

Onya board: story, meerkat reference photography, line explorations and the finished mascot poses
Reference photography through line explorations to the finished character, upright with the parcel in hand.

In Use

Board of Onya mascot illustrations: carrying parcels, hang gliding and driving a delivery van
The mascot put through the service: on foot, in the air, and behind the wheel.

Sign-off

Animated Onya sign-off with the meerkat perched on a parcel beside the logo
The animated closing card from the original deck.