Okapa

A pink and silver portable speaker resting on pink wavy paper layers.
Screenshot of a website article titled 'This Insane Waterbottle Looks NSFW and Costs $300. But It Still Might Sell Like Crazy' under the Gear Patrol header, with a menu icon and search icon at the top.

CHANGE EVERYTHING

What

Brand authorship, e-comm website and launch creative for a single-product luxury startup.

Role: Copy, concept, creative direction of a multi-agency project

Lead agency: Sunshine

Product animations: Man Vs Machine

Artwork: McBess, Hattie Stewart, Reed & Rader and others

Web build: Substantial

BRIEF: Help a new brand to establish luxury water bottles as a Gen Z status symbol.

Quote graphic with black text on white background reading: "It’s ridiculous. It’s brash. It’s cringey. And... kind of brilliant," with a quotation mark icon at the top.
Top-down view of colorful travel mugs with black bases, arranged on a wooden surface. The mugs are in various colors including purple, pink, green, red, white, and gray, with the brand name 'OKAIDI' embossed on the lids.

“The company’s marketing is so wildly self-aware it’s almost performance art”

Gear Patrol

BRAND NARRATIVE

Okapa began from a deep dissatisfaction with existing water bottles. We aligned their response – a complete erase and reset that questioned and elevated every possible element of the concept – with the radical activist mentality of their Gen Z target audience through the philosophy Change Everything.

Our launch concept, Enter The State of Okapa, positioned the bottle as a creative aid due to the role of hydration in achieving a state of creative flow – the elusive physical and mental space in which you can 'change everything'. 

Text describing the qualities and philosophy of OKAPA water bottles, emphasizing health, durability, luxury, and the brand's commitment to natural and high-quality materials.

IN THE STATE OF OKAPA YOU CAN CHANGE EVERYTHING /

ENTER THE STATE OF OKAPA /

IN THE STATE OF OKAPA YOU CAN CHANGE EVERYTHING / ENTER THE STATE OF OKAPA /

CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT

To turn the State of Okapa in an ecommerce destination, we imagined it as a series of self contained universes in which fantasy adventures and unchecked idealism can become reality.

We populated the State with characters who gave their names to the 8 bottle colorways, developed a micro backstory for each, and engaged independent artists to create a distinct visual world around each bottle.

“The brand’s website is littered with surreal, amost nonsensical lines … most read like mad Libs penned by a cyberpunk philosopher”

Gear Patrol

Colorful vaporizer pens arranged over a white background with black text.

These assets became the basis of a scrollable, skippable product experience built by Substantial, allowing users to explore product features while jumping between parallel character worlds.

As well as developing launch creative, packaging and product guides, visual direction and tone of voice for the State of Okapa, we engaged Man vs Machine to create sumptuous, otherworldly video assets to convey product textures and tactility.

A graphic with the words "FOR THE PURE" and instructions like "USE / CLEAN / REBUILD / REPEAT / RITUAL WILL CLEANSE YOU / BOTTLE AND SOUL" on a light gray background, and a photo of a washing machine with water inside and a white bottle with a hose attached at the bottom.
A promotional poster with light pink background tones featuring a strain of pink and purple gum and a pair of hands holding a blue heart-shaped object, positioned below stylized text about a Swiss-made Grilamid TR-90 mouthpiece designed for softness and connection.
Product label with pink background and black text indicating a non-porous Borosilicate 3.3 glass flask for sterilization, made in Germany, and holding no odor or trace
Promotional poster with purple background promoting a product for hot and cold foods, ice, fruit, and more. Includes images of a strawberry, abstract orange object, and a cosmic scene with purple rocks, a bright light, and stars.
A red background with a close-up of a red shock absorber at the top right, with engraved text 'OKADA'. To the left, white text reads 'FOR THE RIDE' and 'SHOCK ABSORBER MEETS ALUMINIUM EXTERIOR / HEART OF TOUGHENED GLASS HELD IN SILICON SUSPENSION'. Below, a cartoon illustration of a person wearing sunglasses and a hat driving a red off-road vehicle with large wheels and a boxy shape, with a vibrant blue and green background.
Close-up of a black electric device with control switch and warning label, partially covering a black and white illustration of a hand with the word 'YEAH' tattooed on fingers holding onto a wooden structure.
A colorful poster with a yellow background features a rainbow-striped, feminine figure with one arm raised, wearing colorful socks and shoes, and holding a water bottle. The poster includes the text: "For the flow in the state of Okapa you can change everything / always thirst for more."
An advertisement featuring a perfume bottle with a pink and purple cap, strapless with tiny holes, next to a cluster of legs in striped stockings and high heels on a pink floral background, with white text on a beige background reading: "For the eye. From total utility comes total beauty / what the eyes spy the thirsts desire."

Each stage of the product demo animation was accompanied by copy deep diving on product features and artist-created imagery conveying the experience of using an Okapa water bottle.

IN A LINE: Where Okapa leads, reality will follow. In the State of Okapa, you can change everything.

“If luxury is about precision, storytelling and indulgence, Okapa may well be onto something”

Gear Patrol