The Yarza Twins on how to rebrand paradise

What does paradise look like? Well, according to multi-talented design studio and real-life twins Eva and Marta Yarza, paradise is a little mountain-side town in Galicia, Spain which overlooks the Atlantic Ocean.

“Oia is a coastal town, it is surrounded by cliffs that face the Atlantic ocean and the views are pretty amazing,” the Yarza Twins tell It’s Nice That. “It’s a very old town, there are even petroglyphs from 4,000 years ago in the area. It has 3,000 inhabitants.”

“Galicia is an area in northwestern Spain — the area is pretty unique in Spain, it is full of mythology and green forests because it rains there pretty often. It used to be Celtic before the Romans came, we even have bagpipes as our national instrument, although they are slightly different to Scottish ones! We have our own language there, Galician, which is closer to Portuguese than Spanish, so the mix of culture is pretty interesting.”

Oia is also next to the Yarza twins’ own hometown of Vigo, and so the pair were a natural fit for the town council to call on when it came to bringing paradise into 2018. “They had seen previous works by us and gave us a lot of creative freedom to make their brand more fresh and authentic,” Oia say.

There was just one catch: a budget too tight to allow for the inclusion of photographers. “This made us focus on two things: first, to make a brand that would be instantly recognisable, second to support this brand on smart copywriting that we created ourselves,” Eva and Marta say. “The copy was born of opposing the peaceful life in the countryside compared to the rumble of the city. Their target audience for tourism were people running away from the hustle of the city, so we made it very obvious on the posters.”

Stacking the three letters of the town’s name vertically, the Yarza twins realised that they could make the word into something incredibly human: a doll. “The council is very open, they have activities the whole year for tourists and locals and they are very friendly, so we wanted to represent this by adding these activities to the doll, it could be doing a pilgrimage, riding a horse and so on, therefore, you, as a tourist or local are a part of Oia,” the twins added.

When it came to selecting a typeface, Eva and Marta were keen to get away from the Galician folklore types which pepper local businesses “so the council could have a special character in the area”. Instead, the Yarza Twins selected “a beautiful typeface” by typographer Elias Hanzer.

“The brand was received with great affection by the locals, the local trekking club sold out their t-shirts featuring the logo and some local businesses have asked us to adapt it to their businesses. The fact that everyone local loves it is a big success for us because they feel their town has finally got a personality.”