The Rise of The Crazy Cart: Transforming Calimax’s Delivery Service.
Today, we're sharing the success story of the "Calimax Delivery Service" project created by Freaner Creative and Design, winners of the prestigious Graphis Advertising 2023 Gold Award.
The Crazy Cart is the official mascot for Calimax, the largest supermarket chain in the northwest of Mexico. What started as a seasonal promotion has become a regular yearly event that keeps shoppers returning for more.
So, come along with us as we take a shopping trip through this creative campaign for The Crazy Cart and its impact on Calimax's success.
Passion, Imagination, and Creativity Delivered
April 5, 2023
By: Ariel Freaner
Calimax is the largest supermarket chain in northwest Mexico, with over 100 supermarkets throughout Baja California, and Sonora. Calimax’s regional market includes the Tijuana-San Diego area, targeting the domestic and Hispanic markets.
Calimax assigned Freaner Creative and Design to create and develop an advertising campaign for its supermarket chain. Ariel Freaner, designer and illustrator, created and developed a cartoon character named El Carrito Loco, which in English means the Crazy Cart.
For this poster, the Crazy Cart is all beefed up and ready to start making deliveries with the new Calimax home delivery system. These static posters were supported by TV spots and internet video clips, with the Crazy Cart taking a phone delivery order, receiving the groceries and products, and then delivering them around happily with fun, creativity, and fancy visuals.
On the design aspect, we took our own 1990s creation and redesigned it from the ground up. We choose a realistic look and feel on the shopping cart going from a 2D design to a 3D format—the materials to render the cart come from authentic scanned textures. We kept the cart high-tech and detailed, and the surroundings simple and clean.
On the one hand, the Calimax Crazy Cart was reimagined with high-tech futuristic and racing car elements to make it impressive and technologically advanced. His wheels are potent, and its line is sleek. He also has a source of energy, knowledge, and other surprising things coming from the center of his body with the Calimax symbol, giving him a bit of a superhero appearance. On the other hand, our character also has cartoon-like characteristics such as his big eyes, movements, and physical abilities like stretching his wheels to act like hands. These characteristics make our character fun, cute, lovable, funny, friendly, and cuddly.
We are proud to have participated in Jose Fimbres and Ignacio Fimbres’s leadership in bringing these new imagery changes to the Calimax brand.
Ariel Freaner is the principal and founder of Freaner Creative & Design, with more than 35 years of experience in creative development, illustration, and design. His award-winning, San Diego-based full-service firm offers creative, digital, and graphic design services to clients in North America, Latin America, and abroad. It specializes in web and app design, editorial and print design, brand development, online marketing, and 3-D development. Freaner Creative recently received several Graphis Awards, including platinum, gold, and silver, as well as two Emmy awards and four Emmy nominations.
