Episode #120: What Makes A Good Toy Logo and A Bad Toy Logo?
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A logo is not the most important part of your toy business. A logo holds NO meaning without a strong product or service behind it. Knowing that is true, should help alleviate the pressure of designing or selecting the perfect logo for your toy brand. Your logo can evolve and change as your company evolves, and it can still maintain the brand recognition of powerhouse brands like Barbie, Hasbro, and Google.
In today’s podcast episode The Toy Coach dives into the meaning of a Logo. You’ll learn what the purpose of your toy brand logo might be, and how to best execute that purpose for your stage of business. Learn the 9 traits of good and bad toy logos that will help you design your next iconic brand look OR help you improve the look your brand currently has.
Photo Credit: https://logos-world.net/barbie-logo/
Photo Credit: https://1000marcas.net/hasbro-logo/
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This episode is brought to you by www.thetoycoach.com
wong.digital/blog/you-dont-need-a-logo-you-need-a-brand-identity/
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[00:00:00] Azhelle Wade: You are listening to making it in the toy industry episode number 120.
[00:00:05] Hey there toy people, Azhelle Wade here and welcome back to another episode of the toy coach podcast, making it in the toy industry. This is a weekly podcast brought to you by thetoycoach.com. How are you doing today toy people? It has been a bit rough out there. So many things going on in the world, stocks going down, emotions are high. So our COVID cases here in New York, there's a lot going on in the world. If you like me could use a good laugh. Well, I'm going to encourage you check out the latest SNL skit. I don't know if you saw it, but there was kind of a QVC like skit with a doll maker. And this funny skit inspired a future podcast episode.
[00:01:03] So I'll see you here next week when we talk about wow factor. If you want the link to that SNL skit, just head over to thetoycoach.com/120 where I will give you the direct link to that skit. It's pretty funny. But I would say it's for adults. Okay. Let's dive in to today's episode. So last week on this podcast, we discussed packaging design. So it seemed natural to me that for this episode, we were going to talk a little bit about logos. So by the end of today's episode you're going to learn, what is a logo? What is the purpose of a toy logo? Do I really need one? And most importantly, what is the difference between a good logo and a bad toy logo?
[00:01:52] Now, to start off today's episode, I had in mind to share with you the first time I ever designed a logo, it's a bit of a fuzzy memory, but I kind of remember it I think so. Back in high school, I took a class on Adobe illustrator and our very first project was to design a logo for just a made up store. I can't remember the name of my store, but I do remember it being some sort of a cafe. So my logo was, I believe just some text and maybe some coffee beans. And I remember I placed that logo on brochures and fake menus and even mocked up a little fake website for my cafe. And I remember at the time really seeing a logo as just something that said the name of the product or the brand in a fancy way.
[00:02:50] But throughout my career, I would play with the purpose of logos and of logo design. Playing with a purpose of logos change the way that I designed them. I remember a logo that I designed for a children's exhibition design I made called color at length. And that logo was the word color written as a wavelength. It was a little difficult to read, not totally functional when small, but highly creative and in my opinion, That logo itself was a work of art to enjoy whether or not you could read it that my mind wasn't the true purpose, because it was meant to be seen big in this museum exhibition.
[00:03:37] Now as I got into the toy industry, the purpose of a logo morphed from artistic expression to brand awareness and identity. But to kick off this episode as always, we're going to start with a definition, if you ever wonder why I start with definitions so often it is because my sister growing up whenever I would run to her and I would ask her, what does this word mean? I just heard this somewhere. What is this? What is that? She would always say, look it up. So I just have this you know, need to look things up, even if I know the definition of a word, I want to know the official definition of a word so thanks to my sister or Maya. That's why so many of our episodes start with a definition. I think it's a really great grounding place.
[00:04:27] So what is the definition of a logo? Well, according to the Oxford dictionary, a logo is a symbol or other design adopted by an organization to identify its products or services. So let's expand on that a little bit. I would say a logo is also a visual representation of your product, your company, or your brand. A logo can be an image that represents your brand, but it could also be full text of your brand name. That's a bit stylized, or it could be a combination of both. So, what is the purpose of a logo? Well, the purpose of a logo is to give your toy company a visual identity on which you build brand awareness and eventually establish customer loyalty.
[00:05:22] Now, your logo is a consistent mark that can and should be used across platforms, marketing materials, and on all the products that you create. Now you might be wondering, do I really need a toy logo? Well, oftentimes new business owners, especially toy creators, us creative types can easily get caught up in the idea that you need the perfect logo for your product before you can ever launch it before you can ever show anyone, anything, even if the product itself is already developed, but your logo, your toy logo, your game logo, your brand logo is meaningless without a quality product or brand behind it.
[00:06:09] The logo is a way for your customers to identify your high quality products, but it alone cannot provide a high quality experience. It can't provide an experience at all. Most of us when starting a business will have no eyes on us at all. Whether we choose to launch our toy brand on tick-tock or on Kickstarter or on Instagram, we might start out with three likes or 10 likes or maybe 20 eyeballs on us when we're first launching our brand. In those early stages, you shouldn't worry so much about your logo. I am giving you permission to not really care about your logo in those early stages.
[00:06:56] In my opinion, you should allow your logo to evolve and change in the early days of your new toy business. As you are figuring out the brand identity, which that logo will signify. Now too often. I see toy craters invest in visual assets, not just a logo, but visual assets, like a logo. When they actually have no idea what their product or brand truly stands for. And when you invest too much too early on in something that seems so permanent as a logo, you are afraid of changing it. You fear that change and you can keep yourself boxed into an identity that won't serve you or serve your brand, or even attract the right customer.
[00:07:45] Now, when I first started the toy coach, I had dozens of different logos. Every company I've ever started, dozens of different logos, every toy brand logo, I've designed dozens of different logos. So on my journey in the toy coach, particularly some of those first logo were actually on my site at some point. As my brand evolved, I let that logo evolve as well. In those early days, I am giving you permission to enjoy the moments when no one is really listening, when no one's really watching and no one, not even, you knows your brand just yet. Enjoy that time, embrace that time and use it to figure out that brand identity. And evolve that logo. I found this really beautiful quote from a blog called wong.digital.
[00:08:41] And this is a quote by a man named Paul Rand, a legendary graphic designer who has designed logos for IBM, ups, ABC and next. Paul says this, logo is a flat signature and escutcheon. A logo doesn't sell directly, it identifies. A logo is rarely a description of a business. A logo derives its meaning from the quality of the thing it symbolizes not the other way around. A logo is less important than the product it signifies. What it means is more important than what it looks like. Love that quote from Paul Rand. Love it. If you want to see this full article that goes to the quote, the link to it is at thetoycoach.com/120.
[00:09:37] Okay. Back to the main question that all this started with, do you need a logo? Yes, but your first logo for your toy or your game brand does not need to be your forever logo. Give yourself some time to get there, but let's break down the different types of toy creators that might need a logo and why you might need it. Now, if you're a toy entrepreneur, you're starting your own toy company and you're looking to have your consistent brand name and a logo that your potential customers and clients will interact with. And remember when they see your product, yes, you do need that.
[00:10:21] In this instance, a logo can work to raise your company's recognition over time. It can help customers who are seeing you for the second, third, or umpteenth time, feel comfortable with you and your brand, and it can increase trust in your brand and in your brand's product. Now toy inventors at some point may have a logo of their own. Why would a toy inventor have a logo? Because toy inventors at some point might have an inventor studio. And for that inventor studio, they may create logos to represent the work that they do. Now, if you learn to become the kind of inventor that can turn one idea into a hundred different toy ideas lessons I teach in toy creator's academy will help you do that.
[00:11:10] Well, if you become that kind of inventor, you will likely be pitching ideas to toy companies all year round and having a memorable mark or logo can also work to create the familiarity with the companies that you are pitching to. Just imagine if your inventor logo is frequently featured in articles of toy industry magazines or on toy industry blogs. And then you pop into a pitch meeting with that same logo. You're carrying your credibility from across social channels and giving yourself a bit of a trust boost. Even before that pitch meeting begins. And when the corporate toy world, we are all well aware of the logos, that major toy companies in our industry have.
[00:11:55] We are all aware of Mattel's big red Starburst, like logo Hasbro's tilted and skewed square shape. And MGA's colorful, bold lettering. These logos, emote feelings at trade shows, drawing students, inventors, and buyers toward these companies booths from across the trade show floor. These logos have a currency of a liquidity, a power that is understood and respected. Is it that draws us toward Gund or Jazzwares or Lego when we see that logo hanging from the ceiling at a trade show? Is it the logo design itself or is it the history of innovation that the company behind that logo has? Is it the familiarity of seeing and associating that logo with industry awards of best-selling toys or seeing it in conjunction with multi-million dollar ad campaigns?
[00:12:57] Well, maybe it's both. While it is true a well-designed logo alone cannot build your brand authority. A poorly designed logo can diminish. So let's dive now into just like the meat and potatoes of all this. Let's talk about what makes a good and a bad logo. Let's start with good logos. The very first thing I want to talk about with a good logo is that they are easy to read, but this is a, two-parter not only are they easy to read, but they're also easy to understand. And easy to understand what your product is or what your company does. The logo of your toy or game product should be very easy to read from a distance.
[00:13:45] You have to imagine that people are walking up to your product at a toy store or walking by it at a toy trade show. And you want to be able to quickly catch their eye, register a name, maybe without them even realizing it's happening. Your product name should be very easy to read, which usually means san Sarah fonts and bolded letters on a white background, or sometimes with a thick white outline around it. Maybe even grounded by a drop shadow. Occasionally people use all of those things in one logo. Now a great example of this, even though you might think, Ooh, that sounds like a lot.
[00:14:25] A great example of this is the pics acade logo. So if you go to pixecade.com, you can check out their logo and you will notice on their page. They also have a version of their logo, where they include what's called a sub mark under the main logo. And the sub mark further explains the product as a mobile game maker. And that is just a perfect logo. Easy to read at a distance, thanks to the chunky sansera font, the white outline, the drop shadow, but there's also this easy to understand sub mark, you know exactly what this product is. Okay. Number two, feature of a good logo. You want to make sure that logo is unique, that it doesn't look exactly like your competitor's logo, even though you may use some of the same colors and even font styles in yours.
[00:15:21] Now, sometimes companies do intentionally design their logos to look like a competitor's logo as a strategy to kind of take some brand loyalty of another brand, but your goal should be focused on making a unique mark that your customers will come to know you for. So a good logo while you might follow the color schemes that are typical in your category, your logo should stand out. It should not look basic or look like a competitors logo so that customers can identify you separately. Are really great example of this is to look at fast food logos because so many of them use the same red and yellow coloring because red D notes, hunger and urgency.
[00:16:10] So looking at how those logos can still differentiate themselves by having a variety of shapes and font styles while using similar color palettes is a really good place to start for inspiration. Number three, your logo if it's a good logo, should definitely work in black and white. A good logo should be able to be recolored and ideally two to three ways. Number one. Is your full color, your main logo design, the one you put everywhere, but the second version of your logo is the secondary logo design. And that version of your logo should be able to be made with two or three colors without changing the design of your logo really much at all.
[00:16:59] The third style of logo you should be able to have, or the third way or logo should be able to work is with one color being black and white being the background. So why is that? This assures that your logo can be used in a variety of ways. If your logo can be in one color, just black on whatever background, you know, that you'll be able to emboss that logo into surfaces. So you might be able to use it in your toy molds so that you can make sure other people aren't using your molds, or if they are they'll have your logo on their products.
[00:17:38] This also assures that even when color is a limitation due to like cost or printing process, many variety of things, like maybe on your instructions, you can't use as many colors. You can still maintain your brand authority and value. Even when your customer sees your logo in black and white. Ideally your logo should not change drastically when the color shifts. That means making sure that there aren't a lot of subtle values defining main points of your logo or defining main shapes of your logo. That's where you want to be able to make your logo simply black and white.
[00:18:17] Now the fourth thing you want to pay attention to with a good logo is that your logo fits the aesthetic of what you're selling. Since we're talking toys, our logos tend to be playful. Sometimes chunky, often bright designed to appeal to kids and parents who our kids at heart really. You want your logo to embody the spirit of your brand and echo the goal of your brand. What is the lifestyle or feeling that interacting with your brand will give your customers focus on that when trying to design your logo. Is it lively, fun, or inspiring those are the feelings that your logo should emote when somebody looks at it, even if it's just the first time they're seeing your brand.
[00:19:05] Now the fifth thing that a good logo has is the ability to evolve over time without losing brand recognition. Great toy logos can be updated to evolve with a growth and decline of graphic styles. And we all know graphic trends come and go. A great example of this is the Barbie logo. So the Barbie logo has always been this like bright fuchsia type pink, but did you know that the style Barbie is written in hasn't always been the same. So in 1959, the Barbie logo looked like it does now. Actually it was handwritten kind of a Sharpie type font, a few loops and curls and intentional imperfections in the letters like the dot over the.
[00:19:57] Now 15 years later in 1975, the logo changed. It had a much more modern, 3d effect to it. The curls or cursive in the letters were reduced and the logo was a lot simpler to read. It almost looked like a stamp. In 1991 through 1999, the pink color of the Barbie logo, lightened from a fuchsia to more of a soft pink and the font softened to no longer in script, but a Sarah font with a stylized B. And if you don't know what Sarah is, think of times new Roman, how it has like little curls at the ends of the T or the A. Those little curls are Cerus or a little notches, almost our sheriffs. So it had the stylized B and simplified all other letters.
[00:20:54] Now in 1994 to 2004, the Barbie logo seemed to go back to its roots a bit, right. I started being more cleaned up mimicking that first Sharpie style, but a much neater version of it looked a lot less hand drawn, easier to read, and the pink went back to being brighter, but it wasn't quite as fuchsia colored as the previous or the first Barbie logos. So in 2004 to 2005, Really shifted. The Barbie logo started to look like it was doodled by a little girl who was just like doodling in her notebook and wrote a flower over the dote in the eye. It had a really playful look and almost less serious look, it was in 2005, just a year after having this flower that the logo removed that.
[00:21:46] Kept the logo, but remove that flower and went back to the fuchsia colored route. So now we're back to the super bright, almost neon looking pink. And from 2009 to today, the Barbie logo has gone back to its original 1959 logo. Believe it or not. Now, if you want to take a look at all these iterations of the Barbie logo, I've brought them over on thetoycoach.com/120. So you can check them out there. I want you to take away from this is that your logo is allowed to evolve and change. Even Barbie has done it. Now, if you are working on a logo for a toy brand instead of a specific product, and right now you're thinking this doesn't apply to me. You can't change a brand logo that's different than a product.
[00:22:35] The brand is still the same. Well, hold on. This can still apply to you. Let's look at a different toy company. Let's take a look at Hasbro and I bet you didn't know that Hasbro's changed not only their logo. But also names several times over the years, according to 1000marcas.net, a website, which I will share with you in the show notes. Now, Hasbro is a company with a rich history. They've got an incredible visual identity that has gone under numerous changes. As the company has evolved. You may not know this, but Hasbro began as a textiles company. They moved into selling pencils and then eventually into toys. Now early logos were heavily text-based.
[00:23:23] No color focused on the name hasbro. They actually had a combination of kind of an HB in script and the censor of Hasbro word, all black, not playful at all. 1959. Hasbro finally introduced a fun little playful character and he kind of looks like a little boy tilting to the side with the words Hasbro written on his shirt. And then in 1968 Hasbro's logo got super modern. No more little boy. Just the words, Hasbro. Lots of geometric shapes involved in it. But then in 1978, that is when Hasbro started incorporating color and a square shape that would stick around in their logo for years to come a square shape, which we can see an iteration of today.
[00:24:16] Now what was once a teal square with a playful Hasbro font and smiley face illustration evolved into what we have today our richer truer, blue square, that's kind of skewed and tilted to showcase the Hasbro name and the playful smile breaking out of that stretched out and playful square. I really love this logo. I think it's got a lot of emotion, but emotes corporate, but playful at the same time. It's really a nice balance. Now, if you love the lessons on how I'm breaking these logos down here for you today, I do want to encourage you to check out Toy Creators Academy. Toy Creators Academy is the most comprehensive toy business program for mission-driven toy creators with busy day jobs and busy lives.
[00:25:09] Checkout toycreatorsacademy.com to learn more about how you can work on this program with me or in a group. Okay. Let's dive in. We have covered what makes up a good logo. I want to dive into what makes a bad logo. If you're here, you're listening to this episode and you're wondering is my logo bad? Well, here's a few things specifically to look out for. Number one, the number one trait of a bad logo is that they are difficult to read when designing a logo for our brand. We can easily get swept up with the fun cursive font that might have a lot of beautiful loops in letters or sand Sara fonts with dramatic spacing. And while we may feel those fonts best emote the vibe of our brand, we have to stop and ask ourselves, are they easy to read?
[00:26:07] Now here's a good test that you can run right now, if you're not sure that your logo is difficult to read, I want you to take your logo, size it to one inch in a graphic design program and print it out. One inch height. If your logo is difficult to read at that size, then you may need to rethink or redesign that logo. A lot of the time, a poor font choice is the culprit of a difficult to read logo, but it could also be the color choices that you've made. While we learned earlier that every logo should work in black and white. We also learned that they've got to work in color too. And if the colors you've chosen clash, instead of compliment each other, then even an easy to read font will be difficult to discern.
[00:27:00] If you feel color might be the culprit of a difficult to read logo, then try lightening or darkening, just one of your colors and see if it helps. You may choose to admit one entirely and just turn it white. That may be all that is needed. Okay, let's move on to number two, never sign of a bad logo. When logos are too detailed, they can't be resized for use in a variety of locations. Now, a lot of people confuse logos with illustrations. They think that their logo has to do it all. Some new toy creators think that their toy logo has to show exactly what the product does or feature the exact character of the product and show the name of the product and explain the function of the product when really that's not the purpose of a logo at all.
[00:27:55] And if you try to throw everything into your logo, it won't be able to be resized for multiple uses and maintain that brand recognition that you, my friend are working so hard to establish by having a logo in the first place. So it's best to keep it simple, especially when you're first starting. What makes a bad logo number three, in my humble opinion, the worst thing your toy logo could be is generic. A generic logo is when your toy logo looks like every other basic logo out there. Every other logo that you might find, if you did a search for toy logo on Shutterstock. Basic logos of Teddy bears and blocks when they don't match your brand.
[00:28:50] And honestly even when they do sort of match your brand, these generic stock logos can make your brand feel cheap and under developed, even when toy companies utilize existing fonts for their toy brand logos, oftentimes they edit those fonts. So that letters never look exactly like the purchased version of the font. So they never have exactly what someone else or some other company might purchase to use on their own products. So even when companies are buying fonts to use, they're still editing them, even doing something as simple as lengthening the tail or the Saraf of a lowercase letter a or extending the tail of the letter, Y could help differentiate an all texts logo of your toy brand from one that is made to be more generic.
[00:29:49] Now the fourth sign of a bad logo is a logo that does not think about the variations of the Us. These days when you create a logo, you have got to be thinking about all of the variations of it. That means that you were thinking about a square version of your logo. That's going to be on social media. You're thinking about the full version of your logo that might live on signatures and emails or headers on your website. A bad logo ignores all of that. And a bad logo tries to be everywhere and work the same way on every application. Even when it just doesn't work and it just doesn't fit.
[00:30:30] Something like a fave Aecon, which is that little icon that shows what browser you're in a favorite con's meant to capture the attention of a distracted, busy consumer that might've forgotten they opened the tab to your toy store in the first place. So that version of your logo it's going to be slightly different while still emoting your brand identity. It needs to be loud and proud to recapture the attention of a user, even once they've clicked away from your website tab. So good logos consider all of the different use cases and have alternative versions that can be used for all of these variety of use cases.
[00:31:17] Before I jump in to the summary of today's episode, I'd like to take a quick break and give a shout out to Allen storm. Current student of toy creators academy 4.0 and creator of what a brother and the what a brother YouTube channel with over 17,000 subscribers and dozens and dozens of monster truck toy videos. So glad to have you in this group of toy creators. And thank you for listening to the podcast and posting on Instagram, your homework. I saw it. I reposted it. I appreciate you. Thank you Allen. Okay, let's get into a quick conclusion of what we learned today. What is the definition of a logo again my friend? Well, we learned a logo is a symbol or other design adopted by an organization to identify its products. Right?
[00:32:14] What makes a good logo? Easy to read. Easy to understand your product. Two, you wanna make sure your logo is unique, that it doesn't look like your competitors. Three. You want to make sure your logo works in black and white. Four, a good logo fits the aesthetic of what you're selling. And five a good logo can evolve over time. Now bad logos. What makes a bad logo? We found out they're difficult to read. Bad logos are also too detailed. Three bad logos are generic. You don't want to be able to find a logo just like yours on shutter stock. That means it is going to not hold as much independent weight. You could get confused with other brands or other products. We don't want.
[00:33:05] Number four with bad logos. Bad logos do not consider all of the variations and use cases. And today we have so many that we have to consider. Ultimately, what I want you to take away from today's episode is to give your logo, the space to evolve as your brand grows. Don't let the development of a logo hold you back from what's truly important, which is the development of your product. And your brand identity. I don't want you saying you can't move forward until you have a logo. You can always have a placeholder logo until the time comes to fully invest time and energy in developing what will be your forever logo or your for now logo.
[00:33:55] If you love this podcast and you haven't already left a review, what are you waiting for? I absolutely love seeing the reviews. I get a notification on my phone every time anyone comes in and it puts a huge smile on my face and keeps me motivated to come back again and again. As always, thank you so much for spending this time with me today. I know your time is valuable and that there are a ton of podcasts out there. So it really means the world to me that you tune into this one. Until next week. I'll see you later toy people.
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