Episode #141: An Unusual Source of Inspiration For Your Next Toy or Game Package
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Toyspiration can come from anywhere. It can come from a song, a play, a theatrical release or even the world of fashion. In this podcast episode, The Toy Coach dives deep to share a creative process with an unusual source of inspiration. If you’re currently struggling with designing a package for your toy or game idea, this is the episode for you. Or, if you have a toy or game brand with the packaging you’ve been meaning to refresh, make sure you give this episode a listen!
In this episode, you’ll learn how to look at sources of inspiration in a way that helps you add your own creative twist instead of copying what’s already been done before. Discover why it’s better to come up with ideas without focusing too much on what already exists in your toy category. By the end of this episode, you’ll have all the tools you need to spark unique inspiration in a matter of minutes!
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This episode is brought to you by www.thetoycoach.com
LINK To Andres Carne De Res Menu - https://www.andrescarnederes.com/en/andres-dc
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Azhelle Wade: I think this is like next level OJI tip stuff here. I want you to pay attention to the lights and the darks in the graphic design pay attention also to the shapes within the graphic design. And when you're looking at lights and darks and shapes, think about those things in terms of depth.
You are listening to making it in the toy industry episode number. 141.
Hey there toy people as gel 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 the toy coach.com.
Until recently I have been away on my honeymoon after getting married my dream toy guy, Christian Castro. And some of you have been receiving automated emails from me instead of my normally written emails. But I have to say, it seems like you guys kind of like those automated emails.
So my personal emails are coming back. But for those of you that enjoyed the automated ones, let me know.
So today we're going to talk about finding inspiration for your toy or game package design. Now I've done episodes in the past about the key elements of packaging design.
You can go back to the toy coach.com forward slash one 19 to listen to the episode toy packaging 1 0 1. I've also done episodes on unique places that you can go to find toy Spiration for anything from a toy idea to a toy package, inspiration. And for that, you can go back to episode one of this podcast. But for today's episode, instead of listing a number of different places outside of toy stores, that you can go for toy Spiration.
And instead of talking about the overall elements of packaging design, I was inspired to focus on one specific thing that you can use to find inspiration for your toy package. Or game package idea and how you can use that inspiration to create a new concept for a packaging design. This is a new source of inspiration, but one that you actually likely encounter maybe monthly in your everyday life, but you might have overlooked or never thought deep enough to apply it to toy or game packaging design.
So in today's episode, I'm going to share what this source of inspiration is. And I'm going to tell you how to effectively use it to inspire your next Toyer game package, design idea. So to kick off this episode as always, I like to start with definitions and there are two definitions that I think are going to be really important as we dive into inspiration and application of inspiration. the two terms that I really want us to specify our inspiration versus copying. What's the difference. How do you find inspiration from anything and apply it to your toy idea or your toy package concept without copying? Well, first up the, the word inspiration, the dictionary definition of that word is the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative.
So being inspired by something, it could even be this podcast is just being mentally stimulated so that you. We are inspired to be creative. That's what inspiration is. Now let's talk about copying because as much as we want to find inspiration from the source that I'm going to reveal to you today on the podcast, we want to make sure we're not copying now. Copying means to make a similar or identical version of something to just reproduce it or to imitate.
Now copying the definition of copying is to make a similar or identical version of something or to reproduce it. Now we all know in the creative world, Toy brands often are inspired by other toy brands. You can see it. If you go down the aisle, there are some brands that look very similar to other brands and copying the true definition of making a replica of something it's definitely looked down upon, but being inspired to improve a way a design is done or to make a product, a better version of that product. Isn't something that is looked down upon. You're allowed to be inspired and copy elements from a product or a package without really copying the entire essence of that product or package and still creating something
So I want to make sure as we continue on. That you are actively looking for inspiration and that you're not directly copying exactly what you find from this resource that I suggest, but you're allowing it to inspire. New ideas in you. You might copy certain elements and change others. You really want to make the inspiration uniquely yours.
Okay. So I know you must already be excited and anticipating what is this new source of inspiration that Michelle is excited to share with us? Well, let's get right into This new source of inspiration I found for toy packaging is one that I came across during a night out at a restaurant in Colombia, where I was with my fiance and our family.
This restaurant is called
It kind of looks like. Time square if you've ever been to New York, but in a restaurant and, and just kind of, you know, maybe on steroids like that is how you would best describe this restaurant.
This restaurant is really an experience for the senses. You see a lot of things, you hear a lot of things. You're watching performances and you're eating great food. There's a lot happening at this restaurant.
So you might think, oh, would you almost have been inspired by a show that happened at this restaurant or a song she heard? Or
Or maybe the packaging that I saw at the store that was inside of the restaurant. Yes. This restaurant had a store inside of it, but no, that inspiration that I found it didn't come from the decor or the music. It didn't come even from the outfits of their waitresses or But instead, this inspiration came from the menu of the restaurant. That's right.
The menu. If you've ever gone to a restaurant that specializes in creating an experience for their guests. Then you've likely come across a menu or two. That was just so gorgeous. You've maybe taken a photo of it or you could see yourself making it a wallpaper on your phone or putting it up in your house.
So it was at Andres Carne De Res. That I found myself stylistically inspired to create a line of toy packaging. Looking at the pages of this menu, I found myself saying, oh, wow. This would actually make a really cool looking package. Before we continue, I want to talk a little bit about
Menu. If you are by a computer, if you have a minute, I want to invite you to go over to the toy. coach.com. Forward slash 1, 4 1, because I'm going to share a link to this menu on that page. They have their menu online so I can link you directly to it. And from the first page, you're going to see why I was so immediately inspired. Now we all know with packaging, especially if you listen to my packaging.
Podcast episode, the toy packaging 1 0 1. We all know that there are several elements, packaging, but one of the key ones that I like to address is when you're designing a package for a toy you're choosing whether you want to assimilate or differentiate. Do you want to make your package different from everything else on the shelf or do you want to fit in and almost have people purchase your item? Because they think it might be a branded item. If let's say you're making an off branded
Now opening this menu. And immediately being inspired by the style and design. I could see that it wasn't quite what is. Out there in the toy industry right now.
But I immediately could envision this menu as the cover of a pretty epic looking game box. It actually would stand out, differentiate in a way that would be really valuable. So let me describe this to you. If you can go to the toy coach.com forward slash 1 4, 1, scroll down and look for the menu that I'm going to link there.
The very first page of this menu is a collage on a Navy blue background. I have a bunch of flat shapes. So there are hearts, there's a gentleman playing a saxophone and there's butterflies coming out of his saxophone instead of music notes. There are a lot of geometric shapes drawing your eye across the center of this menu, which has, you know, the wording that says the menu in the center and a lot of circular intertwining shapes that are continuously bringing your eye in a circle to go back to that center.
Texts that says the menu. The theming feels a little Western with a very. Playful modern color palette. Often in the toy industry, whenever we would create products. I'm thinking back to one of my earlier jobs. I remember working with a, with a colleague who would say, oh, it's so, you know, it's so frustrating when I see people design a new.
Toy brand and they always go for that. Bright fuchsia pink, because back in the day that bright fuchsia pink was like the color for any girl's product. And this colleague of mine would say, oh, why does everyone not know that there are so many other colors of pink? It doesn't always have to be that bright fuchsia pink and this colleague of mine would always try to push the envelope as far as what color schemes we would use, what pinks we would use. And this menu from Andres Carne De Res has such a light, innovative color palette. It's a little bit more adult than kid.
But as I was saying earlier, when we're going to be inspired by things like a menu, we're not copying, but we are looking for inspiration. So right here, first page off the bat, I see inspiration for a fresh color palette, Fresh use of flat artworks and overlays and layers textures that I could apply to a packaging concept and then tweak the colors just a bit to make it just a little bit more. Toyetic. This menu. Is 47 pages long. Every page of this menu. Much like the restaurant has a different vibe and a different aesthetic. So at this restaurant almost everywhere you turn, there's a different vibe, a different aesthetic. Much like this 47 page menu. What's great about that is regardless of what toy brand you're, you're creating or what look you're going for, because this menu is so extensive and so varied in visuals, you're likely to find something that can inspire the direction of what you want to create, or a way that you can add layers to what you've already made to make it feel more complete, more finished, more thoughtful.
What's truly great about using a menu of a restaurant to inspire your toy or game packaging ideas is because the packaging source itself, the menu is so far removed from the toy industry in which you'll be applying it to. Because of that, there is plenty of room where you will need to take what you see, refine it, apply it, twist it, and evolve it, and the style of it to finish your product or the package of what you want to create. So that helps us avoid copying and helps us maintain that route of being inspired.
So I wanted to talk through the process of applying inspiration from something like a menu. To a toy package and talk through why it's such a better source of inspiration. Then let's say you using another toy brand to inspire what your toy brand should look like. So to do that, what I want to do is I actually want to do a
test of creating a package based on, this menu. What we're going to do, I'm going to scroll through this menu. I'm going to look for a page that inspires me and I believe I've already found one. And as I talked through the thought process of utilizing this menu as inspiration for a toy package. I'm going to actually create it. I'm going to go into a program like illustrator, Photoshop. Haven't decided quite what I'm going to use yet. But I'm going to go into that program and I'm going to do some, some quick Photoshopping and illustration work now it's not going to be final. But this will be an initial inspiration jumping off point to show you how you can apply the things you find in a menu to a toy concept while your game concept. I've already found one that I really like. This is page 38. Of the menu. So I'm going to do a quick screenshot of this page that I like, and I pull it up in Photoshop.
So first I want to explain what this menu page that I've selected. Looks It is mostly a full illustration with some information from the food or drink written on top of the illustration. This artwork is kind of a top view of a table. There are six people around the table. Some hands reaching over the table to take a photo of the table and other hand placing food at the table to people who you can actually see full body. And they look like they're about to start dancing, but they're standing around the table as well.
Another hand grabbing a quesedilla and another hand releasing butterflies. This table has, some wording. On the table to describe the, either the food or the drink that is available. And on top of the table is illustrated A drink. A couple of meals and just the people around it who are acting with the table in itself. There's also a beautiful pattern on the floor underneath the table Underneath the people. So this is the one that I found would be great inspiration for a card game. Since there are people around the table, the illustration style is very simple. It has, it's a very line drawing focused style with a simplified color palette that is mostly blues and oranges with some Browns in there and it's. A little bit muted, which we would definitely pump up.
I've gone into Photoshop. I took that page and I've tweaked it quite a bit. So if you get a chance to download this image and check out the differences that I've done. Please do I hope you enjoy it? What you'll see, as I've taken the illustration, change the color a little bit changed what was on the table so that it could be a card game and use this as the plan for what this package will look like.
Now, remember we are only using this for inspiration. This is not a final packaging artwork. You're going to send your factory because we're not copying. We don't want to copy someone's illustrations, but we do want to be inspired by the style of the illustration, the angle of the illustration, things like that.
What you can do is take this image and send it over. To an illustrator and explain to them, I've got this item called best game ever. That's what my little mock-up says, and this is how I want the packaging to look, but I need you to create a new illustration of people around the table.
Instead of the people pictured here. I want it to be a little girl that looks like this, or a little boy that looks like this or parents that look like this. I want them to be doing these actions around the table, but I want you to fit to match the style that is illustrated in this little mock-up that I've created, this is the placement of the text. This is the placement of the cars and game pieces. And that's all you need to get started on planning my packaging. Look. So that is how you're going to use a menu to inspire you, to create your next toy or game package. It's just such a quick shortcut when designers first start out, many of them say the, one of the earliest things that they did did was copy certain fonts and certain layouts just to learn what it takes to build those compositions. Like just to learn the layers that are involved in those compositions and designs that work so well.
So you can kind of use menus. As a source that has already really built the layers for you, and you just need to see it with a toy or game filter. So that you can create a mock-up, which then you'll send over to the final designer or the final artist who will illustrate your Twitter game concept as a starting point for them. You can be inspired by these menus, figure out a layout, inspired by them, and then have the person you're working with. Add in their final touches. If you want to see the little example, mockup concept for a game box design based on a menu page, head over to the toy coach.com forward slash 1 4 1. I'm going to put my little mock-up there.
So you might be wondering, Azhelle, why is it better to use a menu as a source of inspiration over the toy aisle itself? Why shouldn't I just look at fellow competitor products and use that as my source of inspiration? Well, let's say you went to target. To find inspiration for new collectible toy line, because you're looking at creating a collectible toy line. Maybe you've already created one, but you need some packaging inspiration before, you know what box you want to keep yours in.
So you start down the aisle, you're looking at things like LOL surprise, like Hatchimals, maybe Shopkins. And you leave the trip, identifying the way that each brand mixes and matches different colors, purples, and TEALS, or pinks and oranges, how they use patterns and solids, you find yourself inspired to mix neon colors and black and whites, or to create miniature versions of real-world things for your packaging.
And of course, because you want to create something new from what already exists out there. You'll add a twist. So that twist might be a foil print on the package, or it might be a complete desaturation of an existing color scheme just to make it look a little But once you've finished designing around what already exists in the toy aisle.
You realize that your toy package that you created actually still doesn't pop out off of the shelf. And after you do all that work and, and you start to build off of what already exists in the toy aisle, you create something that you realize doesn't actually pop off the shelf. It blends in well, which in some cases is a good thing. So buyers will believe that your product will sell. , but on one hand, it blends in too well. And you worry that it will be overlooked by consumer that passes by. But that is just what happens when you start designing with a mind that is hyper-focused on what is already in the industry right now.
Your product could easily and unintentionally look almost identical to existing products out there. But when you find your inspiration for your toy package or your game package from a non toy source, like a restaurant menu, there is so much more room for your own creative interpretation. So you're far more likely to introduce something that is fully unique to the toy aisle, because the source of inspiration didn't come from that aisle at all.
To close out today's episode, I want to give three clear. Steps for how you can find these menus to find inspiration from how you. What you should be looking for when you look at these menus in search of toys, operation, and what do you do after you find it? I want to recap those three things. So first up. Where do you go to find these inspirational menus in the first place? Azhelle. Okay. Well, I mentioned at the top of the episode, I'm going to share the link to Andres Carne De Res, which was a restaurant I went to in Columbia that inspired this entire episode.
I'm going to share that link on my site in the show notes for this episode, the toy coach.com forward slash 1 4 1.
But aside from that menu, you likely already know a few restaurants that specialize in experiential dining. So I want you to look up restaurants who specialize in experiential dining, and you're going to use Google to help you find their menus. So all you need to do is type in the restaurant name, followed by menu, and hit search.
You should be able to uncover an online PDF of that. Restaurant's menu because so many restaurants today use QR code. So their menus have to be available online.
But how do you know if a restaurant is going to have an interesting menu? If that restaurant specializes in creating a dining experience and you have been there before, or you've heard about it and you can see that they have a lot of decor that they invest their time and money into.
And you can tell they care a lot about how their waitresses and waiters dress so that they continue the experience. Even through the ordering process. Quite often, they will also have invested a lot of time, energy, and effort into their menus. So that's how you're going to choose what restaurants, menu to look for.
But if you really don't know any restaurants, you can find articles by simply searching the top, you know, most unique restaurants in NYC or whatever your city is. You could look up how to have a unique dining experience and find restaurants that way. And once you find the restaurants, we're going to go back to that first search and do a search for the restaurant's name, with the word menu after it.
Once you have your menu inspiration. What do you do now? How should you actually look at an analyze this menu so that it inspires a toy or game package idea? You should first look at unique color combinations stuff that jumps right out at you off the page, because you want your toy or game package to stand out. You might not use these color combinations exactly as they
But the saturation of the colors, the shades of the colors can inspire new combinations that you haven't thought of before. Or aren't currently on display in the toy aisle.
You should also pay attention to really unique ways they have of representing images. Some menus might show their food as an illustration versus a photo, some menus, even our chalkboard theme. So the background is black and the food is illustrated in a way that looks like white chalk.
You also want to pay attention to illustration styles, much like the example that I use for today's episode, the illustration style can inspire how you want Characters or people to look on your package. What is the style of the brand? You also want to pay attention to eye catching fonts. You don't always have to use system fonts or fonts that you find or purchase online. You could actually have an hand drawn font for the title of your toy or game. You could be inspired to do things to your font that you might not normally do.
Like add a gradient effect over it, or a cool textured effect on it, or mix different font types. Types in a unique way. So pay attention to how the fonts are used in illustrated in menus. And you can be inspired by that as well. You also want to pay attention to the overall vibe and graphic style menus can have really interesting vibes applied to them. You may find yourself inspired by a menu that has a Western theme to mixed with rainbow and sparkles. You may find yourself inspired by a menu that has a very modern, fresh, clean theme with very little color. You should always ask yourself, how can you apply that and make that work for the toy industry? If I really like an effect that I see on a menu page, but I think, oh, no, that's a little too wild or a little too edgy for the toy industry. I try to have myself think about a popular brand.
Let's just think Barbie and say, I did see a really clean contemporary look on a menu that I liked, but I thought it wasn't toyetic enough. I would say, how would Barbie apply this look to her brand? What would that look like? And sometimes that thought process. Can inspire new ideas on its own.
Now this next tip, I want to give you super important. I think this is like next level OJI tip stuff here. Now, when you're looking at these menus, I want you to pay attention to the lights and the darks in the graphic design pay attention also to the shapes within the graphic design of the menu. And when you're looking at lights and darks and shapes, think about those things in terms of depth.
And negative space. Interesting packages. We know, play with color and depth and shape and materials. Because of that, you can be inspired by a design that let's say has a ton of black in the background and has splotches of red throughout. You could say what if those splotches of red were actually cut
And this was the face of a package. And you could see the product between these random splotches of red that are cut out. So that is how you can really get the next level of inspiration from these menu designs. Look at the graphic design in terms of depth and negative space. And. And really pay attention to.
Illustrations that are intended to look like different materials, like gold, like shimmer and ask yourself what if I did actually add a gold foil here? What if I did an embossed shimmer effect here on a package that they were only illustrating? Really be inspired by every aspect of the graphic design and think about how you can take it to the next level in packaging, because the menu design is flat and it has to be, it's a 2d experience, but what you're creating as a package is a 3d experience. So you can easily take everything that you're inspired by to the next level and give it a more three dimensional life.
And the last thing I want to leave you with today is what to do after you found that inspiration, maybe after you've made a few tweaks in Photoshop and you've redesigned what this menu was and you've created your own thing, or you've done your own initial sketch. Don't expect that that first design of yours is perfect for the toy industry. Don't go over there and say, well, Azhelle said, get inspired by a menu. Here is my menu package. No. Because your first inspiration source was from a non toy source. It's likely that the very first run of it might be too edgy. It might be too dark. It might be too whimsical for the toy aisle. So you do want to take that first design and look at it with a toy lens.
You want to take it to a store, put it up against things that already exist there and see how it pops and if it doesn't.
Remember your package should still pop and be different, but still has to be appealing to kids, parents, and toy buyers. So we want to keep in mind, what's important to those three categories of people. You want to walk into a meeting with a buyer and have them say. Oh, wow. What a really clever way to illustrate this toy game concept. I can't believe no one has done this in our industry before you want to give them that feeling.
And make sure that even if you're inspired by something as non toyetic, as a menu, you find a way to bring toyetic elements out of that inspiration.
So your action items due for next week. I want you to check out a menu. I want you to check out a really cool, interesting menu. And I want you to find inspiration in one page of that menu for your next toy project. I would love to see your source of inspiration and what you created. If you are allowed to share it. I would love for you to create a story of your menu, inspiration and whatever toy or game package you came up with, whether it's a sketch or it's a full-on illustration or rendering, I would love for you to share it on Instagram and tag me at the toy coach so I can share it with everyone else and I can check it
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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