Joy of Playing Brand Identity by Squared is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2022 Bronze A' Design Award in Graphics, Illustration and Visual Communication Design Competition Category.
BronzeGraphic· 2022
Joy of Playing Brand Identity
by Squared
Client: Balin
Bronze A' Design Award Winner in Graphic Category
Verified Award Winner
Verify Award Status for #140424The Design
About Joy of Playing Brand Identity
Joy of Playing is a brand identity created for Balin, a company that makes toys for children. The identity covers the logo, branding assets, packaging and the colors and shapes of the toys and characters. The visual language is minimalist, with simple shapes, a reduced color palette and watercolor illustrations. Each toy character has a name and a story, which helps children form an emotional connection. Selected materials include wood, plywood, paper, organic cotton and water and plant based paints.
The Recognition
About the Bronze A' Design Award
Joy of Playing Brand Identity is a Bronze A' Design Award winner, a highly prestigious recognition granted to outstanding designs distinguished by creativity, ingenuity, and astuteness. Bronze winners are amply skillful and strikingly creative artifacts that authenticate the vast experience, imagination, and resourcefulness of their designers. Joy of Playing Brand Identity is expected to be a highly regarded, admired, and cherished object that is notably professional and innovative. This Bronze A' Design Award-winning design incorporates best practices in art, science, design, and technology, and is excellent for its attention to detail. Joy of Playing Brand Identity splendidly satisfies needs, touches desires, charms feelings, and appeals to curiosity.
Interviews
Grand Interview
Your innovative approach to balancing minimalism with child-friendly appeal in Joy of Playing Brand Identity has earned recognition, including a Bronze A' Design Award - could you elaborate on how you achieved this delicate equilibrium between simplicity and playfulness?
Our approach to balancing minimalism with child-friendly appeal involved designing with clarity while incorporating playful details. We prioritized clean, simple forms that communicate effectively with both children and parents. This simplicity was enhanced with playful typography, rounded shapes, and a vibrant yet harmonious color palette that appeals to children without overwhelming them. For example, the use of soft, approachable fonts and the characters' expressive, minimalistic features allowed us to create designs that are visually engaging but not overly complex. This equilibrium makes the branding accessible, memorable, and versatile for various applications.
The aquarelle illustrations in Joy of Playing Brand Identity create a unique emotional connection with children - what inspired your decision to incorporate this specific artistic technique, and how does it align with Balin's mission of promoting healthy active play?
The decision to use aquarelle illustrations was inspired by their organic, hand-crafted quality, which aligns perfectly with Balin's mission of promoting authentic and active play. Aquarelle adds warmth and depth to the characters, fostering an emotional connection with children. This technique reflects the brand’s commitment to natural aesthetics and its philosophy of nurturing imagination. The watercolor textures evoke a sense of whimsy and creativity, mirroring the free-spirited and exploratory nature of play.
Your research into active play, social awareness, and emotional intelligence significantly shaped Joy of Playing Brand Identity - could you share how these findings influenced your design decisions, particularly in developing the characters' stories and visual elements?
Our research into active play, social awareness, and emotional intelligence deeply informed our design. Studies showed that children engage more meaningfully with characters and toys that have relatable backstories and interactive elements. This insight led us to create unique personalities for each character, embedding lessons of empathy, teamwork, and environmental stewardship into their stories. Visual elements, like expressive faces and minimalistic shapes, were designed to encourage imagination and role-play, fostering cognitive and emotional development.
Behind the Design
Press Kit
Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.
- Unique Properties
- Balin is a brand offering beautifully crafted toys that educate, inspire and delight.
We developed all aspects of their communication: from the design of their logo and branding assets to the colors and shapes of their toys and characters... and then we brought them to life in a series of charming illustrations. Each character has a name and story behind, helping to build an emotional connection with children. - Tags
- branding, brandidentity, visualcommunication, graphicdesign, kids, empathy, emotionalconnection, illustration, craft, design
- Production Technology
- All materials, as well as for the toys production, as well as for the branding and packaging used are selected from the highest quality sustainable, harmless and recyclable. Wood, plywood, harmless water and plant based paints, paper, organic cotton.
- Design Challenge
- The hardest to achieve was the balance between minimalism, plain shapes, a reduced color scheme and at the same time giving a positive, child appealing look and cuteness of the products and identity.
- Research
- The research we performed was not that much design based, but we explored some topics that are related to the brand purpose: Active Play and its physical, cognitive and emotional benefits on children; Social Awareness and how to foster knowledge about environmental issues through play experience, Emotional Intelligence and the importance of social and emotional skills that children of today lack.
- Inspiration
- Balin is a brand with purpose.
Their aim is to promote healthy active play, develop social and emotional skills and foster knowledge about the environment through fun and engaging play experience.
They needed an identity, look and feel coherent with their brand purpose, values and beliefs. That is why we developed an authentic, positive and fun visual language based on minimalistic aesthetics and topped with heartmelting aquarelle illustrations. - Project Duration
- The process of creating the whole visual style of product and visual communication was long and exhaustive, starting from mid 2020 and finished somewhere late 2021.
- Operation Flow
- All toy characters have a name and story behind, helping to build an emotional connection with children. They are further brought to life in a series of charming aquarelle illustrations.
- Team Members
- Creative Director - Yana Okoliyska
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