How We Designed a Logo for a Children’s Storytelling Company
And no, it didn’t just involve using bright colors
As a 29-year-old adult with no children, I have limited interactions with children. Hence, when I was tasked to be the lead designer for a storytelling app for preschoolers, I had mixed feelings. To start, I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to empathize enough because of a lack of exposure to children, which might result in a poorly-done design. Secondly, as much as I’m a designer, I do not have the capability of generating ideas every now and then as other designers do.
Designers are often stereotyped to be messy, and only living in the moment. But for me, I am quite the opposite (in my opinion, I am a rare breed); I am a designer who thrives on flow, structure, organization, and careful planning. I was caught up in my own self-doubt, and yet I was excited at the same time because there was finally an opportunity that would get me out of my comfort zone.
I decided to pull up my big-girl pants and hype myself up to take on the task.
How the design journey began
The 55 Minutes team was commissioned by Nine Tales, a startup focusing on children’s storytelling. Discussing and talking about emotions is often taboo in many Asian households, but Nine Tales believed it was important to do so. By using storytelling as a tool, the founder’s goal was to connect family members through a fun and collaborative process, all while helping children build emotional intelligence and learn life lessons together with adults through curated stories focused on these values.
Based on Nine Tales’ product direction and goal, we were tasked to develop a brand identity for them. We kickstarted the task by designing the logo as it is the main identity of a brand. Since I thrive on structure and I know how designing a logo from scratch can be a daunting goal to achieve, here’s the low-down that helped:
1. The importance of color psychology
A logo consists of two visual elements, a logomark and logotype. They work together to create a symbol, a single identity that represents a brand. Also known as a pictorial logo, the logomark is often the first element users recognize. Hence, visual is key, and therefore it is important to use the right colors and create the right visual to spark users’ interest.
More than just a way to draw attention, colors can help you connect with your users on a deeper psychological level. Different colors evoke different emotions, and the choice of colors impacts a brand’s recognition and reflects the brand identity, all of which dictates the users’ perception of a brand subconsciously. Hence this makes the choice of colors crucial in logo design, and it requires a thorough understanding of a brand’s values, goals, and personality beforehand.
I started by throwing out colors I know that are not suitable for our client. This narrows down the selection, allowing me to focus only on a few I know might work. For instance, pink is definitely not a suitable color because it’s too feminine. Purple would not be suitable as well, as it is often associated with royalty, luxury, and mystery, which is contradicting to what Nine Tales hopes to identify itself with:
- Exudes warmth and is fun to use
- Parents can feel safe with to use it with their children
- Promotes learning and growth
- Fosters connections among family members
In the end, olive and yellow were the final brand colors for them. Green symbolizes growth, and it is a suitable color as it promotes learning and growth as a brand. For the exact shade of green, we decided to opt for a darker tone, olive. This is to signify comfort, trust, reliability, and stability, which are values that are important in a storytelling app for primarily parents and children. As a storytelling app, the usage of olive would also avoid clashing with book covers, allowing stories to stand out.
The addition of yellow is intentional, as we wanted to convey that it’s also all about having fun when using the Nine Tales app. Yellow helps to define Nine Tales as a brand that is creative, expressive, uplifting, and optimistic. Together, both olive and yellow define what the client wants to convey — being a brand both adults and children can trust, all while having fun and having the freedom to express their creativity through storytelling.
2. Don’t forget about your target audience
Despite how influential colors are in logo design, understanding your target audience is also equally important as it determines the direction of a logo’s visual style. How would a child perceive the visual? What kind of impressions does it give to people? Both visual style and colors go hand in hand in the logo design process; they complement one another to achieve an impactful logo design.
Due to my lack of interactions with children, to understand them seems tough. What captures their attention? How do they behave? We asked a few children to get some initial sense of their responses to the early drafts designs. I also decided to look in a different direction—why not focus on the aspect of fostering family connections between adults and children? This inspired me to go for a softer look using an organic blob-shape, representing the organic emotions adults and children would experience with the different stories in the app. The fluid shape signifies how malleable our emotions are, how we are able to feel different emotions at once. The blob was then further shaped into the shape of a digit ‘9’ to expand brand awareness concurrently.
3. Intricacies of the eyes
I felt that the blob shape alone wasn’t sufficient on its own as an identity. It lacked character. Neither did it convey much about Nine Tales as a brand strongly. It did not spark curiosity in people. I then experimented with the idea of humanizing the blob. Emotions are what makes us human and it’s also something Nine Tales strongly believes in. Thus I felt it was important to convey this. I decided to give the blob “character” by adding a pair of eyes, as I was inspired by what William Shakespeare once said, “The eyes are the window to your soul”.
Now, here’s the tricky part. There are a ton of ways to illustrate a pair of eyes; a slight change in the shape of the eyes could make a huge difference in the way users perceive the logomark. Yes, this seemingly small detail of designing a pair of eyes is crucial because it too leaves an impression of the brand. Research states that 94% of first impressions are design-related, and hence the impression left on users would determine if they stay because they are interested to know more or decide that the brand and/or product is not for them and leave. This decision could also potentially affect other aspects such as brand and product satisfaction, usability, and how willing and active users are to explore the product.
In this case, I dabbled around with a few renditions, playing around with the shape and size of the eyes. The team then showed it to a few individuals in and out of 55 Minutes and Nine Tales to get their first impressions and feedback on the different designs. A 12-year-old pointed out how Logomark 6 reminded her of a popcorn kernel, while another comment we received was how in general, despite the slight tweaks in shapes, Logomark 5 was perceived in so many ways to him (e.g. a digit ‘9’, an apostrophe), and that itself is interesting to him. He found it meaningful as it ties in with what Nine Tales is all about — a brand that allows users to be creative in their ways to tell stories.
It was a tough choice to make, but the Nine Tales team decided to go for the original shape we designed (Logomark 4). They did not feel the need to make the digit ‘9’ apparent such as in Logomark 5–6, and 8–9. They hoped Logomark 4 would spark users’ curiosity, making it a conversation starter. Logomark 4 also does not emote, which opens up users’ interpretations. The intention was to not have users establish a certain emotion and impression based on the logo (e.g. feeling happy when they see Logomark 7–9). Most importantly, it remains legible when it’s scaled, which is an important factor to take note of for an effective logo.
4. To note: There’s still the logotype
With all that said about the logomark, there’s still the logotype that makes or breaks the logo design. A logotype is essentially a text logo, which is usually a word or a group of separate letters. It might be centered around just the company name or initials, but typefaces help to communicate your brand to the audience as well. All typefaces have personalities; when done right, it can reinforce the brand identity and convey the overall message together with the logomark.
For Nine Tales, we proposed two different logotypes with different intentions:
- Type 1: Sharp and slanted edges make the logo look modern and yet fun at the same time when paired with the logomark.
- Type 2: Rounded edges make the whole logo softer and more cohesive.
We also proposed the idea of having different baselines (the invisible line upon which letters rest) for the logotype to further convey the values of freedom and creativity in Nine Tales. Type 1 makes the cut eventually, and tada, that’s how we designed the logo from scratch for Nine Tales.
A series of visuals were generated such as the letterhead, name card design, and email signature, all of which form Nine Tales’s brand identity.
This experience of designing a logo was definitely a welcome challenge through the stereotype of being creative, i.e. churning out all kinds of designs at the snap of a finger, just because I am a designer. Furthermore, as I was designing it with an unfamiliar target audience to begin with, this made the task harder. However, I am glad I stepped out of my comfort zone and took on this challenge because I learned that designing a logo from scratch isn’t about expecting ideas popping into my head out of nowhere. There is a certain aspect of structure and flow in design and frameworks, which would guide you toward your ideation and creation.
So if you’re a designer in the same boat, I hope this article brings you a sense of comfort. Even though designing a logo is a highly creative process and it may seem intimidating at the start, there are elements to help guide you through creating the design. With these elements in mind, it will help you to break down the bigger goal (of designing a logo) into smaller process goals. By checking these smaller goals off one at a time, you’ll find that the logo design process is not that daunting after all.
Elaine does UI/UX design at 55 Minutes. Inspired by architecture, art, fashion, nature, photography, and people, Elaine’s approach to design is to tap into what makes us human — our emotions. She believes good design involves understanding who she’s designing for, and how design makes them feel. For her to be pixel-perfect in her work, she needs a good breakfast. Coffee is a must too.
