Toy design - The Blimp 2000 Radio Control Balloon logo.

Behind the Design Scenes: Over our ten year (as of 2006) history, The Logo Factory has developed a lot of toy company logos. With an industry that is fiercely competitive and cut-throat in nature, many toys have a limited shelf life before the next 'latest and greatest' comes along. To that end, toy manufacturers are always looking for different ways to move product off the toy store shelves, and count on the packaging and logo work of their product to grab attention in the stores. Unlike traditional corporate identity work, the average toy packaging is very 'loud' and colorful, and is actually a treat for our logo designers to work on (despite the sometimes hectic deadlines). There are very little restrictions when designing logos for toy packaging, and techniques can be used that are never applied to more conservative corporate design work - blends, glows, lens flares (the works!) - can be used with wanton abandon. Case in point - the logo for the Blimp 2000, a helium filled, radio controlled mylar 'blimp' that hit the shelves in 2000. The logo was designed around one of the portholes of a blimp, with bold, blocky font work (complete with blends and glows). A small radio-control icon was added, but graphics of the actual blimp (part of the logo during preliminary design stages) were removed. The logo is held together with blends (usually a design no-no) rendering the mark decidedly non-friendly to low resolution and BW printing.

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