Brand Identity for a Toy Shop designed by Katrien: a Case Study

This is a case study of the design process for the brand identity for a toyshop in Amsterdam, Knutsel Frutsel, where I show a bit of the process and results of this creative project.

Isis has owned her toy shop Knutsel Frutsel in Amsterdam for 20 years now and when she came to me because she wanted a new brand identity and website, I leapt at the chance.
Working with Isis was especially fun because she wanted true creativity and wasn’t afraid of expressive design. The brief was to design a creative, fun, playful and busy brand identity, with the main colour purple,  and a website that showed the toy shop’s philosophy of a welcoming wonder world for children and their parents and at the same time be a virtual display of what the shop offers. The goal of the new website was to attract new and old customers to come to her local shop by creating engagement through writing blogposts about the latest toys, books and trends, crafting tutorials and themes such as Christmas, Mother’s Day and Halloween. The shop also needed corresponding shopping bags and stickers, signage and marketing collateral.

 

Brand Identity for a toy shop

First step: discovery phase

First, I had an in-depth chat with Isis about her business, her philosophy and vision and visual likes and dislikes and she created a Pinterest board with items she liked. I then started out creating moodboards of the look & feel of her new brand identity and logos that could be used as inspiration. It quickly became clear that the design should entail storytelling elements, just like a fairytale, and a logo that showed a hand crafted quality.

 

Moodboarding

Creating moodboards is about getting the look&feel of the brand right, it serves as inspiration and helps when starting the design process.

moodboards: playful, illustrations, busy, storytelling, logo inspiration, fairy tales, adventure, colour purple

 

Brand Identity for a toy shop

From an idea to a logo design

I started out looking for the right feel of the logo, first trying some hand lettering and playful fonts, combining it with small illustrations. Designing takes time and is a creative process. You can see how the logo developed over time to what it is now.

Brand Identity for a Toy Shop designed byKatrien: a Case Studyfrom and idea to a logo design

 

logo design toy shop

 

 

Illustrations

Throughout the design process I created little illustrations telling a creative wonderworld story that I would finally use in the website.

Brand Identity for a Toy Shop designed byKatrien: a Case Study

my messy, but creative, workspace 😊

Website

The idea for the website was to create a stage as opening page, inviting the audience to come in to the wonderworld of the Knutsel Frutsel Toy Shop. I added some animation to this scene as well.

Brand Identity for a Toy Shop designed byKatrien: a Case Study

The website is designed to entertain and entice, it’s a fun experience, a wonderworld to discover. You can visit the website here!

Brand Identity for a Toy Shop designed byKatrien: a Case Study

Brand Identity for a toy shop

Packaging & businesscards

The great thing about brand design is creating an engaging experience for the customer. Isn’t it fun to carry your purchased toys and crafting supplies in a beautifully illustrated bag or get a fun business card?

Brand Identity for a Toy Shop designed byKatrien: a Case Study

Brand Identity for a Toy Shop designed byKatrien: a Case Study

The shop front

Because the shop consists of 2 different shop windows and Isis wanted to connect the shop fronts and at the same time give information about what the shop sells, it was quite a challenge to create something that would work. Again, the storytelling quality of the illustrations was added to the signage as well. The signage was made by Tintotaal in Amsterdam and they did a great job!

The guys from Tintotaal are fixing the new signage to the shop front of Knutsel Frutsel.

Brand Identity for a Toy Shop designed byKatrien: a Case Study

Colour proofing the sticker material for the signage at Tintotaal.

 

Posters & Postcards

And then finally, I was asked to design the marketing collateral: poster design, postcards, giftcards, bookmarks and price tags. Again. I wanted to create a scene, a little world, and I started sketching a first idea and background on my iPad which I then finished in Illustrator. It was so much fun to design this!

First tentative design on the iPad.

Brand Identity for a Toy Shop designed byKatrien: a Case Study

Brand Identity for a Toy Shop designed byKatrien: a Case Study

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Finally…

It was a great project to design, the creativity of Isis and her team has really added to this inspired journey. The results are super and have given the Knutsel Frutsel shop a professionality and an immersive brand experience for the customer that was lacking before. These projects often take time, where the client and the designer work together and the brand develops over time. The final designs are the result of a good creative collaboration between me and the client.

Here is an overview of what we have done for Knutsel Frutsel that has resulted in this true brand experience:

  • Brand Discovery
  • Brand Identity
  • Website
  • Packaging & stickers
  • Businesscards
  • Signage
  • Marketing Collateral

Have a look at the project page here where I showcase the work I’ve done for this brand.

Brand Identity for a toy shop

Did you like this so much that you want a brand identity designed by Katrien as well for your business? Contact me now!

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