Toyworld

Branding
Art direction
Design
Illustration
Photography
Digital design
Video production

I was the Lead Designer for Toyworld from 2016-2018. During this time I developed an identifiable brand style for the franchise, using popular kids’ media ( … mostly cartoons I liked ) as a reference point for their visuals. Campaigns became vibrant, pop-art compositions where toys interacted with typography, kids were captured at play and fun was the central focus.

This was a challenging design process, balancing the brand’s vivid colours and bold sales messaging with large amounts of product imagery provided by the client - as well as keeping outputs consistent across the design team. Each sales cycle was based on a different kids theme (magic, stickers, underwater etc), while following a design system with common rules & components that could be shared by the design team. The system I developed worked across catalogues, digital advertising, TV, web, email and print and is still in use.

Toyworld’s competitors took note of their bolder advertising and started biting the style, employing freelancers who had specifically worked on the account to create their own versions of the aesthetic.