SOLVING PROBLEMS
The Problem
Greener Day Toys' wooden toys and books needs an increase in audience appeal for the brand due to having to compete against today’s technological devices and shiny plastic toys.
The Solution
Onlyness Statement
The initial onlyness statement for Greener Day Toys explained what the company builds and described the targeted audience.
Reworking the first version decreased the size of the statement by removing the information about the targeted audience and focused more on the children the toys will nurture. This statement also explained how the toys will help to get children away from technology and digital screens.
The final onlyness statement created makes it clear, Greener Day Toys cares about children and mother earth.
Voice & Tone
The voice and tone of Greener Day Toys is that of an imaginative, fun, earth-friendly, nurturing, honest, and educative company. The person doing the voice for advertisement will have a warm, comforting, and happy voice with background music that will be uplifting and joyful. The voice and tone created will help form an emotional connection with the consumer.
Greener Day Toys need a tagline that represents what they stand for and value. Some of the potential taglines created were “Nurturing Imagination,” “Growing Young Minds,” and “Cultivate. Educate. Innovate.” All taglines exemplify how the company wants to nurture children and help them grow.
Visual Hierarchy
Look & Feel
The look and feel of Greener Day Toys are that of a nurturing nature.
To reflect nature, the color palette chosen is brown, green, blue, tan and yellow. Brown for the trees and dirt from the earth. Green for the leaves and foliage all around. Blue for the sky surrounding the earth and the water making up 71% of the earth surface (How much water, n.d.). Tan for accenting the brown. Yellow for the sun and stars circling the earth in the sky.
The original choices of typography are a slab serif and decorative font. The selected font for the heading is slab serif font TT Rationalist TRL bold and for the body, TT Rationalist Trl regular. Selected for the subheads and callouts is decorative font Monotype Corsiva. Upon further evaluation of the fonts, it was determined that the selected decorative font does not fit with the look and feel of Greener Day Toys and at times may be harder for some of the targeted audience to read. The font Super Dream replaced the font Monotype Corsiva, because Super Dream has more fluid flow and a funnier personality.
The onlyness statement went through some changes from its initial creation. From removing the target audience information to focusing on what matters to the company: the children and mother earth.
The lines initially selected were a wavy line, a straight line and then a line of boxes. Wavy lines are for hills and straight lines were representing a roadway for the toy cars, and the line of boxes symbolizes wooden toy building blocks. For the pattern a line of boxes is used for the pattern and green in color. After evaluating these lines, the straight line went against the natural environment that Greener Day Toys value, even if it was only a toy roadway. A larger green wavy line, representing grassy hills, replaced the straght roadway line.
First shapes created for Greener Day Toys were a car, a leaf, a cloud, a tree branch, a square, a rectangle, and a sign. The car was not in keeping with the nature feel and replaced with a duck, and the yellow square swapped out for a yellow circle. The brown rectangle is for the tree’s trunk.
All textures selected came from nature. It included the barks of a maple and birch tree as well as slabs of wood from the same trees. Also selected were the leaves from a maple and birch tree. Texture from maple and birch trees is used since it is the types of wood Greener Day Toys use to create toys. Maple and Birch are among the fastest growing trees that will grow several feet per year (Ben, 2015). This will keep with the company’s goal of preserving the earth.
Imagery utilized to represent Greener Day Toys reflect the company’s values. Images of tree farms and people tending the trees shows the company's dedication to the earth. Pictures of parents spending time with children, playing with the toys or reading a book together, show the parent nurturing the child. Finally, images of the wooden toys that the company has to offer. Some of those images will have children playing with them alone or with another child.
Vision Board
The original vision board embraced Greener Day Toys' love of nature and of children. Although nature was showing through with the background and the color choices there are several elements that went against that theme. The roadway in between the circle pictures and the little wooden toy. There are also too many block shapes that can be seen as being rigid and order (Bradley, 2022).
The revised vision board has a softer feel to it making it more welcoming. The new decorative font, Super Dream replaced the previous cursive font. By removing two boxes framing the writing at the top left more space for the nature background to show. Substituting the roadway for hills and the wooden car for ducks brings the vision board back to the natural elements that Greener Day Toys embraces. The attributes of this revised board work align more with the values that Greener Day Toys stand for. It goes with nurturing the environment and the children the company wants to help grow.
Marketing Collateral
The creation of the company letterhead started with the toy car with a plain white background. It was transformed by adding the tree background that was also on the vision board. As for the business cards, the writing was adjusted to make the Greener Day Toys stand out more than the employees name.
The uniform shirt created first only contained the company logo. To add more depth to the shirt the pattern from the vision board was added.
Logo Development
From the many logo sketches created for Greener Day Toys, the following six fit the company’s values and beliefs. A part of each logo contained something that reflected back to nature.
The first logo has the sun rising above the horizon. Greener Day Toys’ name is the earth being the foundation for growth. The rising sun provides the light and warmth a child needs to prosper.
The second logo has growing daisies. Greener Day Toys represent the earth giving the nutrients needed for the flowers to grow. Daisies are flowers that represent growth, which is what the company wants for the children playing with the toys (10 Flowers, 2023).
The third logo a child playing with wooden blocks beneath a tree in a circle. The tree symbolizes growth and development that is what Greener Day Toys want for children playing with the wooden toys and books (Top 23, 2022). A circle symbolizes warmth and comfort which is what a child needs to thrive (Bradley, 2022). The wooden blocks are representative of the toys that the company provides.
The fourth design is a wooden toy truck with a tree in its bed. The company’s name is underneath acting as the ground/road symbolizing the foundation of going forward. A truck rides on of the roadway built by Greener Day Toys. The tree in the back of the truck symbolizes growth and development (Top 23, 2023).
A honey bee flying next to its hive is the fifth sketch chosen. The honey bee is the official state insect of Wisconsin where Greener Day Toys is based out of (Honeybee, 2017).
This is just a simple design where the colors in the connecting shapes would represent Greener Day Toys. The colors intended are green in the center for growth, yellow for clarity and warmth, purple for imaginative and wise, orange for cheerful and confidence, and blue for dependable and strength (Psychology of color, 2023).
Refinement
1
The first couple of changes to logo #1 included a seedling and then a tree with the sun. A seedling and a tree were to represent growth that happened by the nurturing of the sun and soil. It went on to have just a sunflower to the final of the sunflower with sun rising behind it. Sunflowers symbolize growth and the power to rise above when there are challenges (The beauty and symbolism, 2023). With the sun (parents) and soil (Greener Day Toys) nurturing the sunflower (the child) it will grow tall and strong.
2
The changes to logo #2 was taking the three daisies to only one, since the flower was representing the child. Adding a watering can shows Greener Day Toys caring for the plant to help it grow. The final images show the ground converted to a child’s head with the plant growing out of it. In the final image, a full-grown daisy changed into a philodendron seedling getting water from the watering can, nurturing the plant. Philodendrons symbolize both growth and love of nature, which are Greener Day Toys beliefs (Plant Symbolism, 2019). This final design was discarded since it most likely seemed a bit out there to some of the target audience, the grandparents.
3
The changes to logo #3 embraced a tree in each image and added the missing company name. A tree represents the growth and development which Greener Day Toys want to see in both the children playing with the toys and mother earth. This sketch is the basis for the final logo.
4
Changes to sketch #4 included changes to the wooden truck, changing what the truck was carrying, and the road it was on. Tried swapping out the tree/plant with blocks to represent the company, but it lost the nature component to the logo and the wooden truck was already representing Greener Day Toys. The final design had a truck pulling a trailer with a potted plant in it, by having a vehicle in the logo takes away from the company’s ideal of nurturing the earth.
5
Sketch #5 had various changes made to it. It began with a honeybee and a hive. The honeybee was in the first four designs because it is Wisconsin's official state insect (Honeybee, 2017). The final design had a smiling daisy with a rainbow over it. A rainbow consists of seven colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. These colors symbolize the traits that Greener Day Toys want to embolize such as: enthusiasm, perseverance, cheerfulness, growth, nature, knowledge, wisdom, and creativity (The 7 colors of the rainbow, 2022).
6
Sketch #6 began simple with four colored petals, and a circle center. The sketch then changed to a leaf character and down to only 3 petals to finally become a child’s pinwheel. The colors of the pinwheel would be green for growth, yellow for clarity and warmth, and purple for imaginative and wise (Psychology of color, 2023). The wind is what moves elements in nature, in essence it keeps life moving (Wind Symbolism, 2023). Like the wind, Greener Day Toys want to keep the growth of children, and the nurturing of mother earth moving the right directions.
Final Solution
The final solution came by refining on logo sketch #3. The toy blocks removed from the final draft to reduce cluttered and the company’s name was already around the box. Then, color was added. The three colors chosen for the final logo were green, brown and yellow.
When adding color to the design, the colors were not only chosen because it is a tree but also for what the colors stand for. Green symbolizes nature and growth, brown symbolizes dependability and steadfastness, and yellow is for sunshine and happiness (Chapman, 2010).
The biggest change to the final logo was changing the square to a circle. Squares are interpreted to be rigid and orderly, while a circle is a movement and considered to be warm and comforting (Bradley, 2022). The tree is enclosed in the center of the yellow circle, that represents the earth that Greener Day Toys wants to try to help preserve. The final design displays the values and beliefs that Greener Day Toys hold dear. This design will speak to the target audience that are eco-friendly and want to preserve the earth as well.
References
Ben. (2015, December 18). The fastest fast growing trees. Arbor Day Blog. https://arbordayblog.org/landscapedesign/the-fastest-fast-growing-trees/
Bradley, S. (2022, November 4). The meaning of shapes: Developing visual grammar. Vanseo Design. https://vanseodesign.com/web-
design/visual-grammar-shapes/
Chapman, C. (2010, January 28). Color theory for designers, part 1: The meaning of color. Smashing Magazine.
https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/01/color-theory-for-designers-part-1-the-meaning-of-color/
Honeybee. State Symbols USA. (2017, January 8). https://statesymbolsusa.org/symbol/wisconsin/state-insect/honeybee
How much water is there on earth? completed. How Much Water is There on Earth? | U.S. Geological Survey. (n.d.).
https://www.usgs.gov/special-topics/water-science-school/science/how-much-water-there-earth
Plant Symbolism Guide: 31 plants for every personality. ProFlowers Blog. (2019, February 18). https://www.proflowers.com/blog/plant-
symbolism-guide
Psychology of color in Logo Design. The Logo Company. (2023, February 10). https://thelogocompany.net/psychology-of-color-in-logo-
design/
10 flowers that represent growth and progress. (2023, September 6). Florgeous. https://florgeous.com/flowers-that-represent-growth/
The beauty and symbolism of sunflowers: A complete guide. Flower Station Dubai. (2023, June 13).
https://www.flowerstationdubai.com/blogs/news/sunflowers-symbolism-meaning
The 7 colors of the rainbow and their meanings explained in detail. Color Meanings. (2022, June 14). https://www.color-
meanings.com/colors-of-the-rainbow-and-their-meanings/
Top 23 symbols of growth with meanings. Give Me History. (2022, August 9). https://www.givemehistory.com/symbols-of-growth
Wind Symbolism (top 11 meanings). Give Me History. (2023, May 25). https://www.givemehistory.com/symbolism-and-meaning-of-wind