Playmobil

What kid wouldn't love these things?  I mean really, don't they look like so much fun?

 

Playmobil certainly has a good thing going with all these fun toys.  You've got to hand it to them - they know how to make some wonderful children's playthings and also how to encourage imaginative play.  Today, I wanted to take a look at Playmobil's logo, and tell you a bit about it and how it works together with the rest of the company to become a tool for publicizing the wonderful toys that Playmobil makes.

First, we have to take a look at the logo.  Here it is.

I definitely approve of the color!  Turquoise (as you know) is a favorite of mine, and I think the bright, fun tone is perfect for a children's toy brand.  So that's one thing I like about it.

I want to tell you a few things I don't like about it first, to get those out of the way.  The first thing I'm not so big on is the smiling person icon.  It does look somewhat like a Playmobil person (see above pictures of products), but it is rather rudimentary in the way it's drawn.  The main thing that bothers me is the hair.  It's too jagged and inconsistent.  It looks like it was quickly drawn but not really refined.  It also seems a little strange to me to put such an icon behind text.  It makes it feel like one thing superimposed on another thing, not two things working together in a cohesive brand identity.

The other thing I don't like is the dot on the "I."  First of all, it's not even a dot!  But what concerns me more than the shape is the fact that it's cut off so abruptly at the  top.  I can understand that was probably done to make the "I" parallel with the "B" and the "L," but in my opinion, it could have been done in a less drastic way, for instance, the edges of the top of the dot could have been rounded to match the rest of the typography.

However, besides that, I love the typography of this logo.  The font is so cheerful looking, and that's a main characteristic of Playmobil as a company from my experience.  I see a few little "things" about some of the letters that aren't quite perfect, but it very well could be a reflection on the image I found to use and not on the logo design.  And these things don't seem to have a huge effect on the overall image of the logo.

And now a follow-up to the weird, jagged hair icon - I've noticed that it's not used very much in practice on the Playmobil website and products.  Actually, I was quite surprised to find that crazy-haired guy showing up so much on Google image searches.  I think that, most of the time, Playmobil just sticks to the well done wordmark (see their website and also the watermark-like text on the example photos above).  I think this is a brilliant decision.

The one other little thing I don't like (had to add this on here) is the fact that the "registered" symbol is on top of the "Playmobil" text.  I understand that there needs to be some sort of copyright-type symbol, but in my opinion, it would have been better placed outside of the confines of the logo.  It seems to interrupt the flow that is present in the excellent typography.

But overall, even with this minor technical qualms I have with the Playmobil logo, I'm thrilled with the overall feeling it emits, and sometimes that's the most important part of a logo to begin with.  I think it's especially true with logos for children's items.  Kids aren't going to notice that the dot on the "I" cuts off too abruptly or that the guy's hair is a little too roughly drawn - they're going to be drawn to the product, and the logo for Playmobil really does represent the product in feeling.

What do you think of the logo?  I'd love to know!  Keep your eye out, because in a few days, I will have another toy-related graphic design post.