Art and Product Development: Holiday - Toy Maker | Target Corporation | Released 2018
This Target holiday collection centers around Santa and his helpers making toys in their quiet forest village. I created imperfect, bold graphics with details nodding to traditional crafts such as wood carving and screen printing. I struck a balance between a mature, classic look with family-friendly, playful characters making this set a winner with a wide range of Target guests.
These Toy Maker characters live deep in the Bavarian Alps, so I included winter, forest, and Germanic details to bring this spirit to life. Using a tight palette that featured black as a main color, this collection was bold, yet sweet and made a big impact in stores!
Santa’s Helper’s included an array of characters such as bears, birds, snowmen, angels, gnomes and of course…Mrs. Clause! The outfitting of each character featured Germanic and forest elements to add personality and interest.
I designed a busy and eclectic font with patterns and icons mixed throughout, as well as a paired back version when a simpler text was needed.
The art was used on a huge range of items from music boxes to table covers, snow globes to serving trays!
Toy Maker patterns had hand-drawn elements that were placed as if done by block printing. They were quirky but classic, bold but light-hearted. Secondary patterns included strong stripes, playful dots and modern plaids.
I designed several products in the line and while many of them moved forward, these are a few that didn’t make the cut but that I still enjoyed creating!