Baby Einstein is the name of an educational brand for kids, which produces various interactive and multimedia materials for the little ones. The company was established in 1996 in the United States and today it operates globally, being a part of the Kids II company.
In 1997, a young mother Julia Clarke created the first Language Nursery movie with simple colorful images combined with classical music. This was the first Baby Einstein product under the brand, which became a gift for her newborn daughter. The founder of the brand was inspired by the personality of the famous physicist, scientist and humanitarian Albert Einstein. He personified love for the arts, passion for discovery and eternal curiosity. To support and develop the child’s desire to do more and try new things, Julia Clarke continued to create Baby Einstein films, which became incredibly popular among parents.
In 2012, Baby Einstein was acquired by The Walt Disney Company. The multimedia collection went beyond the screen and children’s products appeared that encourage children to learn and adapt. Currently, the Baby Einstein brand is owned by Kids II, Inc (Georgia, Atlanta), a manufacturer of innovative toys for babies and children.
What is Baby Einstein?
Baby Einstein is an American brand founded by a young mother, Julia Clarke, in 1997. The company was named after physicist Albert Einstein. In Julia’s opinion, he is a symbol of humanity’s desire to discover and learn new things. She started her activity with creating educational films for small children, including her new-born daughter. In 2001, the brand was acquired by the Walt Disney Company to produce under it goods for babies of 1-2 years old.
The initial Baby Einstein logo featured a funny playful badge with a drawing of a boy’s face, executed in sharp black lines, set above the colorful lettering in a hand-written typeface with its lowercase letters executed in thick soft lines. The inscription had each letter set in its own color, so the palette of the visual identity included such shades as red, blue, green, yellow, and purple.
In 1998 some strictness was added to a playful Baby Einstein logo — two parts of the lettering, “The” and “Company”, written in a bold sans-serif, with the lowercase letters, were placed above and under the main logo, executed in a calm blue color which usually evokes a sense of reliability and professionalism.
In 2007 the name of the show was changed to Einstein Pals, and the logo was changed in the same year. It was the same emblem, as on the previous version, but now the “Einstein” was set on the upper level, and the “Pals”, placed under it, was executed in an extra-bold sans-serif typeface, with its uppercase letters in gradient blue. The whole logo was enclosed into a geometric frame with rounded angles and accompanied by the iconic Disney logotype, on the upper left part of the outline.
This design is a lot like the earlier attempts, except with thicker letters that really look like paint. From its direct predecessor, this one adopted the blue frame around the logo proper, although it’s thinner in this version.
The visual identity of the educational products designer and distributor is colorful and friendly. The brand’s logo perfectly reflects its purpose and the audience it is created for — the kids. Being bright and playful, it still looks stylish and modern, evoking a sense of professional approach and expertise.
The Baby Einstein logo is composed of two parts — a multicolor wordmark, which is definitely the main hero of the insignia, and a delicate but fun graphical icon, executed in black and white.
The brand decided to break the stereotypes, putting more color in the lettering and making its emblem monochrome, and it worked, as the Baby Einstein logo makes the brand stand out in the list of its competitors.
The wordmark in the lowercase is executed in a bold and playful rounded sans-serif, which looks like a handwritten text. Each letter of the inscription features its owns color, so the palette includes almost all shades of the rainbow, from red to purple.
The wordmark is set in two levels and has the graphical part of the logo placed on the left of the “Baby” part, above the “Einstein”. The image is a hand-drawn portrait of a boy wearing glasses and with his hair up, reminding of the famous Albert Einstein’s portrait, but executed in a funny amateurish manner.
The following logo uses a similar head image, except the pupils are slightly turned to the right. It’s the text that changed the most – here, it uses a much more mundane typographic sans-serif. These letters are fully lowercase and only use black.
The simple lowercase lettering from the official Baby Einstein logo is set in a modern full-shaped sans-serif font, which looks clean, professional, and progressive. The closest fonts to the one, used in this insignia, are, probably, Internacional Bold, or Neue Plak Extended Bold.
As for the color palette of the Baby Einstein visual identityC it is very minimalistic — black and white. This combination of colors represents stability and quality, evoking a sense of confidence and expertise.