Cute and cuddly Squishmallows are the most collectible soft toys in the world. And they are also perfect for snuggling up to them while relaxing at home, watching a movie, or taking a long ride in transportation. Even Lady Gaga and Warren Buffett have toys of this brand.
Squishmallows hit the market in 2017. They were launched by Kellytoy, an American company specializing in the production of toys. The idea of Squishmallows came to the founder of the company Jonathan Kelly during his trip to Japan. He was impressed by Japanese soft toys and wanted to come up with something similar.
The company spent several months working on a toy inspired by the Japanese culture of “kawaii”. That’s how Squishmallows came to be. At first, there were only 8 characters in the line: Cameron the cat, Wendy the frog, Piper and Poof the penguins, Hans the hedgehog, Hoot and Holly the owls, and Fifi the fox. And today, the Squishmallow family already has over one thousand characters.
There are also different collections of Squishmallows. For example, Hug Mees, Squishmallows Baby, Flip-A-Mallows, and Squish-Doos. But the backbone of the series is the original toys. The original Squishmallows have the same round soft body, they have velvety fabric and simple embroidered faces. But changing just a few details makes each character unique. Even when extra parts are added – like shark fins, unicorn horns, dinosaur spikes, or pineapple tops – Squishmallows remain fully soft, making the toy safe for all ages.
Some Squishmallows themselves have different mental traits. This is spelled out in their biography, which is a brilliant marketing move to promote the toys even more. For example, Stacy the squid has anxiety, Azizi the dragon has depression, and Theodora the unicorn kitten has a mood disorder. The biography also spells out the interests and preferences of each of the thousands of characters.
What are Squishmallows?
Squishmallows is the name of popular round plush toys depicting animals and fruit-like characters. They are insanely popular. The name “Squishmallows” comes from the verb “To Squish” and a “Marshmallow” treat, as the feel of these toys is something similar to marshmallows.
In terms of visual identity, Squishmallows are as cute as the toys they produce. The absence of graphical elements in the brand’s logo is compensated by the shape of the lettering and its color palette.
The original Squishmallows logo, introduced in 2017, has stayed with the company for four years and became a basis for the future redesign. It was an uppercase wordmark written in a wavy line, resembling a caterpillar. Each of the characters was drawn in one of the seven colors, but they were pastel, not bright shades, which creates a very tender and huggable feeling, just like the Squishmallows toys.
In 2021 the Squishmallows logo was slightly refined. The main idea of the caterpillar and the pastel color palette remained the same, but some details were changed. If in the original version the banner had a visible outline and a gray shadow, in the new badge the outline was completely removed, and the shadow moved to the bottom edge of the logo and switched its color to teal, which is also used for two of the “S”s in the wordmark.
The bold uppercase lettering from the Squishmallows logo is written in a custom designer font with pretty simple sans-serif contours of the characters, resembling such fonts as Display Patrol, or Duffy, but with significant modifications.
As for the color palette of the Squishmallows visual identity, it is based on pastel shades of the following colors: green, orange, purple, yellow, teal, pink, and gray. This variety of shades perfectly reflects the assortment of the brand’s toys, and their cuteness and cuddliness.