Young World Media
Client
Young World Media LLC., Gateless Music LLC.
Year
2024-Present
Young World Media is an independent production studio that produces educational and entertainment content for children and young adults. While work with this company is ongoing, they have a bevy of content and sub-brands like Tay & Kay’s Bedtime Rhymes™ planned for the future.
I’ve been given the great honor of leading the brand identity & creative direction for several Young World Media projects such as their coming company website, YouTube channels and sub-brands like Tay & Kay’s Bedtime Rhymes™.
Young World Media on YouTube
Young World Media plans to introduce their company to the world with two cartoon series’ seen here in the images: Tay & Kay’s Bedtime Rhymes™ and Reading With Raileigh™. Down the line, both programs will be translated in English and Spanish.
Young World Media logo open/close
Animator, Editor
Hi-Tone Images
Art Direction
Hi-Tone Images
Logo/Title + Identity System Briefing
Tay & Kay’s Bedtime Rhymes: Count to Ten
Animator, Producer, Editor
Hi-Tone Images
Art Direction
Hi-Tone Images
Music
Gateless Music LLC.
Tay & Kay’s Bedtime Rhymes™ is a Learning/Sing-Along program for toddlers (ages 1-3). The visual design, video/animation and art direction is all produced by Hi-Tone Images., while music is provided by publisher, Gateless Music LLC. The video/animation side of the program will premiere on YouTube Kids in 2025.
Origin Sketches (Tay & Kay’s Bedtime Rhymes)
The names “Tay’ and “Kay” derive from a staff writer for Young World Media, whose two young children share the same names (Tayler and Kaylen). Using these names as a starting point, I looked to design a fun-looking title that also wouldn’t be over-complicated. That said, I looked for ways to condense or abbreviate the names so they’d fit better with the end result.
Another goal in mind was to create an experience slightly different than we see from typical children’s Sing-Along programs. I presented the idea of putting the Sing-Alongs in context: What if these were songs that children could recite before they go to sleep at night? The world is familiar with bedtime stories, so why not bedtime songs? If the point is for children to learn information from the songs I figured this contextual shift was even more fitting. After performing research on ‘Memory Consolidation,’ my thoughts were confirmed that not only children, but most humans have improved memory and recall when performing or reciting some sort of learning exercise before sleep (See More).
Once my research was complete I began exploring different names, combining ‘Tayler’ and ‘Kaylen’ with ‘Bedtime’ and ‘Sing-Alongs.’ I eventually landed on ‘Bedtime Rhymes’ and shortened Tayler and Kaylen’s names to ‘Tay’ and ‘Kay,’ which led to the final name you see on this page. Next I’d begin my sketches you can see here.
Typography
Primary
Secondary
What I determined from my ideation and sketches above was that it wouldn’t be enough to just make the title/logo fun-looking, but it would also need presence and instant recognition. When it comes to designing for children, I deem this philosophy to be applicable, as they tend to respond well to distinct shapes, letters and colors.
For the primary font I tried different bold typefaces similar to ‘Impact’ and landed on ‘Poplar’ as a good option because of its bold presence, fanciful curvature and dynamic reshaping capabilities. Futura seemed to be an adequate compliment as a secondary typeface, as it also has many dynamic reshaping [and kerning] capabilities and can be used in different areas such as thumbnail titles, or animation elements.
Color Palette
Below are all of the swatch colors I felt would best represent the branding we were looking to build. I created blue/purple pantones with themes and feeling that would best represent ‘nighttime skies’ or ‘Bed time,’ along with lighter colors like yellow and orange to retain the ‘fun’ or ‘happy’ tone of the brand.
Logo Explorations
Concept 1
Concept 2
Concept 3
I actually began doing Tay & Kay’s Bedtime Rhymes title concepts in grayscale before I landed firm on the color palette presented above. Having the bold, shapely typeface of Poplar established, paired with meaningful Pantones, made each vector concept better and better until things flowed together purposefully.
The decision to ‘arch’ the Poplar block letters made the title even more festive and fun, but adding a moon shape in the letter D, in addition to adding stars on the letters ‘i’ and ‘R’ would feasibly integrate the established bedtime [or nighttime] theme.
Next, adding music notes somewhere would round things out, yet in an effort to avoid making it too busy, I decided one music note would be enough to convey the theme in the end.
Lastly, I figured adding some stroke weight to the entire title would define its presence I had been adamant about. It would also provide dynamic usage, for multiple different mediums whether TV [or mobile] screen, computer or print. Nonetheless, I left room for the title to be used in both ways: with or without the stroke as you’ll see in the finals below.
Logo Finalization
After some more tweaking plus adding in a gradient on the block letters, I landed on what we see below. In the end, I feel I was able to integrate the established themes of ‘fun before bedtime’ without making it too busy or illegible.
Primary (no-stroke)
Primary (stroke)
Primary (stroke + background)
Style Explorations
Style-frame Sketch 1
Style-frame Sketch 2
Style frame 1
Style frame 2
Once the title design was complete, I began exploring some brand identity assets to pair it with for Styeframes. I typically start with background designs, but since the brand included perceived mascots in Tayler in Kaylen, I referred to my illustration skills and began sketching & designing characters to match first.
Building on the bedtime/nighttime theme, I thought of mixing in ‘space travel’ somehow, as shown in Style-frame Sketch 1. This came about due in part to one of the scheduled Sing-Alongs titled “Space Team,” yet in my opinion some mention of space would fit with the preexisting theme anyhow. I say this due to the fact that dreaming about traveling the stars in a space ship [or space in general] tends to be a recurring imagination for a child.
While the initial Style-frame sketch was more necessary simply to establish architecture and create a visual standard, I went back in a applied more detail to the ‘Tay’ and ‘Kay’ character’s faces shown in Style-frame Sketch 2. In this sketch I also opted to ditch Tay & Kay’s space suits, giving them more brand/mascot flexibility across future Sing-Along themes.
While Style-frame Sketch 2 got me far closer toward what I was looking to achieve, I realized that I had made the characters look too old compared to the 3-5 age range I was aiming, so I’d go back into my sketches to fix this as well. Afterwards, my character sketches eventually led to the outcome seen in Style frame 1.
After the ‘Tay’ and ‘Kay’ characters were more established, I then went into pairing title & background designs. As shown in Style frame 1, I initially explored focusing attention on each specific Sing-Along as background elements, yet in the end I figured this would serve better for thumbnail images later.
After some fine tuning of the initial character renderings in Stye frame 1, I focused in more on the established brand identity assets leading to what we see in Style frame 2.
The last, yet most pleasurable aspect at this stage was in being able to integrate the space travel theme, yet in a more simplified fashion by just giving Tay & Kay a spaceship! Not only would this fit the theme for Tay & Kay’s Bedtime Rhymes™, but also Young World Media as a whole. As shown in the following brand assets, simply adding a spaceship to the design would work wonders, serving to take watching children on a trip across the cosmos with Tay & Kay, as they explore numerous worlds of Sing-Alongs.
Static Modules
Once the Style frames were complete, it would be easy to build all of the necessary brand assets from it. So far we’ve established YouTube thumbnail images for each Sing-Along episode, as well as promotional Instagram posts and targeted banner ads.
YouTube Thumbnail 1
YouTube Thumbnail 2
Targeted Banner Ad
Instagram post
Reading With Raileigh: Cricket & Ant
Animator, Producer, Editor
Hi-Tone Images
Art Direction
Hi-Tone Images
Reading With Raileigh™ is a Learning/Read-Along program for preschool children (ages 3-5). The visual design, video/animation and art direction is all produced by Hi-Tone Images. The video/animation side of the program will make its debut on YouTube Kids in 2025.
Origin Sketches (Reading With Raileigh)
Young World Media’s sole desire for Reading with Raileigh™ is to create a Read-Along program with clear visuals and narration, leaving the rest of development up to me to figure out. Despite being mostly a digital experience, I wanted to keep things as close to home as possible in ideating the brand. Using the classic Aesop story, The Ant & the Grasshopper as a reference point, I worked backwards from there in ideation.
With Young World Media’s desire to focus on retelling preexisting stories from history, I thought it’d be suitable to include some sort of physical book iconography in the title design. Of course, I also wanted to establish bold lettering through the use of old-style serifs or curvy, fancy letters as shown in the sketches. While not fully committed to including book iconography in the title, I was surely adamant about establishing those ‘Rs’ due to the aliteration in ‘reading’ and ‘Raileigh.’ In the end, I found a good resolution to use one ‘R’ for both word & name, but I’d still need to find a way to organize the middle word and still make the design legible.
Typography
Primary
Secondary
As mentioned earlier, I wanted some sort of old-style, fanciful serifs in the title design in order to reflect ‘storytelling’ or ‘book-reading.’ After extensive search and trial, I came across ‘Boyz-R-Gross’ and was in particular drawn to its beautiful capital ‘R’ shape. The other letter blocks in lowercase also fit together nicely like puzzle pieces depending on the way they were organized. As you’ll see in the concepts below, I even found a happy resolution for the word ‘with’ and everything flowed together quite well in the end.
Regarding the secondary typeface, I was looking for something that could be used exclusively for body-text for each Read-Along book on screen. Most of us are used to Times New Roman, yet I sought thicker letters that would be legible and easy to read for children. With bold fonts available as options, I landed on the dynamic Athelas typeface.
Color Palette
There wasn’t any special or complex decision-making in building the color palette for Reading With Raileigh™. My only goal was to establish fun-engaging colors that could blend together well between each letter of Raileigh’s name.
Knowing that I’d apply a black stroke weight to the overall title, I noticed that the gold/yellow worked best in making ‘Reading’ pop and the orange as a background compliment for everything.
Logo Explorations
Concept 1
Concept 2
As mentioned earlier, I’d eventually want to apply a stroke weight around the whole title to give it more presence and dynamism, yet I’d still try it plain first. The grayscale [all black] version in concept 1 shows that the title would likely work fine without the stroke weight; nonetheless, the most important note here is in the organization of the letters and words based on my initial sketches. The Boyz-R-Gross typeface ended up being super effective in fulfilling my ideas on how to design something fun, fanciful and engaging, yet legible. Placing more focus on the beautiful typography also enabled me to think simpler and ditch the idea of needing to include a book icon anywhere in the title.
After trying multiple different color combinations across the letters and words, I landed on what we see here in concept 2. Everything blended together well, especially in deciding to go all yellow on ‘Reading’ and the inclusion of the orange brand color on ‘with’ and letter ‘g.’ By this point, I had decided that the title would definitely look better with a black stroke weight despite my initial thoughts in concept 1 that it could work without. With this particular combination of vibrant, light colors it would serve to make life easier once we begin using the title/logo across different backgrounds, whether digital or print. Envisioning on-screen bugs or animations for digital use, plus stickers or T-shirt designs for the print side etc would confirm this for me.
Logo Finalization
After some more tweaking plus adding in a gradient on the block letters, I landed on what we see below. In the end, I feel I was able to integrate the established themes of ‘fun before bedtime’ without making it too busy or illegible.
Primary
Primary (no-stroke)
Primary (brand background)
Style Explorations
Style-frame Sketch 1
Style frame 1
Style frame 2
Once the title design was complete, I went immediately into sketches for the Reading With Raileigh™ mascot and narrator, Raileigh. Since all of the characters and mascots under Young World Media’s learning modules are primarily children, it was quite simple to build off of the characters I designed for Tay & Kay’s Bedtime Rhymes™, in order to keep things consistent and uniform. Using one of my own nieces as a model/reference point, I was able to land on the final look we see in Style-frame Sketch 1 and Style frame 1.
Once Raileigh was designed, I faced the decision whether to place her on a big comfy reading chair or to float freely like Tay & Kay. With Young World Media’s plans to utilize her character in other places in the future, I found a happy resolution by making the chair a brand asset and only part of the introduction to specific stories. As you’ll see in the marketing assets below we’ve already began to utilize Raileigh in both ways.
Lastly, with the orange background working pretty well across the imagery, I felt it still looked a bit flat as you see in Style frame 1. I then decided to create some simple iconography and/or background elements that could blend well with the title design and colors. While there may be more to come or rotate in/out in the future, what we see in Style frame 2 is where we are currently. One may wonder why I opted not to include a book icon and that is simply to avoid being derivative. While we know Reading With Raileigh™ is all about reading books, I’d rather be less literal and tap into a child’s imagination by including more abstract shapes and objects to compliment their visual experience.
Static Modules
After completing the style frames and imagery above, I began building the necessary brand assets and everything flowed together quite well. The only major change I made was in the color of the abstract brand iconography to yellow, and it did indeed look better. I also added a darker gradient to the orange background in order to provide more depth across all images using it.
As you see in the YouTube thumbnail image, the plan is to create a new illustration per story/epsiode and to utilize the Boyz-R-Gross typeface for some fun, eye-catching titling. Meanwhile, the promotional Instagram posts and targeted banner ads are pretty straightforward and strictly for marketing purposes with the inclusion of the very legible Avenir typeface.
YouTube Thumbnails
Instagram post
Targeted Banner Ad