Chris Haughton
Christ Haughton is an illustrator with a range of children's books. He uses animals as the main characters within his books and a wide range of soft colours. I asked him about his thought process when creating his books, and whether he considers gender neutrality within his design or if it's just his style. Examples of his work are shown below:
"i try to keep characters genderless when possible.
just because its unnecessary! the reader is less likely to identify with the main character so much if they are ‘other’ in any way. that is also why i think using animals is better than human characters. we tend to identify more with animal characters because with human characters we only see the character's differences. strangely i would be more likely to ‘see’ myself in an owl sooner than a blonde haired boy or a brown haired girl, any details that differentiate the reader from the main character are not helpful. for some reason placing the main character as an animal allows poetic licence.
i would never make a specifically ‘girly’ or ‘boy’ book. i would like to try to have the stories be universal. and ideally be able to be understood and enjoyed by anyone from the youngest children, less than1 year old to the most educated of adults from any culture and everyone in between. i try to steer away from using gendered colours too. the gendered colours are just a cultural thing for this part of the world at this time so i think they detract and date too."
Mayra Magalhaes
Mayra created a design for a new elementary school. I asked her how she created a design that welcomes all children, and whether she considered gender neutrality within her design. I also wanted to get her take on what she thinks make gender neutral brands successful. The branding for the school is shown below:
"Do you think certain colours have specific 'gendered' connotations in certain contexts?
The link between specific colors and genders is something recent in our history. It began in the early 20th century.
The funny thing is: at that time, pink was considered more appropriate for boys and blue for girls. This all started to change around the 1940s, when pink started being recommended for girls and blue for boys. Weird, huh? But this change was widely adopted by all kinds of industries targeting kids. It's everywhere. What a boring, monochromatic world these industries built for each gender.
Did you consider gender neutrality within your design for the school?
I try to avoid the colors cliché and bring more diversity to my projects whenever I have a chance. So yes, I considered gender neutrality within my design for the school.
If so, what techniques did you use to achieve this?
In order to do that, I used some colors that are not used very often for this target audience. They are mostly tertiary colors, not related to a specific gender. At the same time, they compose a bright and fun color palette, which is great to catch kids' attention.
Keeping in mind that both girls and boys enjoy fantasy related stuff, I also used a whimsical illustration style.
How do you think gender neutral children's brands become successful?
Nowadays, if brands just copy whatever everyone else is doing, they will blend in - which is bad if they're trying to get more attention.
Besides that, we live in a world with an increasingly gender neutrality and equality. That's not just a trend. It's something that's here to stay. If these brands don't adapt to the reality, they won't survive for a long time.
Even some of the most established brands realized this and are trying to avoid the gender clichés. Mattel, for example, is using different colors and including boys in their Barbie dolls campaign. "
Anna Rising
Anna created a brand for children that encourages nail painting for both boys and girls. The brand is called Kanvas and has an emphasis on creativity and expression. I asked her what techniques she used to achieve a gender neutral brand, and what it takes to be successful in a competitive market.
"When branding Kanvas, my main objective was to focus on the product’s core idea: self-expression. Kanvas’ main product is nail polish and when it comes down to it, nail polish is literally just paint for your body. It didn’t make any sense to me why putting color on your nails suddenly made you girly. I wanted Kanvas to celebrate color, self-expression, creativity and fun directly in it’s branding and packaging. To do so, I used bright colors and a fun paint splat-like pattern. I aimed to use all kinds of colors - pinks, blues, reds, greens - so the product didn’t weigh specifically toward one end of the spectrum. The abstract shapes in my pattern also helped me avoid imagery that has connotations for specific genders.
I definitely do think that certain colors have specific gendered connotations in certain contexts. In fact, I would say that certain colors have specific gendered connotations in MOST contexts. I think this is especially saddening when it comes to kids, because from an early age they are taught that they have to like or dislike a specific color or dress in a specific way simply because of their gender.
I think gender neutral children's brands become successful when they don’t try to strip personality out. I’ve seen a lot of gender neutral brands that take a very simplistic approach and only use white & black. This can work in specific situations, but don’t feel that direction works for kids. I don’t think that just because a brand wants to appeal to both genders means that they need to be ultra sensitive and strip out every single element that alludes to “boy” or “girl.” We’re all still humans, so I think the most successful gender neutral brands take that fact and run with it."
Analysis
The main factor that all three designers stated was important for neutrality was colour. It appears as though colour is what separates a design from gendered or gender neutral, with other considerations being less important. A critical point raised by Anna is that the design shouldn't lack personality. All the designs featured here are very fun and exciting, not dull or stripped back, which definitely adds to their success.
Overall, I have learnt that the designs need to have a colour palette that is well considered, something that both boys and girls can identify with, and a design that has a fun tone of voice and lots of personality!
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