{"id":3372,"date":"2023-07-13T14:15:46","date_gmt":"2023-07-13T14:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogadmin.merch.vpsvc.com\/hub\/?p=3372"},"modified":"2023-07-19T12:29:33","modified_gmt":"2023-07-19T12:29:33","slug":"barbiecore-branding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogadmin.vpsvc.com\/hub\/barbiecore-branding\/","title":{"rendered":"Barbiecore branding and the rise of hot pink"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What comes to mind when you think of pink? Is it the color of frilly dresses, fun cocktails and Valentine\u2019s Day cards? Or is pink more powerful and subversive \u2014 the color of women\u2019s marches and queer reclamation? Maybe it reminds you of Barbie, the glamorous, occasionally divisive plastic doll whose forthcoming film adaptation<\/a> has helped spark a hot pink renaissance and turned #Barbiecore into a viral trend. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However you feel about pink, it\u2019s clear that it\u2019s in the spotlight, and not in a muted Millennial way<\/a>. Barbie pink is bold. It\u2019s unapologetic. And it\u2019s everywhere, from high fashion to home decor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Barbiecore trend is influencing small business owners, too. According to new data from VistaPrint, more brands are embracing pink in their design and marketing materials. That means pink is back, and it could make a big difference to your branding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But first, what is Barbiecore?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Barbiecore is a playful fashion and design aesthetic inspired by the Mattel company\u2019s iconic Barbie doll and characterized by her signature shade of hot pink. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Basically, Barbiecore is pink. Very<\/em> pink. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though hot pink is the linchpin, the broader Barbie trend is also an homage to everything that\u2019s made the doll a beloved but complicated cultural touchstone: She\u2019s bubbly, confident and, of course, plastic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barbiecore can also include bubblegum shades of blue and pink, as well as glitter, sparkles, latex or plastic textures, glossy details, exaggerated silhouettes and an unabashed love of excess (which aligns Barbiecore with another major trend \u2014 maximalism<\/a>). <\/p>\n\n\n\n


It also borrows elements from early aughts culture and Millennial Kitsch<\/a>, epitomized by films like 2001\u2019s Legally Blonde<\/em> and 2004\u2019s Mean Girls<\/em>, where a high school clique named The Plastics famously declared: \u201cOn Wednesdays, we wear pink.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How the Barbiecore trend put pink back in the spotlight<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Barbie-esque style and design have existed in some form since the first Barbie doll debuted in 1959, but it returned to the zeitgeist in a big way in 2022 \u2014 thanks to the fashion world\u2019s post-pandemic love of bright, mood-boosting hues, as well as public anticipation surrounding director Greta Gerwig\u2019s live-action Barbie<\/em> film.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Barbie<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In early 2022, Italian designer Valentino launched a Paris Fashion Week collection based around a custom shade of shocking pink that it developed with Pantone. But the trend reached new heights a few months later when leaked photos from the set of the Barbie<\/em> movie went viral. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paparazzi snaps of star Margot Robbie in a hot-pink flared pantsuit and eye-wateringly neon spandex launched a flurry of enthusiastic tweets<\/a>. #Barbiecore became a trending hashtag on Tiktok, and suddenly, Barbie pink was everywhere. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2022, Etsy reported that searches for hot-pink fashion items were up 35%<\/a> compared to the previous year, while Pinterest saw a 75% increase<\/a> in searches for \u201cBarbie outfit.\u201d According to Google data<\/a>, global search traffic for \u201cBarbiecore\u201d started to spike in late June of 2022. And it\u2019s been trending ever since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Pink<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How Barbiecore is influencing logo and branding trends at VistaPrint<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Here at VistaPrint, we wanted to know how the Barbiecore trend has affected small business owners, and whether it\u2019s inspired their branding decisions. So, we looked at a sample of 600,000 logos created through VistaPrint design services<\/a>, including 99designs by Vista and the free Logomaker by VistaPrint tool, to see whether more brands and designers were embracing pink. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We found that in the last 12 months, the proportion of pink logos increased by a whopping 46% \u2014 an indication that small business owners and designers are more open to using pink in branding.1<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The industries where pink was used most were: food, retail, entertainment, cosmetics, health and technology. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Pink<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But small business owners who want to include pink in their branding don\u2019t have to worry they\u2019re jumping on a bandwagon. Despite its trending status in wider popular culture, pink remains relatively outside the mainstream for logos and branding \u2014 in a good way, that is. (It always helps to stand out!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, just 3% of logos created through VistaPrint design services were pink. When looking only at logos created by professional freelance designers through 99designs by Vista, however, the number was slightly higher at 5%. Pink is a relatively bright, modern color, and professional designers are often the first to adopt major color trends. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, in the past year, professional designers used pink as a primary or secondary color in only 7% of packaging designs and 3% of website designs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Pink
Designed by EWMDesigns, Jacob Gomes, Mihai Frankfurt, Bu.Jelena and pixelate on 99designs by Vista<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The meaning of the color pink<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Has the Barbiecore trend inspired you to try pink in your own branding? First, it helps to understand how pink makes us feel and what kind of messages it can send to your audience.

Pink is often used to convey romance, tenderness and youth, and it\u2019s thought to make us feel happy, light-hearted and playful. But pink is versatile: it can be calming and modern, like Millennial pink, or showy, energetic and glamorous, like Barbie pink.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Different<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Pink\u2019s association with gender and sexuality is probably why it elicits so many complex and contradicting emotions. Some still see pink as a color reserved for girls\u2019 clothes and ballerinas or something to be avoided because it\u2019s been used to strengthen stereotypes about femininity as being sweet, innocent and unserious. Others have reclaimed it<\/a> as a color of power and protest, like Elle Woods\u2019 head-to-toe pink look<\/a> in Legally Blonde<\/em>\u2019s climatic courtroom scene or the knitted pink pussy hat<\/a> of the Trump era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But pink was a relatively gender-neutral<\/a> hue until the mid-20th century, when color coding became a powerful merchandising tool in the US. Pink has radical and progressive associations, too. Punk band The Sex Pistols used acid pink on their first and only album<\/a>, while in the 1970s, the LGBTQIA+ community adopted the pink triangle<\/a> as a symbol of queer identity.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"\"
The Sex Pistols used the subversive power of pink on their only album, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

How pink is used in branding<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Traditionally, designers and advertisers have used pink to give brands a modern, youthful, fun, luxurious or traditionally feminine look. Think Cosmopolitan magazine, Avon makeup, Victoria\u2019s Secret, T Mobile and, of course, Barbie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some businesses and disruptor brands have been known to buck tradition when it comes to pink. For example, fintech company Klarna ditched the classic, conservative blue branding favored by the financial industry to create a cheerful pink logo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Klarna\u2019s chief marketing guru, David Sandstrom, said the shift<\/a> from \u201cblue and boring\u201d to \u201cpink and exciting\u201d was part of his remit to turn the company from a \u201cB2B techie business\u201d to something more \u201cenergetic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Pink<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Millennial pink branding and beyond<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Hot pink isn\u2019t the only pink hue to see a resurgence in recent years. The 2010s were dominated by Millennial pink<\/a>, a toned-down, relatively androgynous shade of rose quartz (or is it salmon?!) that appeared on everything from tech products to minimalist home decor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some say it originated on Tumblr, or with Wes Anderson\u2019s 2014 film The Grand Budapest Hotel<\/em>, or as a reaction<\/a> to the Barbie-ish, bubblegum aesthetics of Millennial childhoods. In 2017, The Guardian said<\/a> Millennial pink represented \u201ca kind of ironic prettiness or post-prettiness. It\u2019s a way to be pretty while retaining your intellectual detachment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No single color has yet to claim supremacy with Generation Z, whose spending power is set to surpass Millennials by 2030. But people born between 1997 and 2012 do seem to favor<\/a> vivid or saturated shades of yellow, green, purple and pink. (In fact, \u201cacidic hues<\/a>\u201d was one of 99designs by Vista\u2019s color trends of 2023.) So it makes sense that Gen Z would gravitate toward loud, attention-grabbing Barbie pink, too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether you love the energy and boldness of hot pink or not, you can\u2019t deny its electric allure. And after a tough few years, who could blame anyone wanting to escape to Barbie\u2019s bedazzled, bright-pink dream world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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VistaPrint Tip<\/h4>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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You can experiment with color or the Barbiecore trend using the free Logomaker by VistaPrint tool or enlist a professional designer through VistaPrint\u2019s custom logo design services<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

1. Data sourced from a sample of 633,000 logos created through VistaPrint\u2019s design services between June 2022 and May 2023, including 99designs by Vista and Logomaker by VistaPrint. The increase of pink logos in this 12 month period was calculated by comparing the proportion of pink logos created in June 2022 vs May 2023.\u21a9<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What comes to mind when you think of pink? Is it the color of frilly dresses, fun cocktails and Valentine\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":3441,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"According to new data from VistaPrint, more brands are embracing pink in their design and marketing materials. That means pink is back, and it could make a big difference to your branding.","_seopress_robots_index":"","_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-branding"],"acf":{"vp_publishing_settings_post_modified":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogadmin.vpsvc.com\/hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogadmin.vpsvc.com\/hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogadmin.vpsvc.com\/hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogadmin.vpsvc.com\/hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogadmin.vpsvc.com\/hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3372"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogadmin.vpsvc.com\/hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3372\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43971,"href":"https:\/\/blogadmin.vpsvc.com\/hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3372\/revisions\/43971"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogadmin.vpsvc.com\/hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogadmin.vpsvc.com\/hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogadmin.vpsvc.com\/hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogadmin.vpsvc.com\/hub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}