One of the funnest experiences we’ve had in recent time was the mascot design for Mr.Bucks. I mean, take a look at this guy. He’s got style, cool, pizzaz and cash dripping offa him. The client wanted to make sure that Mr.Bucks was anything but your average cartoon elephant. They key words in the creative brief were confident, confident and you guessed it, CONFIDENT.
Other traits we had to incorporate into the design were movement, perfection and confidence. Oh yeah, we already mentioned that three times already … but it was important. If you look at Mr.Bucks you’ll see he walks tall and assertively without being overbearing or too aggressive. He still comes across as someone you could approach but you realize that whatever you say better be interesting and to the point because this guy has work to do.
Working with the client we narrowed down a look and feel that we could use as a base and then with some tweaking, the final sketch was approved. From there, it was down to picking the colors which would work well to enforce the raw strength of this character.
If you have a website, comic or any of a hundred other reasons for needing a character illustrator. You will need to know how to find and hire one.
A cartoon handyman mascot created by a professional character illustrator
First of all you will need to establish in your own mind exactly what it is you need from the character you need designed. Is it suppose to be aggressive, passive, friendly, scary, big, small, and the list goes on.
You need to establish to yourself exactly what your character’s purpose is, because you will need to be able to clearly transmit this information to the character illustrator. Also you should make sure the character illustrator you find asks for this information, because if they aren’t interested in your requirements, you can be sure they will not do a good job.
This article will be of interest to anyone considering hiring a character design illustrator, or becoming one themselves. Regardless of which path you are on, identifying the traits of a great character design illustrator will be of great interest to you. First we must really look at the purpose behind a character design illustrator, and then analyze what it would take to be, or identify a great one. After all, if you going to hire a someone, you want to be able to assure yourself that they can do the job.
James got in touch with us for a new mascot design. Conceptually called “Rocky” he wanted an upright, bipedal Raccoon that was confident and happy and strapped with gear such as a climbing harness and a helmet. Here are some of the concept sketches the team came up with.
Mascot design sketches of Rocky the Racoon
Rocky had to be a character that would appeal to adults as well as students. Above all he needed an outdoorsy feel and be charming and cool without trying. With some back and forth and feedback from James the final Rocky he loved was the mascot you see below.
Rocky the Racoon
Cartoon mascot design ... Alive and well for all the right reasons.
Getting a cartoon mascot is an additional expense for any organization. So why even bother with it … I mean, is it worth the time and money getting your own cartoon mascot? Well it’ll come as no surprised that we tend to vouch for cartoon mascots all the way but we’ll try to put our bias aside and make the case as fairly as possible.
Stickiness
Cartoon mascots are super sticky. You’ve only got to see one a couple of times and they will stick in your brain. That’s the main reason why businesses, bloggers and non-profits alike use cartoon mascots in the first place. They make you look twice and they make you remember and associate the organization with the mascot. All of which equals “cha-ching”.
Could you name fifty famous cartoon characters off the top of your head? I didn’t think I could … until I got started. I’d wager if you are over 30 years old, you would recognize and know every single one of these characters. For real, every single one. In writing this post I came to realize the sheer volume of cartoon characters that have permanently infiltrated my brain. Famous cartoon characters and mascots seem to have one thing in common: they are incredibly sticky. Like it or not, they invade your head space, and never leave.
If you are like me, some of these characters you grew up with as a kid, others you will have gotten to know and love as an adult. The one’s that made it on this list did so because of their enduring greatness to last beyond mere fad and pull up a permanent place both in popular culture and in our minds. In no particular order, let’s get this started! And naturally, all characters are copyright of their respective owners. Don’t steal them m’kay?
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Mickey Mouse
Joyful, vulnerable, lovable. Mickey came into our hearts and minds decades ago and still reigns supreme. He’s like the Jesus of cartoon characters.Read the rest of this entry »
According to a recent press release, one of the world’s most recognizable female cartoon characters is about to set a first, so some will have us believe. Marge Simpson, wife and mother of America’s favorite dysfunctional family is going to pose for the November issue of Playboy magazine.
Marge is being reported as “the first cartoon character ever” to be featured on the cover of Playboy. This is well hyped and not surprisingly the reaction to this event has been varied and heated, but is it accurate?
Not really. According to a flood of responses, it seems Leroy Neiman’s “Femlin” cartoon character was the first cartoon character to be featured (in August 1960) and was subsequently featured many times. Some say that a Playmate dressed as Jessica Rabbit took the honor in their November 1988 issue … we argue that’s not really a cartoon character so much as someone dressed up as a cartoon character.
What do you think … should Marge be doing business with Playboy?
Graham Mulvein at Cochlear UK got in touch with us wanting a new character to help communicate what can be somewhat dry information about their technology. For those of you who are unaware, Cochlear makes incredible ear implants that, well … here’s what wikipedia as to say about the cochlear implant:
A cochlear implant (CI) is a surgically implanted electronic device that provides a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing. The cochlear implant is often referred to as a bionic ear. Unlike hearing aids, the cochlear implant does not amplify sound, but works by directly stimulating any functioning auditory nerves inside the cochlea with an electric field.
Pretty cool right!? This technology is giving hearing to millions of people and it was up to our artists to create a new mascot for Cochlear that was fun, kept the spirit of the Cochlear branding and their mission. In the end Grahame and his team settled on this little fella. Check him out!
We were contacted by Mathew Ogston at FollowThing.com in order to create a cartoon character to use as a mascot for their upcoming project. This character was an interesting challenge due to the inherent traits which Mathew wanted embodied in his … Thing!
Cartoon Lemming Character
Part of the Character Plan (or creative brief) included:
“Character is a Lemming, which represents our new product called ‘FollowThing’. The reason for using a lemming is that our online service allows people to follow almost anything on the web (blogs, news, videos, memes, audio, brand monitoring etc) and therefore keep abreast of the latest trends and breaking news. Lemmings are famously known for following things. This concept of ‘following’ needs to be visible within this mascot.”
It didn’t take too long until our artists were onto a character mascot that Mathew liked. We ended up tweaking back and forth until the final look of this cartoon mascot was achieved.
It was great working with Mathew and we wish him well with his Follow Thing start up!
Foxes can run the whole spectrum of emotions; from aggressive to adorable. This cartoon fox is one we created to be friendly and approachable. We think the end result is an very cool character that looks like he would be fun to hang with … and maybe even learn something from!
Cartoon Fox Character
