In an era of cost cutting and budget slashing, the experience of quality and discount pricing rarely go hand-in-hand. Here at FastCharacters we’ve been designing mascots for so long that we’ve perfected the art of:
- Premium quality deliverables (our artwork has been described as “Disney” quality )
- Great turnaround times (we take speed of delivery at every stage very seriously)
- Excellent customer service (customer satisfaction are two words we understand deeply)
- At very competitive rates (our prices are realistic and competitive)
To say we’re proud of this would be an understatement because this didn’t just happen by accident and it definitely didn’t happen over night. We’ve worked hard to get our each of our design and customer service processes locked down tight so at the end of the day, you the customer can walk away with a big grin on your face and a sweet new mascot in your hand.
Why custom instead of clipart?
Custom designs for mascot logos have been used for a long time and hot on it’s heels has been clip art. Clip art has it’s place for sure, and suits those on a very tight budget. However, nothing is more memorable than a well designed custom mascot that works day in and day out to make a big impression on the hearts and minds of your audience. You can also combine a mascot with a logo. Let’s take a look at the process of creating custom designs for cartoon mascots and mascot logos.
A custom design starts with ideas
Before any designing begins, there needs to be an idea, a concept, a dream of a mascot. This usually comes from the customer who has a vision for what their mascot logo should look like. From there a good mascot designer will have a process to get those ideas from the customer and into a format that artists call the “Creative Brief”.
Sketches for mascot logos.
This creative brief serves as a guideline for the design of the mascot and contains important preferences the customer has about mascot characteristics such as: species, body type, skin type, attitude, pose, facial expression and more. These characteristics allow the mascot designer to start sketching out ideas that reflect these important mascot features.
The importance and design flexibility of sketches
Sketching mascots (professional ones!) requires a very skilled hand. With a heart of artistic passion and years of honing one’s craft, a great mascot artist can explore many design concepts for the customer. Beyond establishing the basic look and feel of the mascot design, this also includes exploring and uncovering the many desired subtleties in every aspect of a custom design: the position of the eyebrows, the direction of the eyes, the expression of the mouth, the position of the limbs to name a few.
Body language, facial expression, poses and more are explored during the sketch phase when designing a mascot.
Mascot design coloring
There are quite a few options when it comes to coloring a mascot. One of the most common is using a black (or very dark) outline and then filling in those outlines with color. Typically the color can be flat, or shaded with gradients. Currently, the contemporary look for professional mascot design is to utilize shading and gradients. By using gradients, a greater depth and richer look is achieved versus just using flat color. That’s not to say that flat color don’t have their place, they definitely do!
Coloring techniques for custom mascots (from left to right): Outline plus gradients/shading, flat color, just gradients
Another popular technique for coloring custom mascots is to just (and only) use gradients. The effect is one where the outlines are absent, yet shape outlines are defined by the appropriate use of gradients and shading alone.
Things to keep in mind
Creating a custom mascot logo that you want is best achieved by working with artists who are not only skilled, but also allow you to explore the nuances that go into a great mascot. The creative process truly is one of exploration and it’s extremely beneficial to have the freedom to make changes (especially during the sketch phase!). A great artist will have a mascot gallery so you can review their previous work … and a professional process to get you into a custom design that will proudly represent your high school, sports team, product or service for decades to come.