Introducing: Tink

This week’s mascot has been inspired by a recent trip to the New York City Maker Faire. What an amazing event, robots, 3-d printers, robots, a life sized version of Mouse Trap, robots, contraption bicycles, and even some robots.

Oh yeah and this thing:

The Sashimi Tabernacle Chior!

Yeah, you missed out!

Anyway, the consistent technology prevalent at the event was this wonderful open source Project known as Arduino.

From looking at it it, I’m sure you are underwhelmed, but this awesome little board has the power to give anyone the ability to create insane types of projects! From pants that you can use as a keyboard, to motion sensitive musical controllers, and even yes, robots!  You are only limited by your imagination, and ability to teach yourself. The programming language is easy to learn, even for me! I am using mine for a puppetry project, that I have been trying to figure out for a while. It will be awesome.

Anyway:

I love drawing robots, seriously I have been drawing them since I was exposed to these guys:

I think it was about 4 million years ago!

So, I decided to use this opportunity to create a robotic mascot. His name is Tink, as in tinker. One of the major themes of the Arduino project, is the concept of tinkering, taking things apart, understanding their insides, and being able to re-purpose them to invent new and interesting creations. I decided on a robot because of the huge DIY communities dedicated to creating robots, using Arduino, which one day I hope I can somehow be a part of… I can paint their faces!  I know Tink does not look like a robot you build in your garage, but imagination and possibilities are huge concepts when it comes to the device, so anything can be possible.

Initially I was going for a design that looked like a robot cobbled together from obsolete electronics, but I was troubled by using too many technologies to identify the product. A robot just works well with the concept. And if you are wondering why he is holding a paint brush, and soldering iron; well I think those are the two tools that can best describe what it’s like working with Arduino. The ability to control technology to create new forms of art… I love it.

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Ok, apologies for the long wait since the last post, I have started a second personal project that involves a whole lot of drawing, writing and more drawing. It rhymes with Ceb Womic! It may or may not be ready in time for NYC Comic Con. But, I will post another mascot next week and more mascot related or unrelated stories. In the mean time let me know what you think.

Until next time… Roll out!

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Sometimes, You Get Stuck.

So the idea was to do a mascot for Vita Coco.

This stuff is awesome! Delicious, refreshing and much more hydrating than sports drinks, and even water! The perfect storm of nutrients and electrolytes, this stuff delivers the ability to not konk out and die. Someone needs to invent a cocktail with this stuff and soon. Vita Coco I love you.

But you know who I don’t love, Rhianna, I just don’t care that she’s their spokesperson. I don’t listen to pop music, so her endorsement means nothing to me.

Why not have a cute mascot represent your brand, one that can be easily recognized, and easily extol the benefits of your brand?

Sorry about the video quality, phone camera and all.

Wait, they already have one, if this video gets taken down go to the Vita Coco Website: www.vitacoco.com to see the little guy. Cocohead is his name from the little bit of information that is available about him. And here’s the thing about this guy, I like him. I don’t think there is anything that needs to be improved. It’s simple easy to recognize and I just like it. It’s kind of a shame this poor little guy is stuck on the website and nowhere else. Why is he not on the packaging. She should be in Rhianna’s place soaking up the sun. Vita Coco, I love you but this decision is baffling. A great little design but completely underused. By the way if you need anyone in marketing with great ideas I can send you my resume. I love your drink!

So in trying to design a mascot for this I was going to initially go in a similar direction, a coconut mascot:

Someone, kill it!

So then I decided to take the anti-product mascot route. And by that I mean using a character that is the antithesis of the product for example:

Mucinex

Dominos. (I miss you)

Raid and well, humanity.

Pizza Lover’s everywhere.

And apparently Vita Coco has one enemy Bananas!

From the package…

Hydrate naturally. More electrolytes than leading sports drinks with 15 times the potassium. Has more potassium than two bananas (don’t tell the monkeys)

So I wanted to create a mascot who wants nothing more than to defeat the potassium rich power of Vita Coco and I came up with Marlon:

I don’t know, this was all I could think of. I don’t even know how he planned on defeating Vita Coco.  But then the absurdity of selling a coconut drink with a banana settled in. And so no Vita Coco Mascot. Plus, as I mentioned before, they have a perfectly usable mascot on their website! Don’t worry, my one loyal reader, I will be bringing you a new mascot before the week is over.

In the meantime I am making 8-bit versions of myself for no good reason:

And something about looking for a creative job. Until next time… I need a catch phrase.

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Yes, this is mascot related: The Amazing World of Gumball

Cartoon Network Europe’s Ben Bocquelet decided to pitch a show using a bunch of his rejected commercial mascots, and so the CN green-lit:

Don’t blink you’ll miss all of the good stuff.

The show follows the everyday life of the Waterson family, particularly that of Gumball a blue cat, and his best friend Darwin who was once his pet fish, but has now sprouted legs and  arms and also talks. The show gets very surreal, Gumball’s dad and sister are pink rabbits while his mom is, like him, a blue cat.

No that’s not the weird thing. It’s when when we visit Gumball’s school that we see just how surreal it gets.

The diversity in design is what really initially drew me into the show, part of me wondered if it would be distracting, but the people behind this wonderful show have done an excellent job in integrating the character styles and animation styles into a beautifully made show.

But it’s not just the visuals that keep me coming back to this show. It’s funny as hell, referencing things kids  just aren’t going to get, it’s clever, and it does an excellent job of reaching back into my past and awakening my twelve year old self. The show while surreal and funny, manages to be subtly sweet about what it is to be a 12 year old boy. From friendships, to classes and oh my god girls.

I can’t stop gushing about this show, and you should really really take a moment to watch it.

Here’s one of my favorite clips:

and another:

Ok the next post I swear new Mascot!

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Help me choose my next mascot design.

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Found Mascots

I have been excited lately with a lot of the mascots I have been seeing all over the place. Living in New York, gives you an opportunity to discover products from all around the world, and boy are we falling behind on mascots.

And also in snack foods.

I love the angry Pokémon chicken, it’s ready to fight and offer you some of it’s fallen brethren as a snack treat. That’s one angry chicken.

I don’t know. I just don’t know.

I love how the packaging on this one turns the product into a mascot. Initially I thought this was a bag full of pink maggots, but no It’s a super absorbent cloth. Ready to use it’s face to clean your messy, messy mistakes. Stop being so messy, or this thing is going to stare at you all night long.

In addition to these mascots I found something slightly off. These renditions of Chester Cheetah bother me. His design is altered in this weird way that almost make him look like a bootleg version.

Besides isn’t he an old British man now:

Keep your eyes here for more Mascot Madness, also please feel free to send me any mascots you may have found.

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Gabby GetGlue: Revisited

Ok I have to be honest with you my one reader. I was not too happy with Gabby GetGlue. I rushed her out in order to get GetGlue to see my work. It was a foolish rush that kept eating away at my brains. It’s like serving uncooked pasta and calling it al dente. So I went back in this morning and changed some things, the basic design is still there but she is much cuter and the sexiness quotient has been raised, just a little. Her pleated skirt wasn’t working, and lack of an iris was making her look unfriendly. I want a character that people can relate to.

In my head those are Fluevogs she is wearing, aside from being a spokesperson she’s a party planner, she also has a crush on Alton Brown. Yeah he wears awesome shirts so what?

I think I may have fleshed her out entirely too much, it’s like having children with full control over their lives. Someone needs to pay me to do this stuff, by the way GetGlue, I’m still gunning for that job.

OK, back to my regularly scheduled schedule.

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Mascots For Everyone!

Aliens selling us breakfast cereals:

Ice-cream men selling us their brains:

Whatever this is selling us tires:

I love Character Advertising Mascots! Like many of you I grew up with them in just about every aspect of my life, breakfast cereals, fast foods, bubble baths, potato chips, and even bug sprays. They helped to easily identify a product and  tell the story of the product in a way that fueled our own imaginations. I spent a good portion of my child hood spraying Scrubbing Bubbles in the sink hoping to catch a glimpse of one of these guys:

While that never happened, I never lost my love for these characters, but what happened to them? Where did they go? As times change so does the advertising geared towards us, and the trend to using these kinds of characters disappeared, except maybe in the form of cereal mascots.

 

And Car Insurance reptiles…

Spokespersons and cold logos took the place of these fun and creative characters…

However there has been a trend by some companies to bring back some of their vintage characters, and I for one am excited about this. But I say why only a handful of mascots, everyone needs a mascot! So I am making it my duty to create an Advertising Character Mascot for as many properties I can think of. The choices will be random, heck you can even help me make the selections, just join me in my journey as I try to make Mascots for Everyone. (Way to call back to that title).

Here’s a sneak peak of my first concept for Comedy Central:

Til Next time.

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