01 Jul Mascot Illustration for Hopkins Raspberry Festival
Hopkins is a Minneapolis suburb whose big summer event is the Raspberry Festival. Last year they rebooted their mascot with a new costume by local designer Sarah Spookystitch. This year I was asked to draw a cartoon version of that mascot, based on the costume .
I had two thoughts:
First, I didn’t want to adhere too strictly to the costume. I wanted to see if I could add my own flavor, knowing we could always reign it back in if needed.
Second, raspberries have a very bumpy texture and I was concerned the design might get too “busy”.
With that in mind I started with a few thumbnail doodles. I wanted something that felt unique but also simple, with the focus on the face rather than the bumpy texture:
Also, the client wanted a “standing-and-waving/gesturing” pose. Since the character is basically just a ball with arms and legs, I quickly tried out some variations on that type of gesture:
Based on client feedback I narrowed in on the final design. I was still experimenting a bit with the proportions and style, as well as how much detail to include (or leave out). I wanted it to look bumpy like a raspberry but not so bumpy that it was distracting.
Here’s the final design as it appears on the Raspberry Festival website. Credit to designer Alan Schutte at Platt Hollow Road for pulling it all together.
