Some Character Design Sketches

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Here’s another project I can finally let out of the bag. A large regional company is in the process of rebranding itself and expanding its market base. I was hired by an ad agency to help develop an updated version of this company’s current mascot. After a couple of rounds of sketches the company decided to go in another direction with the project, so this is as far as my involvement went.

The agency has given me permission to post some of the development sketches under the condition that I don’t reveal the name of the company. As part of the deal, I’ve been asked to change the colors of the character’s clothes (he was wearing the colors of the company’s logo) and also erase the logo from an article of his clothing. So, here are some of the modified concept sketches.

Teaser Posted For Pixar’s New Film “Up”

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The Teaser for Pixar’s new film Up is now online.

Not much is known about the film. However, a recent newspaper article described it as “a comedy about a cranky, cane-wielding 78-year-old who transports his home to exotic locales by attaching hundreds of helium-filled balloons”.

[EDIT: The tech blog Gizmodo offers this description:

The hero of the film is a 78-year-old man named Carl Fredricksen, who walks around hunched over with a tripod cane. When he was a kid he met a girl named Ellie, who grew up in small midwestern town. The two fell in love and eventually got married. Her dream was always to explore the world and visit paradise falls, but as usually happens, life got in the way. They were never able to make good on their promise, and Ellie eventually passed away. Now Carl is a widower living alone in his small home. Developers are threatening to move him into an old folks home.]

I really like the look of the house and design of the old man. Everything has a light, fun feel to it as opposed to the hyper-realism of Ratatouille and Wall-E. Of course you can’t tell too much from such a short teaser, but I get the feeling the story might take place in a more cartoonish alternate reality.

Up will float into theaters May 29.

Free Finger Puppet Business Cards

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A couple of weeks ago I announced my new finger-puppet business cards. I designed them to serve several functions:

  • To demonstrate my abilities as a character desginer;
  • To stand out and be a good conversation starter at networking events;
  • To display not just my contact info but list past clients and quotes/endorsements from satisfied art directors.

So far the cards have been a big hit. I’ve received a lot of positive feedback. It’s fun to watch grown professionals turn silly for a moment as they put their fingers through the little holes and move the character’s “legs”. Several people have asked to have one of each. So I’ve decided to offer them for free through my blog.

If you’d like to own a set, just send your name and address to me at blog@cedricstudio.com and I’ll drop all three in the mail to you. No charge. My treat as a small thank-you for reading this blog. (Be sure to write “business cards” in the subject line of your email).

Another way to get the cards is to sign up for my mailing list. It’s a quick and easy way to keep up on my latest projects. Every month or two I send out a short promotional email showcasing my latest work, and I also mail out a postcard about once a year (I should do it more often but, well, I don’t). When you fill out the form just write “business cards” in the comments line and I’ll mail ’em to ya.

The cards are totally free with no strings attached. But if at some point you happen to need a freelance character designer/illustrator, I hope the cards will serve as a reminder that I’m out there and available.

New Business Cards

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Recently I came across a terrific article about business cards from the ProFreelancing blog. According to the author most business cards are largely a waste of money. People will quickly lose interest in you and your work if all they have to remember you by is your contact info. It’s even worse at a networking event where everyone is collecting business cards by the fist full. If your card doesn’t pull “extra duty”, it won’t stand out and will likely wind up in the trash.

Fortunately the article gave me some great tips for making my business cards more effective. In a couple of weeks I’ll be traveling to a “freelance fair” for a major toy/game manufacturer, and decided it was high time I made up some new cards using the author’s advice. (i.e. use both sides of the card, give a clear description of what I do, list some of my past clients, through in a couple of quotes from satisfied clients, etc.)

But I wanted to go one step further and do something creative and unexpected. Recently I met a creative director who’s business card is actually a tiny sketchbook with her contact info on the front cover. I really liked that idea, and wanted to come up with my own fun little gimmick to help make me and my business cards more memorable.

Since I specialize in character design, I thought it would be fun if each card was its own character. I also want to get more work in toys, games, and other children’s markets, so I wanted to the cards to appeal to our “inner child”. I doodled up some quick little characters from the waist up, then decided to punch finger holes in each card for legs.

At the very least it should make a nice conversation piece, and will hopefully make a more lasting impression at a networking event.

The front of the card is the character displaying a short message and my website. The back of each card (not shown) contains a quote from a satisfied client, my contact info, and a list of some of my more prominent past clients.

I know some consider it amateurish for an illustrator to put actual artwork on his/her business card. Many successful artists I’ve met in the past keep their business cards surprisingly simple and plain. However, in this case I’m hoping that (a) the novelty of the idea and (b) the “big name” clients I’ve got listed on the back of the card will make it clear that I am a professional despite the fact that I’ve put artwork on the cards.

Mascot For MaroonHelmet.com

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Sorry for the slowdown in blog posts this week. Things have been pretty crazy here. I’m putting in a lot of hours on an animation project, plus this week I also whipped together some storyboards for a major retailer, did some character design sketches for a major food company, and finished up designing a mascot character for a small business in Virginia called MaroonHelmet.com.


(Artwork copyright © MaroonHelmet.com.)

MaroonHelmet.com is a specialty retailer for fans of the Virginia Tech Hokies, a popular college team. Their primary customer base is football fans and they wanted a mascot for their company.

They didn’t want to use the actual Hokie mascot (I’m not sure but my guess is there might be trademark issues involved). The client originally suggested that I take a maroon football helmet and put a cartoon face on it. Although I considered the idea, it would have been difficult to make it work convincingly. One idea I suggested instead was having a cartoon football wear the helmet.

The client also asked that their mascot look fun but tough. They didn’t want him to look mean, but they did want him to have a strong and aggressive attitude similar to the Fighting Irish mascot. So I did my best to capture that in the football’s expression.

I just turned in the final artwork yesterday, so it isn’t up on the MaroonHelmet.com site yet. But I did get the client’s permission to post my work for them online.

“3-2-1 Penguins” Character Designs

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This past Saturday morning NBC aired another episode of 3-2-1 Penguins! which I had the pleasure of working on. There were only two characters who needed to be designed, Admiral Sowmaster and his assistant, Cash. Both were to be pig-like aliens.

Here’s an early rough concept. The Admiral is on the left.

After turning in the first concept I received some very helpful feedback and sketches from episode director Tom Bancroft. He suggested that we switch the size of the characters and make the Admiral the short one. He also wanted to model the Admiral after actor Edward G. Robinson. The face on my sketch is really just a cleaned-up version of a sketch Tom did based on old photos of Robinson.

3-2-1 Penguins! airs Saturday mornings on NBC. Check your local listings.