Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H.

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One of my clients is DecoPac, Inc., a novelty toy company that makes many of the cake toppers you see in bakeries and grocery stores. Most of their products are tied to licensed merchandise, and sometimes I get the fun of helping them develop a toy idea for a popular character. The challenge is to come up with something creative and fun for kids to play with, but that can also be produced inexpensively (often with no moving parts) and fit within the 3″ clearance space of a plastic birthday cake box.

Last year they asked me to help out with a toy for a new animated series from Disney/Marvel called “Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H.” We worked up a couple of ideas. Now that the toy is in stores I can publish the final design, but the client has requested that I keep the other sketches under wraps.

Hulk Smash!

Hulk Smash!

Hulk Smash!

Here’s how the final toy turned out:

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“Cars” Cow Tipping Cake

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A few months ago novelty cake maker DecoPac, Inc. hired me to help them develop a jumbo “signature” cake to promote the Cars franchise for Disney/Pixar. Because this would be a large, triple-layer cake there was more freedom than usual to do something really fun and appealing.

I started by working up several very rough thumbnail concepts of possible ideas:

(Click to enlarge.)
(Click to enlarge.)

The client liked the “tractor tipping” idea (bottom row, middle). So I worked that up into a detailed color sketch:

"Cars" Cake Concept by Cedric Hohnstadt for DecoPac, Inc.
(Click to enlarge.)

From their DecoPac refined the design and sent it off to the manufacturer. And yes, the “cow tractor” tips over and even makes a “Moo” sound!

Cars-Tractor Tipping ToyYou can also view the final product on the DecoPac website.

“Cut The Rope” Toy Design

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Cut The Rope sketch

A few months ago I was hired by DecoPac, Inc. to design a “Cut The Rope” toy for their novelty cakes. Here’s how the final product turned out. Look for it at your local bakery this Spring. Nom! Nom!

Cut The Rope cake

Cut The Rope toy

 

Madagascar 3 – Toy Designs

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Madagascar 3 cake design

One of my regular clients is a toy company called DecoPac. They design many of the fancy birthday cakes you see in grocery store bakeries. They also create various toys and novelties to put on top of the cakes, often tying in with licensed characters and brands.

Last year they commissioned me to design a set of cake-top toys to tie in with the ‘Madagascar 3’ marketing campaign. I wasn’t told much about the movie other than that it had a circus theme, and DecoPac gave me some rough ideas of what they envisioned for the overall design. I worked up several thumbnails of each character, they picked the ones they liked, and based on those I worked up turnarounds.

Here’s the final art I submitted (click on the turnarounds to enlarge):

Alex turnaroundsGloria turnaroundsPenguins ring artPlac sketchRecently I received samples of the cake topper set in the mail. Here’s a quick photo taken with my blurry pocket camera. As you can see, the background plac design has been updated with official Madagascar style guide art (which I was not privy too), but otherwise everything turned out pretty close to what I designed:

‘Avengers’ Toy Display Tray

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Avengers Ring Tray
Tray design copyright © DecoPac, Inc. Avengers copyright © Marvel. All rights reserved.

One of my regular clients is a toy company called DecoPac. Among other things they design many of the fancy birthday cakes you see in grocery store bakeries. They also create various toys and novelties to put on top of the cakes, often tying in with licensed characters and brands.

Last year they commissioned me to develop some concepts for an Avengers-themed cake topper that would be exclusive to Walmart. I developed a few different concepts but due to confidentiality agreements I can only show you the final chosen design, a display case. I was given an Avengers style guide and some plastic rings of the four main characters and asked to design a cool-looking tray to showcase the rings.

This project was a bit unusual for me in several respects. First, both the character art and the toys (the rings) had already been fully developed before I came onto the project. I was only designing the tray. (I don’t know who did the Avengers illustration but the artwork is amazing!) Second, the overall look and feel as dictated by the style guide was much more realistic and industrial-looking than the soft, cute, cartoony toys I usually work on. It was a fun challenge.

My final concept art is above. Here’s how the final cake topper turned out. Look for it soon in your local Walmart:

Avengers cake topper

Toy Design: Plush Teddy Bears

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One of my regular clients is DecoPac, Inc., a local company that designs and manufactures many of the toys you find adorning the birthday cakes at your local grocery store bakery. Most of my work for them involves licensed properties (Mickey Mouse, Toy Story, etc.) but every once in a while I get to create something completely from scratch.

Last year they asked me to design a small plush teddy bear about six inches high, something cute and cuddly that could be decorated with various clothing and props to suit a number of themes (i.e. graduation, birth of a baby, etc.). The real challenge was to create something cute and appealing that was still a little different from the hundreds of teddy bear designs that already exist.

I started by doodling and brainstorming using small thumbnail sketches. Here’s a few of the initial ideas I submitted:

After some discussion and a few more sketches we finally settled on this design:

I also created versions based on four themes: Baby boy, baby girl, fairy bear, and graduation. Recently DecoPac sent me copies of the finished bears. Here’s how they turned out:

My daughters keep asking to play with them so I guess that means they were a success.