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.

This and That

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I’m super busy finishing up a client project, so today I’ll just post a few miscellaneous links:

• Calling Minnesota Animators. My friend Kelly McNutt is a very talented artist and animator in his own right. Check out his blog and website. He’s currently looking for some Minnesota animation artists to help him out with a client project.

• Disney’s Announces Upcoming Animated Films. The Disney/Pixar studio has announced their upcoming slate of animated films. They will be releasing ten new animated films over the next few years. Most are original stories but there will also be two sequels: Toy Story 3 and Cars 2. Normally I’m not a fan of sequels, especially of the Disney variety. In recent years Disney has made quick profits with “cheapquels”—low quality sequels to classic animated films. But now that John Lasseter is running things, this time things could be much different. After all, Lasseter’s Toy Story 2 was (in my opinion) better than the original. No small feat!

• New Mac Ads. Apple has released two new ads featuring the Mac guy and the PC guy. These ads are always a treat to watch.

• Stuff I’m Selling. I’ve been cleaning out my closets and unloading a few animation-related items on ebay. If anyone is interested, here’s what I’m selling: Disney yearbooks from Mulan and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (the yearbooks were only given to artists and crew members who worked on the films. I bought my copies on ebay). I’m also selling a copy of the Ken Southworth Animation Program. There’s still a day or two to put in bids before the auctions end.

• Mascot Contest Ends Tomorrow! Don’t forget to take your shot at my advertising mascot contest. If you can correctly name the products associated with all twelve mascots, you’ll be entered into a drawing for a free copy of the new book Hi-Fi Color For Comics: Digital Techniques for Professional Results. The deadline is midnight tomorrow.