Hasbro has a popular series of animal toys called FurReal. For the packaging they often illustrate a fun, welcoming environment to help display the character on the store shelf. I was hired to sketch up some packaging concepts which were then handed off to another illustrator for final painting.
Here’s a few examples of my sketch followed by the final product:
And here’s one for a baby monkey that never made it to final:
I’ve made some long overdue updates to my Toy Industry Portfolio.
For over a decade now I’ve been working on projects in the toy biz for clients including Hasbro, Disney, Toys-R-Us, Crayola, Chick-Fil-A, and several smaller companies. I’ve helped design toys for brands including Angry Birds, Toy Story, Star Wars, Sesame Street, Marvel, Play Doh, and Littlest Pet Shop, just to name a few. I’ve illustrated packaging for Mr. Potato Head and Crayola, I’ve done control art (turnaround) drawings for Frozen, and I’ve illustrated stickers for My Little Pony.
If you need a concept artist or illustrator for a toy related project, or you know someone who might, please download this free PDF portfolio. Email it, share it, or print it out to bring to a meeting. I’d love to hear about your project and talk about how I could meet your needs.
A toy licensing company asked me to help them explore ideas for a line of Disney figurines. They wanted the characters to be recognizable but at the same time stylistically unique, almost as if the characters all belonged in the same world. It sounded like a fun challenge.
I started by noodling around just to see what might work and what wouldn’t. First I tried to see what I could/couldn’t do with Mickey Mouse, followed by Ralph and Vanellope from Wreck-It-Ralph:
After some client feedback we eventually settled on a “look”. Next I began exploring possible poses for the figurines. They asked that the characters appear to interact with each other visually, but with poses that would also work as stand-alone figurines:
Eventually I worked up sketches and turnarounds for twelve characters. I can’t show them all but here’s what we wound up doing with Dash and Violet from The Incredibles:
Unfortunately the plug was pulled before the project could make it across the finish line. But it was fun while it lasted. (Images are posted with client permission.)
Recently I was hired by Alex Brands to illustrate the packaging of a new line of toys called Screw Ballz. Basically they are springy foam rubber creatures that can be wound up and combined together into interlocking balls. They asked me to illustrate each animal in an active “springing out” pose. The product hasn’t hit stores yet so I can’t post photos but the client did give me permission to share the artwork I submitted:
Recently I was hired by Alex Brands to help with the launch of a new line of Big Wheels bikes. They were considering using illustrations for the packaging and asked me to whip up a couple of preliminary concepts of what that might look like (one boy, one girl). Here’s what I submitted (posted with client permission):
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.
Here’s how the final toy turned out:
