Expanding Success
Done in: Summer 2014 / Customer: Leading Results, Digital Marketing Agency / Task: Character Illustration
What the client needed
My friends at Leading Results compete in the area of online marketing and needed to differentiate themselves. Part of their solution was the use of a brand character.
The original rendering of Roco (Leading Result’s content monster) was creative and well executed by another artist and serves his purpose well. More importantly, Roco clearly connected Leading Results’ attention to content as a core value within the brand character.
My part of the project
The assignment for Amazingly Creative was to keep Roco as Roco, but put Roco in different poses and activities to illustrate the key points that Leading Results would be making in other print and web materials. The turnaround time was accelerated due to various factors and Amazingly Creative was happy to comply.
The challenge in any such assignment is that activity equals mobility and all of the attendant issues. The original Roco is well concepted and executed, but the feet don’t look as capable as the hands. Thinking through hands and feet, posture and grip, stance and dynamic motion requires creativity and a healthy dose of “what if?”
However, you have to stay close enough to the original character that (he, she, it??) is recognizable and ultimately you have to ask, does it really look like (Roco in this case) is really surfing? Mining? Teaching?