A strong character gives a brand personality. Over the years, Creative Blast has designed hundreds of characters: from cheerful mascots to entire character families. Each has a distinctive look and a drawing style that suits the brand and its audience.
Shape, pose, colour and facial expression all contribute to a character's identity. Creative Blast develops new characters, restyles existing ones and expands character worlds with new poses, situations and friends.
The intended use is part of the process. A character needs to remain recognisable in an illustration, on a product and, where required, as a life-size mascot.
Marketing agency Leadstroom brought Creative Blast into the renewal of Babino Childcare's visual identity. The characters Ollie, Bink and Bella give the brand a playful, recognisable face for children and parents.
Creative Blast's contribution covers the character design, development of the characters, the complete graphic design of the visual identity and its application to the interiors and exteriors of the locations. The images show the characters on vehicles and Ollie's translation into a mascot costume.
An ice lolly, an astronaut and a distinctive brand identity come together in this character for Ola. The design gives a product a face and a personality of its own.
The design drawing shows different views and the construction of the costume. The finished mascot shows how the two-dimensional design becomes a character in the real world. Creative Blast created the character design; specialist manufacturers produced the costumes.
Creative Blast has also designed a wide range of merchandise featuring its characters. A character gains a life beyond the illustration, bringing a brand's familiar world to products people use, wear or keep.
This takes more than placing an image on a product. Poses, composition, colours and details are adapted to the application, so the character remains recognisable in a different format or material.
Sometimes the character is part of the entire logo, rather than a mascot alone. Creative Blast combines illustration, lettering and composition in logos that immediately communicate the atmosphere of a brand or venue.
This selection shows how character design and graphic design strengthen one another.