Recently we designed a brand mascot character for Cindy Reid Global Golf™ academy to help them connect more closely with their clients and followers, with fantastic results.
First came the creative brief. We wanted to understand the key descriptors and personality of the brand, what pain points having a brand mascot might solve, who the target demographic is, and what differentiates the brand from similar companies. Using the brand's existing colour palette, we came up with a mood board for the mascot identity:
Following our systematized process, we began with 40+ rough black & white concept sketches. Our 3 main creative directions were gopher (think Caddyshack), bird (with the resonance of getting a birdie, and a positive symbol of improvement) and a frog (another common golf course animal). Here are some of the highlights:
After narrowing down to concept #2 [above], we began to refine & colour the concept. When we had finalized the mascot concept, we started illustrating poses for the character to give it more personality and bring it to life, with a view to creating animated WeChat stickers (GIFs) to upload to the official brand account, designed for a Chinese audience. After we decided which key poses could work for stickers, we got to the hard part - animation. Over 3 weeks we meticulously illustrated each frame for each sticker, averaging 8 frames per animation:
Next, it was time to name the mascot and create a logo for her. We had a launch party, where guests voted on 3 name choices, and the winner was "Lulu Birdie".
We created different iterations of the logo for different uses - colour, black over white, white over black; and vertical, horizontal, and text only:
Finally, we designed a series of golf-related product concepts. The crucial point here was creating a set of products that were visually consistent and looked good together on a shelf or on an online store:
Overall, we are very happy with the results, and the client response has already been overwhelmingly positive. We plan to keep working together and develop Lulu Birdie to her full potential. In the mean time, Cindy's clients are able to download her full WeChat sticker set, and use the illustrations throughout her social media posts. Well done, Cindy!