While I was working at Tunnel 23, I was asked to create a character for a wellknown communication company. The client wanted a likeable character who would answer the questions a user asks in an online chat. I was given a sheet with character specifications and, as always, company corporate identity information. And yes, the gig included creating animations for the character as well.

It was a cool gig, because the client trusted us to create something that was a little different from the things they would usually do. 🙂

In the early stage of the project, one of the executives suggested creating a character wearing pink hair, which was one of the colours used in the corporate design of the company. I though why not. The tricky part was making the character look more business-like and less punk-like. (I like punks, but that would not have been the right choice for this project.)

When creating a character for a client the first phase is usually narrowing down the choices and find out (as quickly as possible) what it is the client wants – and needs. So I did some quick and dirty sketches (please note that these sketches were created really fast, just to grab the idea of the design):

The client liked the last one the most and so I went on, creating more defined versions of the character, keeping in mind the feedback I got.

So here is round two, playing around with the level of cartoony-ness and testing a business-like clothing against a more nerdy look. There were several variations, but I think the ones below exemplify the different paths quite well.

In one of my next posts, I will present the client`s choice and the final character design. So stay tuned.

What do you think? Which one would you have chosen? Feel free to leave a comment below.