Character Creation at Designworks
Designing compelling characters is both an art and a science, a process that goes through distinct phases at Designworks.
Our capabilities include designing toys with appealing character aesthetics that not only stand out but also ensure an enjoyable play experience. Here, we’ll talk about how we designed some characters that have been released as toys, digital products and even marketing items.
INCEPTION
The inception phase marks the birth of a character, where we transform abstract ideas into tangible designs. Clients play a pivotal role during this stage, providing us with prompts, briefs, or even existing characters to build upon. For established characters like Freddo from our work with Cadbury Little Treasures, we explore the possibility of evolution while retaining key elements. Determining the character's intended design style, whether cute, cool, fun, or bright, is crucial, as is understanding the target market – be it boys, girls, or collectors. Additionally, considerations like age range, the number of characters, and differentiation factors are meticulously analyzed to create characters that resonate.
For this project, as the characters were born from scratch, we wanted to personify each character and vary their personalities as if they were based on a diverse, realistic group of friends before diving into the sketch phase. This reflects on the final character style guides which convey their personalities through the emotion shown on the sculpted toy and how the character is usually portrayed on posters or as they call it: the hero shot or key visual. The style we have selected for this range of characters is also meant to be ‘kawaii’-styled, with proportionally larger heads and eyes that make the characters look more baby-like and cute, but also answers a secondary need to be able to fit within a small package enclosure.
The initial sketch stages are particularly exciting, allowing our designers to explore various character options and designs. Throughout the development process, we actively seek client feedback to ensure the designs align with their vision. In our project PIXL Pals, we were challenged to create a diverse set of characters that share a common pixel matrix screen element. From fluffy monsters to horned creatures, each character had a unique design within the limited space around the pixel screen, showcasing the success of the exercise. These sketches were done using dimension overlays of the matrix screen and PCB electronics are that the character form can enclose but also retain the compact size. Using these overlays we produced a variety of designs with which we were tasked to pick the stand-out characters from. We took advantage of applying visual semantics to each character to create a variety, with each character immediately showcasing their personality through form, shape and colour.
In some projects, we decided to tackle the project with multiple designers, not only giving us a variety of ideas but also offering a variety of different styles for each subject. Using multiple designers in a team, we achieved a very agile development process, allowing our client to pick and choose from a wide range of styles. While some decided to give the project a cute aesthetic, others had designed the characters to be overly characterized showcasing a breadth of emotion or even giving them a more minimal geometric feel. This project required very striking 2D designs that would be suitable for a flat buildable toy, which you would mainly view front-on rather than in 3D. Understanding the material, how it is processed and the layered buildability quickly informed us of how important the role of the graphics was in this project.
Evolution
Moving seamlessly into the evolution phase, the character starts to take shape based on the initial concept. Prototyping is an important part of the process at one stage or another, allowing us to assess and tweak forms and proportions as needed. This iterative process ensures that the character aligns with the client's vision and appeals to the target audience. Refinement is an ongoing aspect, with options presented to clients to envision future iterations and potential accessories. This stage is where the dream of the character truly comes to life, showcasing the possibilities for its growth and development.
In the Cadbury Little Treasures project, with each wave, we are always tasked to introduce new characters that would seamlessly integrate into the existing world built with the established favourites. We would always begin with theme considerations, which informed us of the types of characters to add and what form they could all take.The designs go through a rigorous design phase and evolution based on multiple feedback sessions with the client, which can cause the designs to adapt and grow until they reach their idea of a suitable aesthetic. These go through rapid sketching to quickly achieve the look of the character, and once a direction has been approved by the team or the clients, these would then be further refined into the next stage of evolution. Characters can sometimes reach their final look almost immediately and require little adjustment before they get designed for production, while other designs would have to endure multiple evolutions, and possibly de-evolutions, until we reach a happy place for the character.
Execution
As the character evolves, it transitions into the production phase. Here, we prepare the characters for manufacture, a meticulous process that demands attention to detail. During production, unforeseen requirements may emerge, prompting the character to evolve once again. Adaptability is key as we navigate through these unforeseen challenges, ensuring that the character remains true to its essence while meeting manufacturing standards. This phase involves a delicate balance of creativity and practicality, ensuring that the character is not only visually appealing but also feasible for mass production. For example, in the Cadbury Little Treasures project, there are spatial requirements that each character needs to fit within so therefore we had to apply the designs and adapt them so that they are flatter depth-wise, but still have design details that define the back of the character. It was better than leaving it as a flat and empty cut-out to ensure it fits into the space it’s meant to be packaged in.
Other character design projects which required production in-house were the EE Rooster Booster display for Glastonbury and the Southern Grove gorilla statue. Large-scale character design involves an additional stage that differentiates it from smaller-scale toy character design processes. These do go through a process as mentioned in previous stages: sketching, 3D CAD or sculpting but then adding a stage of producing a small-scale prototype, before finally going full scale. There are some instances where the character design is dictated by the material and process that it is meant to be produced in. In the Rooster’s case, it was intended to create the perception that it was a character based on mobile-related elements such as WiFi signals and sim cards but we also wanted to implement techniques that we had recently acquired from other large-scale projects. Since the design’s chosen material was sheets of plywood, the design was based on layering multiple sheets to achieve a striking 3-dimensional form using a layered, topographical look reminiscent of a woodcraft construction puzzle kit.
Throughout this journey, collaboration with clients remains key, with their input shaping the characters’ form and personalities. Our approach is versatile, accommodating a variety of techniques to breathe life into characters, be it through ideation sessions, collaborative brainstorming, or drawing inspiration from a variety of sources. The success of our process lies in each technique employed and understanding why it works for a particular project. At Designworks, we take pride in our ability to create characters that not only meet but exceed the expectations of our clients and capture the hearts of their target audience.
Finally, we end this topic looking at a fun project which showcases that character design and execution can be simple too but still possess charm. This small wood puzzle mammoth is a flatpack buildable toy that engages children to complete the puzzle and result in a toy at the end of the activity.
Whether you have a design ready or need one from scratch, Designworks invites you to reach out and explore how we can bring your character design ideas to life.