two characters.

I decided to use these two characters for the presentation board containing 2 character brand designs. I did edit them a little to touch them up and make them a wee bit better.

branding.

This is my final layout of how my character would be incorporated into Whittaker’s products and branding. My character will mainly be in on the website but the small tweaks will be seen on the blocks. When I was in the airport I saw a stand advertising the new caramel chocolate so I took a quick photo and overlaid my character and refined logo into the image. This would be areas where the character will appear. These images are what I will package up as my image of character in branding but I’m not sure if we’re allowed to submit more than one. I think because of this I’ll submit the website edit as my main image but have these examples on a separate page below. I think its important to add them since they help show my intention with the brand.

hero pose.

This was my final pose of my character. I made a few quick tweaks including the white spots. The body was looking a little plain and since the block my character is promoting is dark salted caramel chocolate it would make sense to add a reference to the salt - hence the spots. I really like this final product and don’t think its too “cartoony”. Scaling down the size of the eyes defiantly helped. I’m quite pleased with the style too; Whittaker’s has quite a blocky, vector-style of illustration on there website and branding. I think the shading helps make it pop a little bit and not look too 2D. 

eye tweaks.

After rendering the hero pose, I decided to play with the eye shape a bit as I wasn’t super happy with the shape. In the end I liked the last design but did think about making them a little smaller. 

website.

This was the final hero pose I chose and I wanted to check it suited the layout before I begin to render it. Overall I think it suits the layout nicely. It doesn’t float strangely like the last design and has more connection to the content on the page. I’m excited to see the final design on the website. 

body language.

After the last sketch - I wanted to test out some iterations of my character with a bit more expression. Using body language and the facial features seemed like the best way to keep a character with a very animal-looking body still anthropomorphic. I’m still not super happy with the eye shape as it makes the character look a little too cartoon but will play with this further once I’ve rendered the hero pose. There a few very rough sketches I’m quite like and will redraw properly and test on the website layout. 

packaging idea.

As previously stated - I don’t want the fully rendered character on the packaging but it seems odd not to reference any character on products when some newer blocks have them. I had a go at editing in the small logo tweak onto some of the packaging and played with a few other similar looks on items and really liked the outcome. All these products are not new flavours but all Whittaker’s products are currently going through a slight revamp - the adjusted the logo looks really nice on the classics and could flow really nicely to connect older products to the new flavours. 

into branding.

When I placed the image over the website I immediately noticed it looked out of place. The pose doesn’t quite have the right curve and sits too high up on the page. It was originally create to fit on a poster but after further research I realised Whittaker’s doesn’t use poster campaigns to promote themselves. Other than social media, videos/adverts and their website, they don’t really promote too much. Since they’re already quite well know and there isn’t too much competition in New Zealand, it makes more sense to create a character thats used online. Therefore I thought to move the design into their website layout but it doesn’t quite fit. I want to do a redesign of the character’s pose to make something that it interacts with the webpage more and will sit nicely on the page. 

branding pose.

After experimenting with a pose to use within the branding - I decided on this design. I wanted my character to be jumping over text on a poster promoting the new flavour. I wanted some sort of interaction between the text and character and thought this might look quite nice. I also decided to pick the colours I would use off the products themselves. These colours where picked off the packaging for the Dark Salted Caramel Block. It made sense to use the colours on the packing to help tie the chocolate flavour and character together. I also used the caramel of the Whittaker’s home page to get the perfect colour to represent the caramel. In the end the colours looked quite nice together, I am a little worried the blue will make the character seem a little too “kiddish” but am going for more of an exotic look. In future it would also help to keep other new characters released for certain blocks of new chocolate not looking too similar. 

artist model - PaMikoo.

These are a few of my favourites of PaMikoo’s work. I love her illustration style and want to strive for this type of aesthetic. Using a subtle, coloured outline isn’t too strong but helps give the design a nice shape. The way she gives depth to the character by shading with different tones is also something that I really like - the wax on Candlewick (the first piece) would look really great on a peppermint or caramel drippy tail. 

branding.

This is my development of how I will incorporate my character into the Whittakers website and chocolate. Since the character I am creating will be used to promote a specific block - ideally in future, when new blocks are released, new versions of the Kitsune character will be produced to promote the block. In the end, this will result in almost a family-like structure of Kitsune characters. Since Whittaker’s is very focused on the value of family - this will suit their core values well.

I don’t think the characters will be used on the packing in a huge way but there will be little hints and influenced graphics that will link back to the designs. I don’t want to take away from the sophisticated look of Whittaker’s chocolate by putting a character on the front. Doing this may be too reminiscent of more child-like products. Often anthropomorphised characters included on packaging are aimed at a younger age bracket like cereal boxes, yogurts or even Cadbury’s Fredo chocolates.

In the regard of packaging, I designed a small Kitsune mask to cover the J .H Whittaker portrait on the back of the new blocks. In other occasions (like the Jelly Tip or L&P blocks) small reference to the new block have been put in/on the portrait on the back. Visual examples are in my workbook. This was a quick and nice way to include the character in a subtle and fun way. It also keeps up with the current trend on new Whittaker’s blocks.

Lastly, I explored placing a silhouette of a Kitsune into their website header. This helped to include the character into existing website in small details. I quite liked this little touch as it blends nicely with the existing layout. I think I’ll explore this further with similar silhouettes in packaging or advertisements.

interim presentation: character two.

This was my favourite of the two designs. Despite only doing one illustration and not creating more versions of Kitsune characters - I like the use of jewellery to help humanise the character. I didn’t want to create more iterations as I was really pleased with the elegance and pose of the character and wanted to render it digitally immediately. I could refine the expression more to make it less animal based but like the use of Nicaraguan influence on the character. The colour waves on the tails is representing their traditional dress with big furling skirts and the necklaces (minus the greenstone) was again traditional of Nicaragua. This character was make to represent the Whittaker’s Nicaraguan Heirloom Dark Chocolate, hence the colour palette and overall Nicaraguan theme.   

The idea of a Kitsune character also works really well with Whittaker’s family values. A Kitsune is typically a past loved-one who has come to help guard, teach and encourage its family. This is quite nice symbolism to the history of Whittaker's chocolate and a nice nod to J. H. Whittaker and linking him nicely back into new blocks of chocolate.

interim presentation: character one.

This was my final character design. I developed it further to include the peppermint tail. I really like this idea as it makes it a new creature - something exclusive to Whittaker’s. It looks quite elegant and not too “cartoonish” which is really important in terms of the brand aesthetic. Although Whittaker’s has such a huge market, anyone from children to elderly are purchasing their chocolate. Whether a kid persuades a parent to buy some or the average joe just wants some chocolate on his cheat day; Whittakers has a very broad target audience. In this regard I want to create a character that will appeal to everyone as well as a clear representation of the Whittakers values and aesthetic. 

character 0.5.

for our interim presentation we need to present two ideas to the class and move in the direction of one of the designs. this was a personal favourite but didn’t quite get finished at the time of presenting so I used two other renders of my characters. Its one of my favourites however was a concept prior to characters ones final design as it was too humanoid so I continued to blend a fox and human to create a separate idea. I liked the idea of a gold dress - like the gold wrapper all Whittaker’s blocks are wrapped in. I want to try incorporate this idea in other designs.

The line drawing was a concept before the final rendition of the character as I didn’t like the look of a line drawing but thought I may as well document it as a choice to try a coloured outline style. 

This was a render of a character for the Nicaraguan Heirloom Dark Chocolate.

Its just a quick colour of a render of one of my favourite ideas - the Kitsune. I wanted to see how effective a block colour style was and quickly revisit using Photoshop to colour a design. I haven’t really used Photoshop in this way (creating digital illustrations) so this will quite a learning experience. I find it easier to draw the character on paper then upload the image and draw over it.

In the end I wasn’t too keen on this style. The lack of shading and outline make it quite blobby - my crude render probably doesn’t help but I just wanted to test a quick colour so didn’t put in much time. 

blog.

This blog will be a place to upload digital content in my creative process. I also have a book with majority of my explorations and process but anything digital will be commented on, critiqued and explored on here as its easier to display.