BanaSun Character Design
To increase their business and refine their brand, the owners of BanaSun Smoothie Bar asked me with proposing a series of mascot characters. Designed both to appeal to children and to represent different components of what they hoped would someday constitute a lifestyle brand.
devised several different series of characters, all proposed to operate within a three-fold marketing system: local, social, and commercial/totemic. In the case of the "local" tier, characters in-store serve as a form of welcome, augmenting and improving upon the customer service' in the case of the social, characters represented on and through social media invite consumers into the store; and in the case of the totemic, characters on merch give consumers something identify with and take home with them from the store.
The original character sets were designed around four themes: family (because of the company's focus on being a brand for everyone, rather than just athletic adults), fitness (because of the company's focus on health), animals (in keeping with the company's focus on all things natural and environmental), and aroma (the robust, fruity smell the greets customers upon entry). The four categories were grouped in the proposal according to produce type. These concepts were then refined by review to just two front runners: the Familia Fruta and the Fruitimals.
Unfortunately, the project was unable to move forward due to budget issues, in no small part caused by the pandemic. Nevertheless, the project remains one of my favorite examples both of character design and of the kinds of proposals I like to build for my clients.