Designer Spotlight – Renze

Every mascot starts with a design. At Promo Bears we could not do what we do best without our talented design team. In this blog post, we’ll learn more about one of our designers, Renze. He shares some of his history and top tips for mascot design.

When did you start drawing?

I think everyone has drawn something as a child. I rediscovered a love for drawing cartoon characters in 2008 when I got into an animation project that would finish up my bachelor degree in design.

How do you make your mascot characters look alive?

It’s all about adding those little lines and curves that makes bodies and clothing look tangible. The drawing has to look like there is gravity, and not just floating around the ‘wearer’.

How would you describe your mascot character style, and what influences it?

When I started, I really wanted my art to look like the traditional animations from Disney. Now after many years of drawing, I guess you can recognize elements from that way of building up characters. But mostly I don’t really think about style anymore and my drawings look the way they do because it all comes from this library of muscle memory. I like adding little details and wrinkles and folds to show off how clothing would both follow lines of the body and be subjected to gravity.

What did you find most difficult about mascot design at the start?

The most difficult thing about getting the costume designs right is having all the details from front- to side- to backview connect with each other. This is necessary to create cohesive shapes that translate properly into a 3D object from a 2D drawing.

What is the #1 mistake to avoid when designing a mascot?

The #1 mistake as an illustrator is trying to make the design look too fancy with shading and color gradients. It is supposed be a functional drawing more than a piece of art, so when our production team look at our drawing, they’ll know exactly how it should be recreated into a physical product.

How do you make sure the person inside can see?

I make sure the person inside has good vision by starting the costume illustration with the mouth / vision screen first. When the vision screen is set, I’ll build up the rest of the head around it.