Elsie and Pals: A Lifestyle brand featuring adorable animals

Skills

  • Character design

  • Logo Design

  • Heat-press printing

  • Print Design

  • Brand Identity

Overview

A simple yet cutesy brand for teens - young adults who adore playful designs and comfortable lounge wear. This project explores cute character marketing, usually associated with kids’ media characters and Japanese kawaii brands.

Coming up with the idea and influences

Back in 2022, my mom who has a small business called The Cultured Swan asked me to design an elephant character for a brand she wanted to create. She described to me  the elephant could be designed within a simple but fun art style. Originally, she wanted the designs for Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. (since the organization's unofficial representative animal is an elephant and duck). However, my mom also wanted these to be for everyone to wear.  With this idea in mind, I started to think about some references to use for the elephant design that’s been popularized and marketable. Brands like Sanrio and Ralph Lauren became my structural influence to create these designs from what was described by my mom. 

 

Influences for this brand

Images are not mine!

First rough draft

Within my first stage of creating these designs, I’ve started researching different styles showing animal characters within clothes. This exploration would conclude how simple I can design these characters. Eventually, I started sketching down what my first character would look like before digitalizing.

While I wanted these designs to be stylized, there were a few comments by my classmates and professor to make it less stylized. From this feedback, I’ve reduced the first character’s design. This process consisted of design refinements to make the character simpler. From a stylish elephant decorated with multiple accessories to an elephant wearing a sailor ascot and two flower head ornaments.

Approaching the designs

In this process, I sketched out 3 variations from simple to detailed. However, I wanted to add one accessory that would create an association for this character. At first, I sketched out two bows for this character, but then I realized that it’s associated with Hello Kitty. Copying existing brands was my top priority to avoid, I don’t want anyone to assume this project is just creating Sanrio characters.

Eventually, I’ve explored West African head accessories for the elephant. Instead of designing go-to head accessories with cute character designs, I decided to create a simplified version of an Ankara flower hair clip. With this decision, the character has an associated accessory that’s different.

There were some critical changes regarding the design. The dull pale color palette became colorful, and shadows were added. These new changes made the character less flat and more expressive for a cute design.

Introduction of other characters

The next characters designed were a duck and a tiger. The duck was less challenging to design compared to the other animals. This character would be designed with simple shapes that needed less editing. For the tiger, there was a challenge in simplifying. For my first design, the tiger looked bumpy and non-symmetrical for a final design. In addition, finding possible ways to create the character’s appearance of a tiger (stripes, color scheme, and head) less detailed.

Digital draft

Finalize

Designs for Elsie

Designs for Chai

Designs for Tammy

Clothes and other items

Stickers and buttons

Stickers and buttons

Shirts and pouches

Shirts and pouches

Close up on pouches and shirts

Close up on pouches and shirts

Tote bags

Tote bags

Bucket hat

Bucket hat

Beanies

Beanies

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