About this cartoon...
Meet the Barkable Hero Academy team, consisting of our hero, Casper the Collie, and his team of canine counterparts – Flex (a Boxer), Shimmer (a Poodle) and Doc (a Dachshund).
Casper has his own following on social media (@teamcasp47), and so he was the first to be designed. I sketched out several ideas for Casper, ensuring his energetic and enthusiastic nature was retained in the concepts.
Once a concept had been chosen, it was simply a case of refining the pencils and trying out some possible small refinements. The final step was to create the character design as a full vector artwork.
Other Barkable dog mascot characters
Once Casper was completed, I began work on the next set of characters, each of which features on their own set of pet snacks and merchandise.
Shape and colour theory played a large part in each character’s design. I wanted each character to have its own colour, so that they can be easily distinguished.
This colour also carries across to their respective product packaging – again to aid in quickly distinguishing between flavours when placed on a shelf.
Flex, for example, represents the ‘joint & mobility health’ products, so he is depicted using square shapes in his build and the colour red, as they reflect strength. To further add to the strength theme, square edging was added to his cape to reflect a castle fortification.
Doc the Dachshund represents ‘immunity boosting’, so I incorporated a shield onto each shoulder and triangular shapes in his design, as he is fast and energetic. Green then seemed an obvious choice to reflect his personality traits.
Shimmer is our poodle character, and her products help with skin and fur health, so a poodle was the obvious breed for her. She is supportive, responsible and kind, so rounder friendly shapes were used in her design, along with calming indigo tones for her fur and hair.
