November 3rd, 2010
Advertising agency Huvila approached Piñata to design a character and to produce a series of illustrations for ABC service stations. It was clear right from the start that the new Apsi character had to be playful and alert monkey, still a kid himself and the kind of character especially the kids could relate to!
The basic concept was ready, but the character still needed some fine-tuning. With this brief, Mikko started exploring and sketching out some rough ideas: "Classic cartoon characters of the 50's and 60's commercials had the attitude and design I wanted to go with Apsi. Take the Maypo boy for instance. The form, animation and the overall design blends very nicely together. This is where I started."
Mikko used the distinctive monkey characteristics, like the long tail, silhouette and ecsessive body language to give Apsi more personal touch. "As usual, I tried to make the character work as a silhouette first.", Mikko says, and explains some more: " If you can read the pose and recognize the character as a silhouette, it's going to work with all the colors and details on. Even better if you can make the connection between the brand and the character work on a level this simple."
Finally Apsi was colored and cleaned free hand, even though the end result seems quite vector-like if you just take a quick glimpse: All the small imperfections and shaky lines you can only see in larger scale add to the hand made feel and make the Apsi come more alive - make it feel and look unique.
Credits
Client: ABC ApsiAgency: Huvila
Creatives: Juha Kaislampi, Heli Ylivaara