Huh. Looks like I completely forgot to post yesterday. I’m sure y’all found other uses for your time.

Here we have George trying on different looks. The client liked his shoes (eventually) but wasn’t so keen on his turtleneck and black pants.

George is intended as both a mascot and a design element. Sometimes he’s used to illustrate a situation. Sometimes he stands on the page and helpfully points out important parts of the text. These are examples of him pointing out significant things to read. This was still not his final design. He’s mostly complete at this point. The client liked his shape wasn’t yet satisfied with his wardrobe.

Another version of George; here demonstrating his prowess by balancing a law book on his fingertip.

The client wanted to see what a finished version of George might look like so I was asked to ink up some samples. I’ve learned that for many people it’s difficult for them to visual what a rough sketch might look like as a finished illustration. The fellow on the right has a lot of the elements that made it in to the George’s finally design. The head is pretty much what we went with. The rest of him is still more complex than what we ended up with.

I did a number of the designs for George while the designer/art director sat next to me and made suggestions. That’s why the two very non-George heads are at the top of the pages. I was demonstrating some point about illustration at the time. I don’t remember what that point was now of course. The guy in the jacket is another variation on George that was quickly abandoned.

The client asked for George to be hip looking. That’s where the shaved head version comes from. There are lots of hip guys with shaved heads. The curly hair – not so hip. The girl is there in case the client wanted to consider having a female mascot.

About the only thing that had definitely been established was that George would have glasses – modern sleek glasses not big Buddy Hollies or large 70’s style shades. Beyond we hadn’t decided on clothes, hairstyle or a definite body type.

One of the challenges of working with a client who is just looking for an illustrator rather than someone who specifically wants my illustrations is that I need to figure out what the client is seeing in their mind when they are describing an image. “Intelligent”, “friendly”, “masculine” all look different to different people. It’s even more of a challenge when the person who is art directing me isn’t actually the client. The two of us may get something together and then the client will say that that wasn’t what they pictured. George took quite a few back and forth sessions before everyone was satisfied.

This the first of a number of development sketches for the character of George. George is the mascot for a series of self help legal books. He went by a number of different names before they decided on that George. The client was looking for a character that seemed friendly, trustworthy and knowledgeable. It took us a while before we got a design that worked for everybody.