Fall 2021 | Mascots: American Icons Re-Imagined For Today’s Children

I originally created this project to display a typeface I designed called “Characters”. As an illustrator, I imagined how I might bring more life to my characters using the lively, childlike font. I decided to create a book of popular mascots re-imagined in my style. I reference the Morton Salt Girl, Smokey Bear, Ronald McDonald, and the Coppertone Girl - mascots who are outdated or could better appeal to children if given a new treatment. Two of the mascots, Midge and Scout, are adaptations of illustrations I’d made previously, while Fry and Chickadee are original character designs created specifically for this project.

Were I to continue my work on this project, I would potentially like to include passages educating children on the history of the original mascots referenced. I think this could serve to educate kids on the topic of brand awareness. Brand loyalty has been shown to develop in children much earlier than in decades past, and it could be valuable for them to have the ability to identify company mascots as marketing tools. In this way, they may stand to be more aware of the ways in which companies stand to profit from influencing them at what we know to be a vulnerable age.