Monday, December 27, 2010

Vinylmation Villains

I'm very proud to have been a part of this project.

I will get to the dolls in a moment, but first I wanted to mention the packaging. I designed the 3" box and artist cards for this series. This involved creating the logo, choosing the color palette and fonts, finding a background pattern and creating some supplemental graphic elements. It was also challenging to fit the English and French legalese (choking hazard, return policy, etc.) into the design. Lastly, a number of parties were shown the design (as well as my handmade mock-up of the box), and it was approved. All in all it was another rare occasion of a design hitting the market exactly the way I wanted it to look, so I'm excited to see it released.
Anytime you get to represent a legendary character like Cruella (and being such a fan of everyone involved in the movie, the animators, Bill Peet, Ronald Searle, etc.), it's a thrill. I'm happy with how she came out, and it's one of the few times you can still show someone smoking!

Shan-Yu was also fun to design. I enjoyed adding the chinese characters of his name (单于) to the design.
I don't know how well known this fact is, but these dolls were all designed at the Disney Store home base in Pasadena. It is the first time a group of artists outside the Florida Parks team has created Vinylmation dolls, and I think our team did a fantastic job.

2 comments:

artgeek12 said...

I really love the design of the box. Clean yet elegant with a hint of vintage villainy. Can't wait to get my autographed version!!

Dan said...

Thank you sir! I'm looking forward to seeing it released too!