'Dachs und Friends'

V1

Dachs und Friends are a series of animal characters who are good friends and enjoy globe-trotting. The idea was initially pitched as mascots to Deji Art Museum's 'Curio Capsules' art and hobby space. The characters consisted of Dachs (the dachshund), Emmy (the lop rabbit), Nana (the call duck), Moo (the capibara), and Mia (the alpaca).

The initial rough sketch was made within 2 hours.

V2

V2 is refined (and explored) based on V1 and the more detailed character descriptions. As dachshunds are simply known as 'sausage dogs' in mandarin-speaking regions, I reallt honed-in on the sausage aspects of his design (and later had to dial it down a notch). Apart from that, Dachs is supposed to be an office white-collar who loves gathering friends on adventures. Nana is a loudmouth foodie, Emmy loves makeups and taking selfies (who needs to have incredibly big eyes for pushies), Mia is a bit of a nerd who does the travel plans, and Moo loves his lifebuoy, and apples.

V3 and expansions

Apparently everyone still needs to be more cutesy, especially Emmy. She needs to be cuter than cute, and then more.

'Madame'

'Madame' is aimed at becoming the heroine of a wide-ranging merchandising IP series. My client intended for her to be a modern, independent female who embodies non-conformist, rebellious values, someone who craves spiritual freedom, and as the client requested, 'a not conventionally good-looking asian with western makeups'. Sure.

The initial concept design was fairly well-accepted, then the design proposal shifted to have 'Madame' be a "much fatter" female. The new concept designs did not bod well with audiences in test surveys and the initiative was ultimately cancelled.

The Fowl Fouls

The Fowl Fouls depicts a bunch of office-sitting birds who do office-sitting stuff.