Practice and Research - Exercise 2.1: Brand Identity Character Design

At the end of my previous module, I explored two potential client commissions. At the time, one was not ready to proceed. However, some time later, they came back to me indicating that they were ready to proceed. They indicated that the ballpark cost that I had given them was more than they had expected, but conceded that the original ask had a lack of specificity.

I held an online conversation with the client, where we explored some ideas to get a shared understanding of what the first steps could look like. I noted things with them live as a way to achieve alignment and avoid too much back-and-forth later. Below are the notes I created with the client:

We both agreed that a simpler first approach could be to do some character design for the training course's main avatar with some supporting spot illustrations. I was then able to turn this into a commission agreement, which I sent over for signature digitally. The client signed off quickly, and I got to work. I started in my sketchbook with some silhouettes based on the character aspects of 'Faith the Florist'.

I got some feedback from my wife, having first given her some context about the character and the audience, and used that feedback to choose four of the silhouettes to refine into more complete character concepts. From there, I created four digital roughs to present to the client - I didn't want to go all the way with the spot illustrations at this point, until the client had chosen which option best suited his brand and the visual language he wanted to develop for his website.

I knew how busy the client was, so I elected to create a video walkthrough about my choices so that the client could understand my thought process. This asynchronous approach allowed him to review at his convenience without having to cram a conversation into the limited space of a meeting.

I had set out a timeline of deliverables contingent on assumed client feedback milestones. So when the client let me know that he needed more time, I was able to agree and said I would update my delivery timelines when he came back to me with feedback.

It took some time for the feedback, and I was half-expecting the conversation to follow - the client had realised that he was getting too caught up with adding lots of visuals over actually shipping the course. As such he cancelled the commission - which made perfect business sense to me, even if it was disappointing.

The upside was that he liked the bottom-left option a lot, and wanted to pick up more work with me in the future. I had also built in a part-cancellation plan into the illustration commission agreement, so it was not a complete loss for the work I had put into it so far.

It was a good learning experience, and I believe that my comprehensive and professional approach has created a good rapport with the client, has given them knowledge and experience in commissioning illustration, and keeps the door open for future work in a positive way.

I also really like the two options that I created with colour, I feel they both have aspects of my voice that I am currently exploring. The bottom-left option is the strongest one and has the kind of energy that I want to put out into the world. I think I can learn a lot from my choices there and how I allowed myself to take a more stylistic approach and not worry about the realism.