During my time as Principal artist for the 'My Blue Nose Friends' character brand I became a Dad for the first time. This new chapter of my life was accompanied by an all consuming barrage of baby products which inevitably had an effect on my work.
This led to the creation of 'Baby Blue Nose Friends', a re-imagining of the original characters but styled for nursery products.
I always enjoy redesigning existing characters, and designing these guys with my children in mind made the project extra special and gave me the motivation to do all of the work in my own time.
Part of my pitch was a range of plush toys, but rather than have prototypes sampled I developed a painting style which emulates the textures and embroidery effects needed to create a convincing look.
This 2D plush style then replaced the original cel-shaded look for the final illustrations.
I also suggested some tweaks to the existing Tiny Tatty Teddy (a nursery version of Tatty Teddy) design in order to integrate him with the Baby Blue Nose Friends, but ultimately his original style started gaining traction at retail so my pitch wasn't progressed beyond product sampling.