Olympic Mascot Designs

Here's another in the series 'jobs that I didn't get or never happened'. I've got quite a lot of stuff in that category - sometimes when you get a run of pitches going down that path you begin to wonder if you're doing something wrong. Then you have to remind yourself that it's not you - it's everyone else who's stupid.

Anyway, earlier in the year I got the chance to pitch some mascot designs for the olympics. I started by doing a few thumbnails and thinking about how these mascots are usually used. They get printed on merchandise and then end up as big foam suits to be worn at promotional events. This is where I think a lot of previous designs which have looked beautiful as 2D designs in print can go terribly wrong so I thought it would be good to design something with this use in mind.

I thought about various themes, landmarks, what makes us British, how do the rest of the world think of us, stereotypes... I decided that the rest of the world think we drink a lot of tea, and it's true, a lot of us do like a cuppa. Also though, I think we like our humour, sometimes silly humour and are very good at laughing at ourselves. This is what I liked about the tea cup idea - it played on a commonly held stereotype and was funny too. I envisioned sporting events for the different cups -'It's a Knockout' style, it would have been great! Pity the judging panel didn't think so. They probably drank tall frappucinos and skinny macchiolatos or something.