Mascot design for a brand. The client rejected the work but this was my reaction.

Design is not necessarily how it sounds where someone will perceive it as just the creation of attractive pieces but design in other words is more than that. In, design, no work like labels, flyers, brand identity designs, food or product packages among others are made for attractiveness only but rather every work that is produced has a particular target to achieve. The goal of any work in design is to solve a problem whether it is attractive or not but the attractiveness is also a part of the design working process.

Mascot Design Overview

A mascot is usually a figure, person, abstract figures or creatures which are created with design tools to identify a group or organization and it is believed to bring good fortune. Before deciding on  a type of mascot design, a series of pre-actions are taken as this also is a form of a logo where it identifies a particular brand of goods or products, organizations.

Why use mascot for brand identity?

The answer is that there are a lot of products or services and of which some products or services have related qualities but there is a way for an industry to stay unique and distinct from other competitors in related fields. All these industries or companies are trying their maximum best to use design tools like logo, branding and other useful means to make their products and services known to the general public. Like a logo which has to undergo many stages before adoption as a company's own, mascot design too has to be made after thorough and careful considerations of a company's goals to deduce how a mascot design can impact the achievement of the goals.

The above mascot was designed according to a particular client's specifications. He said he wanted a mascot designed with human head, having helmet, mouth blower, goggle and the client also gave specifications about the type of colors he wanted and well defined color codes as well. 

This was the rejected mascot.

Now, the reason why this is made known to you is for you as a designer or a client to know that designing a mascot has so many things to consider to achieve the required results because this is the essence of adopting such as a companies logo or identification.

These factors can be considered when designing a mascot:

• Results to be achieved in a business.
• Taste of customers or what moves them to take action.
• Uniqueness factor.
• Simplicity and attractiveness of the design.
• What can register a print in a customer's mind to keep remembering a brand.

Choosing a type of mascot design

A mascot can be made from animals, human figures, abstract creations and so many other ideas.

For example, I know of a medicine where on the label is the head of a lion. A lion portrays strength and power which is a signifier that the signified which is the medicine has a strong potential to heal the sicknesses it is described to heal or cure. This medicine I am describing too works well so some people do not even remember the name of the medicine but by just describing it as the one having the head of a lion, the medicine is easily recognized. Choosing a mascot for brands or individual establishments should only be done with thorough considerations of many factors because it will stand to represent the brand for a long time and must  continue to represent the brand well so far as the brand is still present.

Advantages of mascot design

• It is a means that increases customer acquisition.
• Such a means of highly publicizing a business organization.
• It helps to keep a business organization remembered. 

To design a mascot, some Graphic Design software are required and some include Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator and many others.

How my mascot was rejected and my reaction

It was an online platforms with many freelance designers in operation and over there are design competitions to compete in designing. This is how it works, a client posts a design work and allows many designers to bring in their submissions of designs after which the winner will be selected and payment delivered to him. My experience was a posted work on mascot design with vivid design brief of which I paid keen attention to details and made two different works and did the submission. All along, I was hoping for the best but to my surprise, it turned the other way round when I received an email notification informing me about the rejection of my work which has even been taken out of the contest.

WHAT WAS THE REASON?

"Your design did not meet my taste." It was a difficult thing to handle but as a Graphic Designer and a professional one of course, it is very expedient to be steadfast and never lose hope no matter what happens but keep on doing what I do best and improve everyday. Just because the design was rejected was not a precise indication of incapability but it was just a matter of taste and what the client wanted. In Graphic Design, the top most priority of the designer is purposeful communication and this is what confines a designer to the use of only certain elements in a particular work. In some cases where a work might be criticized as not good, the designer must be ready to talk and convince the client because he or she does not know it all. Professionalism with humility and eloquent articulation of oneself truly portray a designer as truly professional and competent.

DESIGN BRIEF

A design brief is a detailed description of a project that clearly states what a project has to accomplish to be referred to as being successful. A design brief is given by a client to a designer because it serves as a guide and a reference material which keeps the designer on course so that he delivers a product of value in equivalence to what a client my pay in recompense. Some elements in a design brief include: color specifications, audience brief, aesthetics, etc.