Back in the 90s Tyco Toys called on me to do some conceptual work for their plush line.
The pitch was simple; They're plush animals that are round bouncy balls.
The real task was in making them cute, fun, and marketable, like Beanie Babies (which were HUGE at the time). ..In fact, the price point and consumer niche was geared to compete with the Ty Toys phenomenon.
Really, there was nothing that was not fun about this project. I was given free reign regarding what animals to caricaturize, and no limit in the number generated. It was 'blue-sky' concept work, so I had a good time seeing what I could come up with.
There was some back-and-forth of sketches and ultimately the creatives at Tyco whittled it down to 18 different character balls. Most of them ended up being designs of mine, with about 5 of them being done internally (which they had me redesign for the sake of consistency).
The pitch was simple; They're plush animals that are round bouncy balls.
The real task was in making them cute, fun, and marketable, like Beanie Babies (which were HUGE at the time). ..In fact, the price point and consumer niche was geared to compete with the Ty Toys phenomenon.
Really, there was nothing that was not fun about this project. I was given free reign regarding what animals to caricaturize, and no limit in the number generated. It was 'blue-sky' concept work, so I had a good time seeing what I could come up with.
There was some back-and-forth of sketches and ultimately the creatives at Tyco whittled it down to 18 different character balls. Most of them ended up being designs of mine, with about 5 of them being done internally (which they had me redesign for the sake of consistency).
some orphaned Zooball animals that didn't make the cut;
