Featured Design Contest: Character Creation for Shankapotumus – Bedding Company Mascot

In the world of graphic design and branding, creatives face a special kind of challenge when it comes to bringing characters and mascots to life. While logos and letterheads can be relatively simple, characters have to be drawn from scratch, as well as showcase a brand or product. Today’s featured design contest was done for Hatchwise client Dishman, who needed a character designed for their warm and fuzzy bedding brand, called Shankapotomus.

The prize awarded for this contest was $250, and the client received 116 entries.

What the Client Asked For

A shankapotumus is, according to the client, a cross between the abominable snowman and a hippo. As Dishman said, he is “just a crazy, funny, furry-looking creature that loves to be warm. He loves being warm so much that he steals the warm blankets and comforters from unsuspecting victims. And this is what the brand will represent.”

It’s a tall order, but our designers came through with some great unique designs. Let’s take a look at just a few of the 100+ concepts that Dishman received.  

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A 3D abominable snowman is ready for bed in this image. He’s happy and overall just a cool-looking dude. The design is more like a logo than a pure character, but it does show how he can be incorporated into a design. 

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This crazy little furry guy is bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, but ready for bed nonetheless. He looks playful and mischievous, and I wouldn’t put it past him to have stolen that blanket from somebody. 

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Arms and legs give this little monster a unique look. Not a snowman or a hippo, but some sort of furry little gremlin stole that blanket. There is so much furriness and texture in the design, while the gradient shading gives it a 3D effect.

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Beekitty7 offers a few different variations of this ape/monster/snow guy. Clearly, he loves his blankie, but we may prefer to see it on him or in his hand. There is a difference too, whether he has his mouth open or closed. 

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A large green fuzzy critter lounges rather sheepishly in a huge pile of fuzzy bedding. The brand name is emblazoned right across the footboard, making it a part of the whole image. The critter has a single horn on his head. The whole thing leaves no question that he represents comfort and quality bedding.

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The 2D thick lines of this style are reminiscent of a sports mascot, especially since this guy looks like he’s on the move. The blanket in his hand and the giant goofy grin on his face make us wonder if he just stole the bedding from unsuspecting victims.

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Geometric, thick lines give this character an old-fashioned woodcut look. The straight line created by his legs makes a perfect place to write his name, which appears in a blocky, chainsaw carving-type font. It’s a playful picture for sure, and isn’t it sweet how much he loves that blanket?

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Again, the artist gave us a few variations here to see the range of this character. He has a cute, cartoonish look, with a bit of fierceness to boot. 

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Once again, our character is on the run with a blanket, but this time it seems to be making an S shape (for Shankapotomus, of course). The creature himself appears to be part abominable snowman, part Chinese dragon with his serpentine shape.

And the winner is…

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Aww, isn’t he cute? Just don’t try to take his blankie, or he’ll be mad! It’s interesting when we get a winning design that doesn’t really match what the client asked for. He’s not a snowman, not a hippo…but somehow he is exactly what Dishman needed to represent the brand. When designers are able to branch out and present all different concepts to the client, it often helps them get a better vision of what they can do, and which direction to go with the brand.

Dishman awarded ulasalus $250 for this design, and received a total of 116 concepts over the duration of the contest. 

Check out other Mascot Design contests:

TrashCots Proof Of Concept – We are a new start NFT company looking to find a good designer to work with us on a large project. We are testing the waters with Hatchwise to find a quality designer that can help us with the remainder of the project by starting a sampling of our desired end goal.

Eposly – They already had a “logo” but they wanted to have a “brand character”. They work in the Salesforce ecosystem and Salesforce has pioneered the use of brand characters. Such as, “Astro”, “Codey”, “Appy”, and “Einstein”. They wanted a “friendly” brand character that fits with their mission and logo colors.

Tiger The Cat (Children’s Book Character) – A children’s book author looking to pay the winning designer good money to produce a series of children’s books starring the character Tiger the Cat.

Jerky Ben – He makes a beef jerky product. Right now he plans on selling from his house but he may decide to sell in local stores and online. His jerky is high-quality jerky and comes in a variety of flavors. The brand element for the product is him, Ben. He lives in a tight knight community and is well known. he does a lot of community work and is involved in a lot of community projects. He is known to be funny, outgoing, loves life, loves people kind of guy. That is why the name “Jerky Ben” is a funny name.

Pretzel Cafe – A snack company with currently 3 locations located in large-scale indoor shopping malls. They make Pretzels! Big, fresh, hand-rolled pretzels!