Poked Studio

Some amazing Japanese inspired work from Jonathan Ball, creating a visual soup from video game cuteness and 3D. The characters are outstanding, hilarious and memorable. A pioneer of modern character design. He has a wonderful selection of desktop wallpapers available here.

Geneviève Gauckler

Thanks to Richard Gotrton-Lee at JWT for introducing me to the work of Geneviève Gauckler, I particularly love her silhouettes. She works in three distinct styles, one is plain silhouette which works really well, in another she blends the silhouettes with photography and in a third she does photomontage.

She also has a blog which is looking a little neglected but still worth checking out.

Red Nose Studio

One of my favourite contemporary illustrators is Chris Sickels, AKA Red Nose Studio. I love everything he does, especially his second book Here Comes The Garbage Barge. His hand-made figures have a special charm, and the world they inhabit has just the right blend of weirdness and beauty.

The wire armatures in the puppets are the reason for the thin bendy limbs on his characters, I love how the process has so directly influenced the design to give the characters a unique appearance. Everything about them is quirky and primitive but yet extremely sophisticated.

The photography also adds a lot to the work. I’m not entirely sure what the process is, but it looks like the puppets are either photographed with a large-format camera, or with a digital camera shooting through a view camera, because the depth-of-field seems to have tilt-shift effects visible. Maybe it’s simply a tilt-shift lens, I’m not sure. There is also some grunge added in post, which gives some grit and texture.

Hiroshi Yoshii

I want this blog to be about all aspects of character design, but with a special look for work that is new and interesting. What better way to start than a real unsung hero: Hiroshi Yoshii.

This man is a giant, since 1999 he has been creating a new character almost every day, and he has now created over 2000 unique characters - what an amazing achievement.

It’s also fascinating to watch his progress, starting with designs made in Painter, then a period working with Zbrush followed by a transition to full 3D for his current work which is done in Modo, which incidentally is also my 3D software of choice. The quality of Hiroshi’s designs have visibly improved over time and when looking at his designs I can’t help but be amazed at the variety and invention he displays.

It’s worth taking the time to go through the archives of Hiroshi’s daily characters, there are so many wonderful creations to find there, you can spend a couple of hours taking it all in.

This man really needs a lot more appreciation on the internet - please shower him with praise and leave comments on his images.

A wall of appreciation for Hiroshi Yoshii at JWT London.