Plato character expression sheet, showing his range of moods from angry to sleeping

Plato Concept Designs

Client: Friend Studio
Services: Character Design · Illustration

The messy, lovable process behind Plato, Friend Studio's mascot, a wide run of alternative dog designs and structure sheets, plus the client's own notes about wing arms and a chicken tail, before the finished two shape character stuck.

Early Exploration

Sheet of rough dog character sketches labelled 'Random Dogs 2', exploring breed and proportion for Friend Studio's mascot — Working through breed and proportion before settling on a direction.

Sheet of rough dog character sketches labelled 'Dog 3', exploring pose and expression for Friend Studio's mascot — Further pose and expression exploration.

Moody line and wash illustration of a dog character sitting on a stool, captioned 'how many cats can I fit in my mouth' — A moodier, more illustrative pass at the character.

The Brief

Before Plato settled into the finished two shape design (see the character's own project page), Cumi worked through a wide range of directions for Friend Studio's mascot, different builds, proportions and expressions, with “Hey Duggee”'s flat, colour led style as the reference point for how simple the final character would need to be.

Settling the Design

Plato character structure sheet, showing front, side and back views alongside surprised and happy expressions, referencing Hey Duggee's animation style — Structure and expression sheet, working out proportion and range.

Finished Plato character poses in a sweater and tie, playing with a frisbee, the design that carried through to the finished character — The finished design and outfit, the version that carried through to the character as built.

What Cumi Created

We illustrated a large range of character designs for Plato before settling on the final design. I don't think that we've ever created this many different styles before but the client's brief was so specific that we needed to get it right. The final character is one that we are most proud of but here you can see just a few of the ideas that never made it.

Credits

Character Design & Illustration: Cumi
Client: Friend Studio