Any product designer will tell you, the joy and reward of our job is seeing the finished product out there in the market place. Ironically for me, this is quite rare. The promotional merchandise I design at present is sent all over the world, so to see it ‘out there’ isn't that regular an occurrence.
I did have some joy earlier in the year with the Cravendale Kermit Backpack promotion. This was a massive UK promotion and involved a large scale marketing campaign including a TV and cinema advert. It was great to say “I did that!” and ever greater kudos witnessing Kermit the Frog holding my product in the promo ad! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggGvYd9-OCU
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| Kicking back with Kermit (the backpack) |
But saying that, you do occasionally get ‘fan mail’, which can be a lot of fun to read and a great talking point in the office. We recently received an email from a lovely Canadian gentleman and super fan. Jonathan, a 45 year old ‘big kid’ with a background in classical animation, collects toys and merchandise to “pass on to his son as he gets older”. At the time of writing his email, Jonathan’s son was yet to be born (although all being well, he’s now a proud daddy!). Super fan Jonathan then went on to praise all the great merchandise we have created in the past and list some of his favourites. It would seem he’s probably got a better historical collection in his basement than we do at work! The crux of the email was that he’d seen our ‘The Pirates, Band of Misfits’ money tin and hoped he could get permission to purchase one from us (for his son). We, of course, sent him one for free for writing such a nice letter and sending us a great photo.
And for everyone’s amusement, here he is!:
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| Johnny the Pirate 'Super Fan' |
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| The range of promotional merchandise I did for 'The Pirates, Band of Misfits' |
Rik x
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