Similac —Yet Different

This was meant to follow Daryll's series of characters that never made the cut.

Several years ago, a local branding firm asked me to create some character designs for Similac baby formula. Similac had been using a pretty generic teddy bear on their packaging since the 90's. The design team thought it was ripe for a reappraisal. (I agreed that the bear was a bit short on personality and resembled too closely the teddy bear from Snuggle fabric softener.)

I created about 4 or 5 quick color concepts in a matter of days —all pretty different; but in the end, it was decided that there was too much equity in the existing character, and they didn't want to risk a radical change. The design firm knew going in that the chance of a redesign was slim, so they didn't budget much for my art. I met their price, but kept the rights to all the unused work —so if anyone out there knows a company in need of a bear character, let me know!