Staplegator Design Process
Added 2024-02-03 18:13:38 +0000 UTCStaple is an Austin... well... staple! It's a small, but famous local con that's started back in 2005. It was the first comic con I ever went to after moving to America in 2010, so it holds a special place in my heart. Imagine my surprise then, when I was asked to design the official Staplegator mascot this year!
I looked at past Staplegators to see what had and hadn't been done before. The last 2 years had a parent/child theme, so there was my obvious direction out the window! I got to sketching and came up with these 3 ideas:
1) Regular gator with tablet pen (I was surprised to realize a regular gator hadn't been done!)
2) Comic creator gator
3) Superhero gator fighting staple remover snapping turtle baddie
I was most excited by #3 (I was very proud of the staple remover idea) but when I showed the sketches to Uncle Staple (the chap who runs the con) he picked #2. I was a little disappointed, because I was excited to pursue the superhero one, but #2 was definitely more on brand for me.
I started refining #2 and realized I could have my cake and eat it too! I needed artwork for his table and #3 was perfect!! All I had to do was make 1 variation of the hero and baddie and then I had enough art for him to sell! :)
EDIT: Oh I almost forgot! I'll be a guest at Staple in Austin TX from Apr 13th - 14th! I'm going to do a panel on webcomics too! It will be my 1st ever panel, but there'll be a couple of other artists there, so hopefully it won't be too terrifying! Here's the FB event https://fb.me/e/3vZZJ9r4C
