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Isn’t it sweet? Mascots in Modern Web Design
The more emotional a site design is, the more likely it is to evoke positive feelings within its visitors. To achieve a lasting impression, designers tend to use visual cues and offer some eye candy for hurried and hectic users. E.g. vibrant color schemes, photos and illustrations can be used to draw user’s attention to some specific site section.
But are there any further options? Yes, there are. Actually, mascots are traditional for sports competitions such as Football World Championship or Olympic Games. Mascot is a more or less nicely designed creature which is symbolic for something and is supposed to evoke sympathy and strengthen the sense of belonging to one single team.
Heckert, a handsome wildebeest with typical beard and smart-looking curled horns, is the GNU’s mascot.
Today mascots are used almost everywhere — e.g. by a number of software applications, groups and communties. It can also support the corporate identity for companies and services. Consequently, they are also becoming more and more popular in web designs.
[By the way, did you know there is a brand new Smashing Wordpress Book? Push WordPress past its limits!]
What Do Mascots Look Like?
Animals and human-like creatures are used more frequently than some abstract creatures. The reason is quite trivial: users are more likely to associate their emotions with something they can easily recognize and find emotional binding to. Abstract creatures need to be studied and understood first. Most users don’t have the time and patience to do that. And that’s definitely not sometihng they are looking for in the first place. Still, abstract creatures are also possible.
As the carrier of positive feelings, mascots usually laugh and transport the feeling of joy, contentment and happiness. To leave a lasting impression, mascots have to look as cute, as sweet, as adorable, as pity and sometimes even as silly as possible. Unfortunately, most mascots have no names; however, having a name is rather usual for large communities as it can be easier referred to.
Classic: Livejournal still has its famout mascot, Frank the Goat. Frank usually says “Baaaa” and likes to eat pants.
Some mascots are just hand-drawn illustrations, others are combined with a logo. They appear throughout the site and motivate users to some actions — e.g. to visit some site section or fill in the sign-up form.
Yigg.de uses a hamster as a mascot. The mascot appears everywhere throughout the site.
Illustrations ≠ Mascots
Please notice that an illustration and a mascot aren’t the same thing. Joyent and HappyWebbies use creatures in the comic-style; they’re not mascots, as different creatures are displayed on different pages. Ellislabs also uses illustratoins, not mascots.
Joyent
HappyWebbies
Mascots in Modern Web Design
A mascot can provide a site design with a fine and nice detail which the site would miss otherwise. This detail is used on private pages as often as in an online-shop or by a web-service. It’s important that the final mascot design is clean and fits to the overall site design. For instance, a laughing beaver doesn’t really help a site which tries to sell some underwater accessories.
We have collected a number of cute, well-designed and visually appealing mascots. The images are linked and lead to the pages from which they’ve been taken.
Justin Bird — animated. Don’t forget to hover your mouse over the bird.
Potato Parade — Flash. This is an McCain’s advertisement.
Goanna Webdesign (Flash)
Crayons — animated.
Datejs: Ninjas at work.
Mooourl — the mascot supports the logo.
Vic is a hand-drawn mascot of a Medical Rehabilitation Network.
Classics
Ask.com used to have Mr. Jeeves answering users’ questions. The results weren’t always perfect, but Mr. Jeeves always stayed calm and polite.
Ask Dr. Z: in 2006 Chrysler unveiled its “Ask Dr. Z” national ad campaign that features the company’s Chairman, Dieter Zetsche, as the spokesperson and mascot.
Should Smashing Magazine have a mascot?
We’d like to know your opinion. If yes, how should it look like? Please let us know in the comments!
The Co-Founder of Smashing Magazine. Former writer, web designer, freelancer and webworker. Author of several books. Runs the business.
(No votes yet)
Loading ...- 61 Comments
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January 15th, 2008 7:03 amThat’s so cool, it’s like hi-tech 60′ :))
- 3January 15th, 2008 7:14 am
Mascots and characters can work really well for branding if done properly and tastefully.
- 4January 15th, 2008 7:14 am
Thanks !
This post is exactly what I was looking for :-)Does anybody know where to find a repository, database, … of modern mascots available for personal websites ?
- 5January 15th, 2008 7:23 am
It sometimes seems as every FOSS project has its own mascot, from penquins to dragons and devils.
I got a bit of a shock when seeing the mascot of Crayons, it reminded me of Clippy (the horror!). - 6January 15th, 2008 7:39 am
maybe there a squirrel or maybe a chipmunks mascot holding magazines?:)
- 7January 15th, 2008 7:52 am
Cheers for the feature guys!
- 8January 15th, 2008 8:11 am
Hi great selection, i’m looking for my own mascott actuelly (actuelly i’m my own mascott ;-) ), this can inspire me, thanks a lot
- 9January 15th, 2008 8:13 am
What are the common tools used to create and/or animate cartoon-like mascots?
- 10January 15th, 2008 8:27 am
Yes a mascot would be cute and obviously he should have a large mallet in his hands that is “Smashing” the ground as the the mascot hovers in the air, triumphant from the force of the impact
- 11January 15th, 2008 8:31 am
what about veerle?
- 12January 15th, 2008 8:42 am
Some of these mascots can be bought from iStockPhoto.com, like the ones from FreelanceSwitch, Kent Pribbernow and Stoodeo.
- 13January 15th, 2008 9:08 am
Woah! That’s me! I’m soo delighted to be featured! Thanks! ^_^
- 14January 15th, 2008 9:48 am
I love my little alien mascot. In fact, the currently unnamed species of alien is part of a re-branding contest I currently have running to help generate name for my freelance design company to be.
I might be toeing the line on the ‘do not advertise’ aspect, but I hope that giving Smashing Magazine readers the chance to win prizes would be warmly received instead of frowned upon.
- 15January 15th, 2008 9:53 am
I think a mallet/hammer or an anvil would be a good mascot. I’m not much of an illustrator, so I don’t have an image of one, but either of those would be “smashing”!
- 16January 15th, 2008 10:29 am
AGREE! Large Mallet, lots of cuteness.
- 17January 15th, 2008 10:47 am
Great post, as usual!
And yes, you shoul have a mascot too, they are really cool. - 18January 15th, 2008 11:33 am
Vector arts dominates !!
- 19January 15th, 2008 11:49 am
I hadn’t seen many of these, it’s amazing what quests you people can come up with.
http://www.justinbird.com/ stood out to me as the best of the lot.
Check out his portfolio, he mixes flash and html elements fairly well, not quite validating, but…
Vector Kung Fu specialists rock! - 20January 15th, 2008 12:02 pm
A lot of those are of a very similar style (Wishlistr, Brent Ayers, Netmaths, Cork’d, Freelanceswitch for example), and whilst that’s no bad thing, it seems like quite a few sites now have them.
The reason I come back to smashingmagazine.com is the content, and I don’t feel a mascot, however cute or appropriate will make much difference to me.
- 21January 15th, 2008 1:23 pm
What, am I six years old?
Leave Tony the Tiger on the cereal box.
- 22January 15th, 2008 1:55 pm
I think mascots do work for certain sites. Especially if you want to evoke that “awww” feeling.
I think Smashing Magazine works well just the way it is. I don’t think it needs a mascot.
- 23January 15th, 2008 3:23 pm
Can inanimate objects be considered mascots? Or must a mascot be in the animal family?
- 24January 15th, 2008 4:24 pm
amazing stuff out there ! and please we’re used to SM surprises, so hit us ^^
- 25January 15th, 2008 5:19 pm
What a fun post! I have to say though, several of them look like brothers and sisters ;)
Cheers,
Cindy - 26January 15th, 2008 5:31 pm
I hope you consider a squirrel if you decide to go the mascot route – they just are not enough of them online. They’re pretty much ignored and nobody takes them seriously. But they’re fierce creatures who crack nuts! Your squirrel should definitely crack nuts (a simile for uncovering and exposing great information!)
- 27January 15th, 2008 8:18 pm
Is just me or I smell a Mascot Contest in the future?!
- 28January 15th, 2008 10:59 pm
Please NO Mascot for Smashing Mag!
- 29January 15th, 2008 11:49 pm
Cute collections :)
I like justin bird the most :)and I think smashing doesn’t need mascots i like it just the way it is now, :)
- 30January 16th, 2008 1:01 am
I’m with Kim (above).. go with a squirrel. Name him (or her) Smashy the Squirrel. I can see a whole line of Smashy the Squirrel merchandise!
- 31January 16th, 2008 1:15 am
… for sure a mascot would be good, but nothing cute – simply clear
- 32January 16th, 2008 3:19 am
Please please please please no logo for Smashing!
- 33January 16th, 2008 4:19 am
This a very interesting subject! Lovely to see all these charactes together. In our business we constantly promote the use of characters to build up the image od a web site, and we have also created a few ones. And of course, we had our Chef mascot for one year and it helped us a lot to get better recognigsed in the Internet. Sometimes the get better than logos!
- 34January 16th, 2008 6:15 am
I see mascots simply as a means to sell kids something shitty.
Its not long before a mascot loses its novelty factor – then its endearing qualities are replaced by irritating ones – remember this if you want to use ‘cute’ to attract people to your site.
p.s death to Tony the Tiger, The Tetley Teafolk and that fucking monkey who turns your milk chocolately.
- 35January 16th, 2008 6:33 am
yes!!! It is cool
- 36January 16th, 2008 6:36 am
Love the whale.
- 37January 16th, 2008 6:37 am
hehe.. that’s a good one! :)
- 38January 16th, 2008 8:00 am
Does anyone rember “Clarus the Dogcow”?
- 39January 16th, 2008 8:14 am
You’re mascot shout be a rhino because Smashing Magazine smashes you with force…like a rhino!
- 40January 16th, 2008 8:36 am
Looks like all these people have too many credits to spend on istockphoto
- 41January 16th, 2008 2:15 pm
Please stick to something simple and something that doesnt look like it was pulled out from Veerle’s library. Perhaps something along the lines of Kid Robot-ish..?
- 42January 16th, 2008 4:18 pm
I don’t know about you guys getting one, mascots on websites seem to be there to make the site more ‘human’ to technophobic users. And I don’t think your readership falls into that category, it just feels like dumbing it down… Just my 2 cents…
- 43January 16th, 2008 6:25 pm
i actually agree with james (#63). Smashing Magazine already has a logo… the S in a box, why add more to it? Sure Smashing talks about trends in the industry, but why follow em if they are only just trends? Trends eventually die out…
- 44January 16th, 2008 8:54 pm
Great blog! :) I have a mascot, which gets mentioned alot.
I don’t think a mascot would suit this type of blog though.
- 45January 17th, 2008 7:33 am
Not a fan. Especially of this Illustrator gradient look for the models. They reek of , meh… In most cases. I dont know , just not a fan I guess
- 46January 17th, 2008 6:45 pm
there are some cool mascots on there, I don’t really think the stock vector mascots should be included though…
- 47January 21st, 2008 2:01 am
why do people that criticize never have a web page link on their name. Great resource.
- 48January 24th, 2008 6:56 pm
Well, it looks like a bunch of people are commenting for free links to their websites, so I’ll do the same. Granted, their “mascots” are completely inadequate (I am THE Mascot, after all). But in general the idea’s a good one, even though those other mascots aren’t as good-looking as me.
Smashing won’t be able to come up with something as special as me, so they should just stick with the logo.
- 49January 27th, 2008 2:19 am
Stop spamming your sites guys. Most of them suck anyway. The guys on here deserve it because they are actually good.
- 50January 28th, 2008 3:06 am
looks like a majority wants a mascot for SmashingMagazine
- 51January 29th, 2008 5:09 pm
Your mascot should be a little fellow who looks kind of crazy with a big hammer.
- 52February 6th, 2008 1:38 pm
Where can I buy these mascot? Also where could I find the tutorial to create mascots like the one that have been listed?
I think smashing magazine should have a mascot it would be sweet.
- 53February 10th, 2008 8:56 am
oui je suis d’accord .. je veux tellement une photo pour mon profile :)
- 54March 5th, 2008 3:18 am
Made a mascot for an online shop to guide through the steps of selecting and purchasing products. I think its a great addition to any site that requires a user to do things in sequential order.
Microsoft Bob anyone?
- 55July 29th, 2008 12:01 am
Hello!!
Ya this mascot and cartoon poster look like really funky style. - 56September 17th, 2008 6:46 pm
i love individuality…if ur gonna use a mascot, for the love of *&*&! make sure it is something original!
;)
sandy
megastar media - 57October 26th, 2008 3:57 am
very nice!
- 58February 5th, 2009 3:23 pm
this is a great collection !
- 59April 29th, 2009 8:21 pm
Justin Bird looks like a BLUEBIRD
- 60June 7th, 2009 5:03 pm
Where can i get the freelancer for mascot and logo ?
- 61November 10th, 2009 10:00 pm
Justin Bird looks cute dont he
- 00
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Cute collection. Thank you!