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.
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!
Oliver
January 15th, 2008 6:56 amCute collection. Thank you!
Bughy
January 15th, 2008 7:03 amThat’s so cool, it’s like hi-tech 60′ :))
Naomi Niles
January 15th, 2008 7:14 amMascots and characters can work really well for branding if done properly and tastefully.
Jean-Philippe Encausse
January 15th, 2008 7:14 amThanks !
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 ?
Caesar Tjalbo
January 15th, 2008 7:23 amIt 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!).
reezluv
January 15th, 2008 7:39 ammaybe there a squirrel or maybe a chipmunks mascot holding magazines?:)
Pasquale
January 15th, 2008 7:52 amCheers for the feature guys!
fabien
January 15th, 2008 8:11 amHi great selection, i’m looking for my own mascott actuelly (actuelly i’m my own mascott ;-) ), this can inspire me, thanks a lot
Brad K
January 15th, 2008 8:13 amWhat are the common tools used to create and/or animate cartoon-like mascots?
Wayne Thume
January 15th, 2008 8:27 amYes 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
daustralala
January 15th, 2008 8:31 amwhat about veerle?
Yaili
January 15th, 2008 8:42 amSome of these mascots can be bought from iStockPhoto.com, like the ones from FreelanceSwitch, Kent Pribbernow and Stoodeo.
Luc
January 15th, 2008 9:08 amWoah! That’s me! I’m soo delighted to be featured! Thanks! ^_^
JamieO
January 15th, 2008 9:48 amI 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.
Gabe
January 15th, 2008 9:53 amI 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”!
Brad
January 15th, 2008 10:29 amAGREE! Large Mallet, lots of cuteness.
Paolo
January 15th, 2008 10:47 amGreat post, as usual!
And yes, you shoul have a mascot too, they are really cool.
PixlNinja
January 15th, 2008 11:33 amVector arts dominates !!
Ty
January 15th, 2008 11:49 amI 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!
Shane
January 15th, 2008 12:02 pmA 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.
Marty
January 15th, 2008 1:23 pmWhat, am I six years old?
Leave Tony the Tiger on the cereal box.
Jonathan
January 15th, 2008 1:55 pmI 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.
Samuel
January 15th, 2008 3:23 pmCan inanimate objects be considered mascots? Or must a mascot be in the animal family?
decybel
January 15th, 2008 4:24 pmamazing stuff out there ! and please we’re used to SM surprises, so hit us ^^
cindy*staged4more
January 15th, 2008 5:19 pmWhat a fun post! I have to say though, several of them look like brothers and sisters ;)
Cheers,
Cindy
Kim
January 15th, 2008 5:31 pmI 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!)
Carlos Andres
January 15th, 2008 8:18 pmIs just me or I smell a Mascot Contest in the future?!
haungo
January 15th, 2008 10:59 pmPlease NO Mascot for Smashing Mag!
fedmich
January 15th, 2008 11:49 pmCute collections :)
I like justin bird the most :)
and I think smashing doesn’t need mascots i like it just the way it is now, :)
Brian
January 16th, 2008 1:01 amI’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!
Andreas
January 16th, 2008 1:15 am… for sure a mascot would be good, but nothing cute – simply clear
Eric
January 16th, 2008 3:19 amPlease please please please no logo for Smashing!
Koldo Barroso
January 16th, 2008 4:19 amThis 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!
Chris
January 16th, 2008 6:15 amI 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.
BlueTurtle
January 16th, 2008 6:33 amyes!!! It is cool
therapix
January 16th, 2008 6:36 amLove the whale.
gr8pixel
January 16th, 2008 6:37 amhehe.. that’s a good one! :)
Ulli
January 16th, 2008 8:00 amDoes anyone rember “Clarus the Dogcow”?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogcow
Aaron
January 16th, 2008 8:14 amYou’re mascot shout be a rhino because Smashing Magazine smashes you with force…like a rhino!
David Bailey
January 16th, 2008 8:36 amLooks like all these people have too many credits to spend on istockphoto
Gene
January 16th, 2008 2:15 pmPlease 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..?
James
January 16th, 2008 4:18 pmI 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…
gene
January 16th, 2008 6:25 pmi 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…
Darren
January 16th, 2008 8:54 pmGreat blog! :) I have a mascot, which gets mentioned alot.
I don’t think a mascot would suit this type of blog though.
tripdragon
January 17th, 2008 7:33 amNot 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
bgolat
January 17th, 2008 6:45 pmthere are some cool mascots on there, I don’t really think the stock vector mascots should be included though…
wez
January 21st, 2008 2:01 amwhy do people that criticize never have a web page link on their name. Great resource.
The Mascot
January 24th, 2008 6:56 pmWell, 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.
james
January 27th, 2008 2:19 amStop spamming your sites guys. Most of them suck anyway. The guys on here deserve it because they are actually good.
Natrium
January 28th, 2008 3:06 amlooks like a majority wants a mascot for SmashingMagazine
JasonR
January 29th, 2008 5:09 pmYour mascot should be a little fellow who looks kind of crazy with a big hammer.
Kevin
February 6th, 2008 1:38 pmWhere 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.
cssbit
February 10th, 2008 8:56 amoui je suis d’accord .. je veux tellement une photo pour mon profile :)
tuor
March 5th, 2008 3:18 amMade 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?
Nancy
July 29th, 2008 12:01 amHello!!
Ya this mascot and cartoon poster look like really funky style.
Megastar Media
September 17th, 2008 6:46 pmi love individuality…if ur gonna use a mascot, for the love of *&*&! make sure it is something original!
;)
sandy
megastar media
ali
October 26th, 2008 3:57 amvery nice!
Arlyn Tan
February 5th, 2009 3:23 pmthis is a great collection !
Flu-Bird
April 29th, 2009 8:21 pmJustin Bird looks like a BLUEBIRD
Mor
June 7th, 2009 5:03 pmWhere can i get the freelancer for mascot and logo ?
Flu-Bird
November 10th, 2009 10:00 pmJustin Bird looks cute dont he
sam
August 15th, 2010 4:32 amcool post..
can u please include a tutorial on mascot creation..
antyramy
May 19th, 2011 5:58 amI will immediately grab your rss as I can not find your e-mail subscription link or newsletter service. Do you have any? Please let me know so that I could subscribe. Thanks.