Over the course of 2005-2008, I assisted Art Asylum, designing production control art for various projects, most notably their Minimates line. This involved turnaround views for every part of the figure that was to be included in the final product, along with any surface artwork that needed to be applied.
Penguin was a pretty straightforward project, but I’m really happy with the results. He reuses the Kingpin jacket, but it definitely works for the character. Uriel designed the ‘slipper shoes’ which was a stroke of genius. This helped reduce the height of Penguin, an issue that was causing design problems early on. Though I don’t normally associate the ‘white tux’ Penguin look with a hat, we went with that to allow for a possible ‘classic Penguin’ repaint down the road (you can see my concepts for that in the Unproduced section of this portfolio). The umbrella was a quick accessory to mockup. The bulk of my work went into designing the face. It was tricky trying to convey Penguin’s big nose without actually showing a nose, but I’m very happy with the results.
While the photos shown here on the site represent the finished figure, it should be noted that I contributed the control art only. As with all of the Minimate projects, there were many talented people involved: production managers, sculptors, other designers… This figure was very much a team effort, and the finished product reflects the contributions of many individuals.
Released 3/28/2007
