Note 0093D Printing1 min read
Brand mascots, 3D printed and painted by hand
How a mascot goes from a sketch or a character file to a printed, hand-painted figure that can stand in a lobby or travel to events.
A mascot on a screen is a drawing. A mascot standing in your lobby, on a stand at an exhibition or on a shelf in a customer's office is something people photograph, touch and remember. 3D printing is how a character goes from one to the other without a mould or a factory run.
Starting from what you have
Some companies have their mascot as a 3D file already. Most have it as artwork: a front view, a few poses, the brand colours. Either is enough to start. From artwork, the character is modelled in 3D first, and we agree on the model, the pose, the proportions and the expression, before anything is printed.
Size decides the method
A desk-sized figure can often be printed in one piece. A mascot that stands on the floor is printed in sections that are joined, filled and sanded so the seams vanish. Our note on large-format printing goes through how that works.
The finish is the character
What makes a mascot read as your mascot is the finish: the exact brand colours, the eyes, the small details. Each piece is primed and painted by hand in our finishing hall, the room pictured at the top of this note: in flat colour, in a metallic, or in full colour.
One, or a few
Because there is no mould, a single mascot is practical, and a small run of smaller figures, for the team, for partners or as gifts, is made from the same model. See also corporate gifts and awards.
Made to be moved
If the mascot will travel to events, say so at the start. Where it stands, how it is carried and whether it goes outdoors decide its material, how it is built inside, and how it is fixed to its base.
Follow the studio
The work in these notes, as it is made: pieces off the printers, systems going live.
