10 Awesome, Contemporary Character Designs

Characters live amongst us — in graffiti, as vinyl dolls, as commercial identity icons and almost everywhere. A character communicates content without actually saying a word. We can see the use of characters in advertising, consumerism and in contemporary art growing more and more important and diverse.

In this post I’m presenting 10 examples of breathtaking contemporary character design with excellent use of colors, visual elements, proportions and texture.

Further Reading on SmashingMag: Link

• Isn’t it sweet? Mascots in Web Design
• 40 Excellent Adobe Illustrator Tutorials
• You, Me And The Emoji: Character Sets, Encoding And Emoji
• Inspiring Illustrator Artworks By Artists Around The World

Go Characters!

• Gaston Caba Gaston Caba is a famous illustrator from Buenos Aires, Argentina. These 2 guys are original mascot designs for the Adidas Original Diesel Denim launch party in Shanghai.
• Eyeport Eyeport is Lee Hasler, an illustrator from Great Britain. Eyeport illustrates uncanny isometric characters with unique style and strong colors.
• The Beast is Back The beast is Christopher Lee from the US. The beast has a super cool method of adding volume to characters thus breathing life into them.
• Christian Montenegro Christian Montenegro is worldwide famous for his breathtaking visual language. He published a stunning book called “The Creation” (a must buy!) and he works with magazines from all over the world.
• Mar Hernández Mar Hernández aka malota is a young artist from Spain. Her works are filled with brilliant characters - don’t miss the Greenville short in her portfolio.
• KHUAN+KTRON KHUAN+KTRON are two super talented designers from Belgium. Their work revolves around drawing up a universal iconographic language system.
• Parquerama Matias Vigliano is a part of Doma collective. He designs plush and vinyl dolls, limited edition posters, books and more…
• Eugene and Louise bakery Eugene and Louise bakery is dreams come true, a bakery filled with characters made from chocolate, marzipan, cupcakes and milk.
• Meomi MEOMI is Vicki Wong (Vancouver) and Michael Murphy (LA). Meomy are the authors and illustrators of the Octonauts children’s books series and the mascots for the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games.
• Colorblok Colorblok is a company directed by Juliana Pedemonte. Colorblock are into character and motion graphic design for various clients such as MTV, VH1 and Nickelodeon.