Mascot For CGC

I'm interested in having a "mascot" for Christian Geek Central that will add a bit of fun to the site. As many of you know I have no visual artistic skills. The idea I have in mind is some kind of variant of the classic "Christian Fish". Like a fish with glasses and a breast pocket with pens. Or a fish with dragon wings and armed with a sci-fi weapon. Or all of the above.

I'd love any and all submissions for this, and I'm happy to offer a free physical CD(for US residents) or download product(worldwide) of your choice to the person whose work is used on the site.

By way of legal mumbo jumbo, this would be classified as "work for hire", and all rights to use your submitted art will belong exclusively, without limit or expiration, to Spirit Blade Productions LLC. (If you would like something more official written up I'd be happy to do that for you.)

Sorry I can't offer more at this time, but hopefully a huge public Thank You and a freebie will be of interest! You can send submissions to me at paeter(at)spiritblade(dot)net.

Thank you!

Just screwing around here...

I like it!

I could submit myself in a coconut bra if you want. I'd wear glasses.

WhiteBoy wrote:I could submit myself in a coconut bra if you want.  I'd wear glasses.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

Nathan James Norman wrote:Just screwing around here...

Cool!

Don't need the CGC letters involved, though. The idea is strictly a mascot, not an alternative logo. (Though it could evolve into that eventually.)

I'm still hoping for one that visually represents a wider range of the geek spectrum. The wings look awesome, but how about just putting them on top and putting a 50's laser gun underneath (as if he's "holding it" veggie tale style) and then thinning out the lines to make more room for nerd glasses and a pocket with pens?

I know, I know, beggars can't be choosers. But would anyone (Nathan or anybody else) like to take a crack at something like that?

Ok, here is my first take at it.  I guess the term "mascot" made me think it needed to be personified somewhat.....



If anyone likes it I can clean it up a bit!

CreatorsPixels wrote:Ok, here is my first take at it.  I guess the term "mascot" made me think it needed to be personified somewhat.....



If anyone likes it I can clean it up a bit!

Whoah! Crazy unexpected! Almost made me laugh out loud! I like it!

But I was thinking of a more consistently hand-drawn, simplistic look. And I really like the unexpected vertical look, but I'm thinking the traditional horizontal setting will work better on various banners or places we might use him.

Here's a really bad picture I drew that is closer to the concept I'm imagining...



Of course my smile looks menacing when it should just look happy. Those are supposed to be braces on his teeth. And my glasses look a bit like a superhero mask. So obviously I'm not up for drawing this. And the props (wizard's hat, wings, ray gun) could be swapped out with other geeky things. I was just trying to cover both sci-fi and fantasy in the concept, which I think would be good to do. Couldn't think of a horror/monster prop, but maybe if the wings were bat-like instead of feathery that would help imply some darker geek genre's, too.

CreatorsPixels wrote:

That's really cool!


I like the idea of a mascot, but my and Paeter's art styles are very similer, so I wouldn't be much help here.

I'm working on a couple of concepts. Will email them to you from my phone, Paeter. Im at work, so posting them would not be all that easy, plus they are rough and i hate to show my unpolished work, lol. (Lord, help my pride.)

Tim wrote: i hate to show my unpolished work, lol. (Lord, help my pride.)

Ditto! Sending out stuff to Spirit Blade Insiders every month is stretching me a bit sometimes!

Okay, so after a lot of diff quick concept sketches...which look like this



This pic seems to be cut off in my browser so if yours is too, you can see the full image here: https://24.media.tumblr.com/d4aba6b56c921c079c12a8357aaf2906/tumblr_n1os6wnX9D1tterrxo1_1280.jpg

I took a few ideas to a further design stage.

This one is one that Paeter had specifically requested to develop.



Paeter and I were trying to stray away from just the regular Fish with glasses design because a quick picture search from google of "Christian Geek" comes up with either our logo or this design.



We didn't want to get too close to that design and would rather something uniquely ours.

I also had an idea of another design concept that I thought was interesting.



The problem we have now is that all of our concepts seem to be leaning toward the fantasy side and we really want to represent a wider range of geek. So with that we want to put it to the community. What do you think of the direction of the mascot so far? Is there something we can change? Any ideas to make it original, unique or just better in general? I am sure there is a simple design that can represent a broad range of christian geeks without looking like this...

Just wondering if there has been any more movement on this. I like the "fish is a dragon" design.

CreatorsPixels wrote:Ok, here is my first take at it.  I guess the term "mascot" made me think it needed to be personified somewhat.....



If anyone likes it I can clean it up a bit!

Cracked up laughing. Very funny.

DNArington wrote:Just wondering if there has been any more movement on this. I like the "fish is a dragon" design.

Nothing at the moment. We would benefit a lot from some group brainstorming. What are all the elements of our interests that we can mash together to create a clear concise mascot. If we can figure out what those essential elements are, then we can create something instantly identifiable. And if we can create something like that, that can start a Brand, if you will that we can use to really market the CGC and see it grow.

So, does anyone have any ideas of those essential elements?

Sci-fi: Robots, Ray-Guns, Space Ships
Fantasy: Dragons, Wizards, Swords
Christians: Cross, Fish, Bible

I thought about doing a robot in cosplay rolling a D20 but thats not really a mascot, but thats the kind of vibe we are shooting for. Think of Mashups or remixes of your favorite geek stuff.

Maybe we could put some kind of image inside the fish, so on the outside there's nothing, but when you look through the center of the fish there are UFO's in space or something.

Entertainment medium icons might be useful as well, rather than just genre icons. For example, a generic looking video game controller, or a D20. Not sure how to represent movies and comics, though..

Paeter wrote: Not sure how to represent movies and comics, though..

Classic movie reel and a comic book or generic superhero silhouette?

Drew.Rub wrote:

Paeter wrote: Not sure how to represent movies and comics, though..

Classic movie reel and a comic book or generic superhero silhouette?

Oooh! Nice idea!