Shawn and I got the assignment which concept themes for 4 carnivals that Target sponsors at their Target House at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Elements for the events included these posters, t-shirts and signage at the events.
We knew right away that we wanted Jesse LeDoux to work on it...but the problem was we were asked to use a licensed property that Target was working with. Just before the 11th hour we realized that we weren't going to get the assets we needed from that property...so we pitched our original ideas with Jesse as our illustrator.
The ideas were sold in easily but we ran into problem number 2...Jesse was busy and in Japan.
But we knew his weakness...he always wanted to design an amusement park which is why our first illustration is a water ride.
Once that first carnival was in the bag we started on the other. We had phone calls at weird times because of the time difference. Heard great stories of Jesse's new finds in Japanese vending machines and saw a picture of him holding a bottle of vodka with a cobra in it.
We also had awesome brainstorms, the kind that you never forget and come out with too many good ideas. Even though we were across a ton of land and water they were really colloborative with Jesse, Shawn and me all throwing out the weirdest things we could think to add to the posters to make them fun.
That's why you'll see a fish fishing, a pig in a blanket sleeping under a bed, a bouncer with a paddle ball, and an elephant dressed as himself for a Halloween party.
Truly a great project to work on and we couldn't have pulled it off with any other illustrator. Check out Jesse's site here. If you need and illustrator for an upcoming project I highly recommend him.
my involvement: creative direction, concept and art direction
the team: Writer – Shawn Boyd, Illustrator – Jesse LeDoux
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