Hey!
I'm Himani Singh
UX/UI Designer & Illustrator.
Unthinkable Solutions LLP
Jan 2020 - Mar 2020
Character Design of 'Beyond Buddy'
This case study explores the creation of a mascot from defining personality traits to crafting expressive visuals. Each design decision was guided by user insights and brand intent for a character that's both meaningful and memorable.
Beyond is a SaaS platform for which I was responsible for designing the website. The brand initially had a fragmented and inconsistent visual identity, making it crucial to first understand and clarify its brand image before moving forward with the site design.
​
​During this process, we also identified an opportunity to integrate a conversational AI bot on the website. This brought forth the need to build a distinct personality for the bot that would align with the overall brand tone. Instead of following the traditional route of applying a generic mascot across the brand, we carefully explored how character design could reinforce trust, engagement, and brand recognition.
My Role
As the sole Visual Designer on the character design project, I created mascot from the ground. Crafting its personality, expressions, and visual style to reflect the bot’s role and the brand’s evolving identity. While website and marketing guidelines were also developed, this case study focuses specifically on how the character was conceptualized
Understanding Brand
We performed a foundational brand analysis including market research, positioning, segmentation, and targeting closely understanding the primary stakeholders' vision. This groundwork helped in identifying the right brand archetype and core personality traits.
Archetype
Regular guy + The Hero
Supporting it's traits of being simple, personal yet elite and confident.
Regular Guy Traits: Down to earth, supportive, faithful, folksy, person next door, connects with others
The Hero Traits: Courageous, bold, honourable, strong, confident, inspirational
Mood Board
The Color scheme chosen is based on the existing branding of Unthinkable.
​
Monochromatic color scheme – tones and shades
Keywords: Professional, Growth, young, minimal , safety,
freshness, healing, authority , trust finance/profit
Brand Personality Survey
Eg, If our beyond’s personality falls on the number 1 that is purely elite and the celebrity chosen falls on the same number then they are marked a full score ‘1’ but if it falls on a number right beside it which is 2 then the celebrity is scored ‘1/2‘ and if it is farther i.e. 3 or 4 then scored ‘0‘
Building Personality
We conducted a survey to understand how the primary stakeholders perceive the brand as well as the team's perspective on what Beyond is.
Brand Personality survey results
Primary Traits
Elite • Simple • Witty • Timeless • Authoritative • Flexible • Precise
Secondary Traits
Masculine yet Feminine • Confident yet Emotional • Mature yet young • Energetic yet calm • Personal yet professional • Realistic yet Imaginative • Playful yet serious • Curious yet Professional
Human Relevance
Now our product required a human persona to be associated with. Several potential personas of influential personalities were listed down and then scored on the basis of a self created marking system.
Eg, If our beyond’s personality falls on the number 1 that is purely elite and the celebrity chosen falls on the same number then they are marked a full score ‘1’ but if it falls on a number right beside it which is 2 then the celebrity is scored ‘1/2‘ and if it is father i.e. 3 or 4 then scored ‘0‘.
​
In the same way we found where wonder woman was quite close to our character being timeless and confident, she was more of mass appeal than elite. APJ Abdul Kalam turned out to be too poetic was us, Amir khan too feminine and Harsha Bhogle too stubborn even after possessing the right wit. By the end, we were stuck with two personalities which were very close to being the the right persona for beyond ‘Akshay Kumar‘ and ‘Sushmita sen‘.
Akshay Kumar : 13/15
Sushmita Sen : 13.5/15
​​
Clearly we had a winner, Sushmita Sen
​​
​
​
Considered:-
Wonder woman
Akshay Kumar
APJ Abdul Kalam
Amir Khan
Harsha Bhogle
​
​
Sushmita Sen
Sushmita Sen is an Indian Actress known for her wit and knowledge. She is a strong independent woman, who is confident enough to take major decisions of life, and would never choose to rely upon others for the same. She is very energetic sort of person , but still prefer to be calm at certain instances. She has been confident and ambitious for whatever she has done in life and an Influential personality. Sushmita was Miss universe at the young age of 18.
Character Strategy - Mapping Traits
After finalising on the personality traits of the brand, the next step was identifying the needs for a character of the brand which would be the mascot. Important aspect of the study was to understand the need of traits as well as the different emphasis category of each trait in the character development of the mascot.
MoSCoW Map
The Design process of Moscow mapping was done to get a clearer understanding of the need of the traits in the mascot.
​
Design Process: MoSCoW Mapping
(M - Must have, S - Should have, C - Could have, W - Would have)
Segregation and priority chart for the traits of the mascot
The personality traits were further segregated and prioritised on the basis of 4 categories for emphasis:-
• Physical appearance
• Tone of voice
• Outfits/props
• Aura
Mascot Type
Choosing the type of Character to finalise is another important step in the character development. 6 categories were identified namely, Humans, Plants, Animals, Artificial intelligence elements, Cartoons/animated characters, Objects.
​
In another survey done among the design team and the stakeholders all the categories were rated on the basis of the following criteria:-
Relatability
The quality of being easily understood or appreciated.
Reliability
The quality of being trustworthy or of performing consistently well.
Scalability
Acceptable across religions and cultures.
Longevity
Ease with which a product can be maintained in order to: correct defects or their cause, repair or replace. Interlinked with self-sustainance.
Survey Forms with the results
Humanoid
The survey was conducted after briefing the stakeholders about the brand personality and the project. The categories which got rated the most were AI and human with their reasonings.
So we finalised on having a Humanoid a mix of AI and human.
Inspiration
Hritik Roshan as Arjun From Ye Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara has been taken as the inpiration for the mascot of the product. Arjun has possessed all the required appropriate personality traits that we require in our mascot. Throughout the movie he can be seen flexible and yet very focused. He has been a character with charm to captivate the audience’s attention and a workaholic, witty and yet kind human.
Hritik Roshan as Arjun From 'Ye Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara'
Beyond Buddy is a 32 yrs male humanoid who is a workaholic and is very particular about giving best results. He is direct and witty at the same time and can be quite friendly and helpful without making the other person feel intimidated. He looks approachable and still maintains his professional, elite and timeless outlook.
Concept Development
Beyond Buddy is a 32 yrs male humanoid who is of Indian ethnicity of 9 feet height and lean built body.
The character has been worked upon by creating multiple iterations, exploring different gestures and emphasising on the props and their relatability towards the brand’s products.
Basic 9-heads stick figure sketches of the various gestures for the mascot.
Sketches of the the various gestures to suit different roles of the education and the transportation industry.
Morphing of the character from the basic 9-heads stick figure sketches to a more solid form.
Morphing of the character from the body form to a clothed mascot.
Basic 9-heads figure sketches in outfits for different roles in the education and the transportation industry.
Medium fidelity sketches in outfits for different roles in the education and the transportation industry.
Final illlustrations in different roles and various outfits, Color scheme and style of the brand.
Final illustrations in different roles and various gestures. Color scheme and style of the brand.
Facial Expressions
25 Facial expressions for the mascot ‘Beyond Buddy‘.
25 Facial expressions for the mascot ‘Beyond Buddy‘.
Website Illustrations
A faster Development of a mascot was done for the beta version of the product “Beyond“ following the MVP model with the most basic and only the important functionality prospects in the product. The illustration was manipulated according to the existing style and iconography of the company.
100% Control
Broad Visibility
One Click Management
Manipulated existing Illustration