Freddy

Mascot proposal for the AquaShow water park in Quarteira, at the time I was working at Arta Design studio.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

A few days after I posted this illustration at DA, it came to my attention that this mascot is too similar to Guinness's mascot. I checked it out and it's true, they look alike WAY TOO MUCH!

Fortunately this mascot was not approved and a year later, or so, they decided for a complete different approach made by my good friend and former colleague Miguel Pires, wich was indeed a better one (check it out here at their site: [link]). At the time they had, among other exotic species, a real toucan, Freddy, as their mascot and he was the inspiration for this cartoon mascot.
The reason why they are so similar it's because I, as much as John Gilroy (who made the Guiness mascot and is one of the greatest advertising illustrators ever), had choose a similar and classical aproach to it, and of course, the research I made at the the time, although immense, was not enough. Also, I should have not used a Disney-like aproach to it because it’s a very common one, but, at the time, it felt right.

Even so, my apologies.