LG’s “Life’s Good” is a global marketing campaign to promote LG products through good news. The lynchpin of the campaign is “Gil” the fuzzy and happy LG Good News Ambassador currently living on a 47ft tall wrap-around HD billboard in Times Square. Bigshot Toyworks created the character design for Gil in partnership with Young & Rubicam and North Kingdom. The campaign incorporates a mix of good news from RSS feeds and text or tweet messages sent by passersby. Gil’s behavior changes as he responds and reacts to the messages broadcast on the billboard.

Bigshot Toyworks was brought on to develop an emotive character. Despite They were able to deliver the design in just a few short weeks. Much of Bigshot Toyworks’ character designs are small and subtle. They welcomed the opportunity  to create something as enormous as Gil.

See Bigshot Toyworks’ portfolio here.

Client: LG
Character Design: Bigshot Toyworks
3D Design & Technical Development: North Kingdom
Agency: Young & Rubicam New York

Images courtesy of North Kingdom

YAHOO!’s Bus Stop Derby is a two month, city-wide challenge that turns bus stops in San Francisco into social-gaming hubs. Stops in 20 San Francisco neighborhoods are outfitted with 72-inch touch screens that include 4 games that can be played while waiting for the bus. Users are playing for personal glory as well as neighborhood bragging rights in the live head-to-head games. To promote the derby, Yahoo! Client and Goodby, Silverstein & Partners commissioned Rizon Parein to create a 3D art piece.

Rizon created the 3D scene featuring the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges, and buses and people racing towards the derby cup. Bigshot Toyworks was brought in to model and create the characters after the decision was made to work with CGI human characters and not icons.

The YAHOO! Bus Stop Derby ends on January 28^th, 2011. The grand prize is an Ok Go concert in the winning neighborhood. Find out more about the derby here.

Client: YAHOO!
Agency: Goodby, Silverstein & Partners
3D Illustration: Rizon Parein
CGI Characters: Bigshot Toyworks

Bigshot Toyworks helps Sun Bum bring their love-able ape face logo to life with 16″ tall vinyl figures (shown above) and 2.5″ keychain figures. The vinyl toys and keychains are used as promos in-store and as takeaways during tradeshows. Sun Bum is a line of specially formulated sunscreens that protect the skin from UV rays.

Bigshot Toyworks transformed the existing icon without losing the essence of the original image. The translation from 2D image to 3D figure has bode well for Sun Bum, retailers reported quick sales of their display figures as well as immediate reorders for more figures.

The original Sun Bum logo

The digital sculpture by Bigshot Toyworks, to be broken down for production

The final Sun Bum vinyl figure and keychains in production

The 2.5″ keychain versions features a closed finger/thumb sculpt on the hand that allows for a ball-chain to be threaded through. This allows for the sturdy attachment of the keychain while avoiding additional pieces or carved holes that would detract from the integrity of the character.

Sun Bum Retail display

Links:
Sun Bum
Bigshot Toyworks at Bernstein & Andriulli
Bigshot Toyworks on Behance

Ad agency DDB Canada along with production company Sons and Daughters created a TV commercial for Knorr Sidekicks featuring “Salty,” an original Bigshot Toyworks design. Salty is the brainchild of Klim Kozinevich and Scott Wetterschneider of Bigshot Toyworks, a creative studio specializing in the design and production of unique collectible toys and art objects.

Click here to read more about Salty’s adventures in Communication Arts.