01 Overview
Beasts Of The Boardroom
Beasts of the Boardroom is an illustrated book created for the Starshot team. Starshot is a marketing agency for technology driven businesses. I was brought in as the illustrator/ designer and I really enjoyed the freedom I was given over all the visual aspects of this project, from the book, to the packaging, to typography etc.
I had a chance to develop an illustration style just for this book, to make it an unique piece even in my own collection. The book was designed around 5 characters: The Bull Dozer, Devil’s Advocate, The Idea Parrot, The Ghost Of Meetings Past, and The Over Talker.
Illlustration | Editorial Design | Packaging | Print Production | Character Design | Art Direction
02 Presentation
Packaging & Puppets
02-A The Box
The book came in a large box that was designed and illustrated in the same style. The box was also branded with the Starshot logo and colors to provide a sense of cohesion. The reason why the box was significantly larger than the book was because there were finger puppets that were presented inside, along with the book. (My visual range does not extend to sewing so the puppets were created by a puppet specialist).
02-B
The Details
There were a total of 5 finger puppets created after the 5 characters of this book. Inserts were placed inside the box so that the puppets can be presented upright. 3 of the 5 characters were designed with a chair that suits them (i.e. the “Bull dozer” is a bull and his chair is made out grass), the Idea Parrot was designed with a beam, and ghost’s personality was that it was always late, therefore it didn’t require a chair.
The bottom of the inside of the box was illustrated with a conference table, where the book was placed, and 3 inserts were attached to the 3 chairs around the table so that the puppets can be “sitting” on their respective chairs. And the other two inserts were on the opposing corners, one where a beam is illustrated for the parrot, and another was placed by the drawing of a marketing board, for the ghost. The example below shows a visual of this arrangement.
03 Illustration
The Book
The book was meant to be a playful gift and a learning experience for their employers, so in order to keep things light the illustrations were modeled in a children’s book style. The characters' concepts as animals or creatures stemmed from their personality. The personalities were all unproductive behaviors that people partake in during meetings, gatherings, brainstorming etc.
The Bull Dozer is a bull that keeps pushing a conversation in a direction that they want it to go.
The Devil’s Advocate is modeled after the devil, the personality is pretty self explanatory from the name.
The Ghost Of Meeting’s Past is a ghost that is never on time.
The Idea Parrot is a parrot that repeats someone else’s ideas, nods along and doesn’t actually contribute.
The Over talker is a horse that makes every conversation about them by talking over everyone else.
04 The Process
step by step
The visual style of the project was completely open ended, so I created various style boards first to see what direction to take. After we picked the kind of artwork that would work for the book, I started creating the style and also designing the characters and poses. Then moving on to the backgrounds, finalizing the characters, cover illustrations and finally onto the overall design. With proper alignment, typography, binding options, packaging designs and finishing touches.
A brand guidebook of Starshot was provided. However the book and packaging was to stand on its own, so only some colors and paragraph font choices were taking from it.
05 Synopsis
Beasts Of The Boardroom
2018
This was the first time I had a chance to work with the Starshot team, and it was a very positive experience. I appreciate organizations going above and beyond to bring concepts like this to life. It is a fun thing for employees to take home, they can play with the puppets, read through the book and have a laugh, enjoy the presentation of the full thing, look through the illustrations and more.
It was great to work on some character designs in a children’s book style but not for actual animation or children’s books. To see if the style is still enjoyable through the eyes of adults. It was great to see them light up and enjoy the drawings and the presentation, so I was very appreciative for this chance.
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