Catstarter: Kickstarter for Cat Lovers (a dream project)

: from The Design Lab :

If there is one thing I can offer as advice to creative professionals, it is to do personal work and share it, especially on social media sites such as LinkedIn or Behance. You never know who might see it and who it will connect you to.

That is precisely what happened to me at the beginning of this year, when someone from EVB (an ad agency based in San Francisco) contacted me about doing some illustration work for a top secret project they had in the works; it involved a tight but doable deadline and… cats.

Say no more, I was in, and jumping for joy when I spoke to the Senior Producer on the phone about the project. They saw my personal projects on LinkedIn (with the Behance plugin) and then our website and thought we were a good fit for the style they were looking for.

Their client was Meow Mix (are you singing the meow jingle yet?), and the project was called Catstarter— a parody of Kickstarter—envisioned as a way to crowdsource cool new cat-related inventions. However, instead of backing Catstarter projects with cash, you back them with “Likes” and social media. The project with the most support, will actually get produced!
Catstarter launched with three product inventions, with the winner going into production soon I believe. If you have an idea for a great product for cats, you can also submit your invention to Catstarter, and with some social media support, your invention might become a reality.

My job involved creating all the characters (cats and people) as well as things they come in contact with, such as the three initial inventions, Meow Mix kibble and my favorite, a mock YouTube site filled with the most popular cat videos. I created a total of three cat characters, one for each project. Everything else was based on the list of assets the team needed for the animated videos, from little tools to an iPhone.
It was so easy to work with this team, because they had a clear concept of what they wanted, a fantastic storyboard and always provided me with great and timely feedback. This was the kind of team that makes you want to hit it out of the ballpark for them. It truly was a lot of fun, a ton of hours invested in hard work, but a dream project from start to finish.

Since the launch, Catstarter has received a lot of love from the industry and has been featured in Adweek and was the Editor’s Pick on Creativity!! It is rather crazy to see my name credited alongside these amazing folks. To see these articles, click links below:

Adweek: Meow Mix Unveils Catstarter   |   Creativity Editor’s Pick: Meow Mix Launches Catstarter

So here they are, my illustrated felines brought to life by the incredibly talented Kevin Brown from EVB. Please make sure you visit the Catstarter page to enjoy the animated videos, back your favorite invention and even submit your own!