Client: VSA: Vehicle Sales Authority of British Columbia
Mission: To recreate a cartoon-character style version of the Vehicle Sales Authority’s biggest villain “Walt the Curber”.
Walt’s priority is earn a quick buck while employing ‘sketchy’ (illegal) methods to sell sketchy cars! Walt was created to illustrate a full-size ‘Snakes & Ladders’-style game board to promote the VSA’s message “Watch out for Walt!” and inspire people to shop as VSA-registered Dealers. The result is a fun, interactive game board that awards landing on smart decisions and sends you back for landing on Walt!
To gather inspiration for this character, I studied caricatures and different artistic styles. Since the creation of the Walt illustrated caricature, the asset been used in an increasing amount of promotions and advertising for the VSA. This includes bus shelter posters, promotional event banners, ads, and more. I asked a friend to pose in a variety of different positions so I could use the proportions for Walt’s body; when I needed other movements I looked to the World Wide Web to help me out. We purchased stock illustrations to populate the board with trees, cars, and other items.
Fun fact: I used a photo-reference of Brad Pitt’s face for the RCMP character. (Could you tell?)
The greatest challenge was to create the carpet version: a second, colour-matched version of the illustration, to be printed on carpet using a small available palette of printable colours while keeping it clean, bright, and true to the original design.
Natasha Johnson – Kyosei Creative · Client: VSA (Vehicle Sales Authority of British Columbia)
