Halloween and Dia de los Muertos Character Designs and Renders 

Objective: Create Dia De Los Muertos characters to place on metallic cone renders for a seasonal snack-pack.

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At Popcornopolis, we maintained a relationship with our clients where the buyers often made specific requests for seasonal designs. One such client, a big box brand, wanted to explore new holidays in their stores. They asked us to create a product for Dia De los Muertos, a Mexican holiday that celebrates the afterlife from this side of the veil. ​The final product was intended for children 3 to ten years old. Though I am a Mexican American, I felt that this holiday deserved deeper research beyond my own personal experience, so I started there.

After researching the holiday, I sketched out eight characters, on my iPad on a drawing app called procreate. With the help of my team, we narrowed down our options to four characters, some born from new ideas during the critique. When designing characters for children it is important to create friendly, approachable characters that  still represent the scary holiday. 

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After several rounds of notes from my art director, Aaron Komae, the four final characters now existed in full color and adjusted scale. Some characters were completely redrawn, and others just got a little makeover.

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Once approved by my team, the updated characters were ready to render. I used a background pattern I designed and rendered the metallic cones in Photoshop. The flavors were not yet chosen, so the flavor badge and kernels were all rendered as Kettle Corn as placeholders.

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Though the project did not make it all the way to store shelves, the mini metallic cone designs featured here were final contenders almost to the finish line. Below, you will find several other contenders for that years Dia De los Muertos and Halloween selection. All character and pattern designs featured here were designed by me, and. altered according to notes from my team and the requesting buyer.

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