Custom avatar design

The ‘bods have outgrown their page on the main Début website, and, although it’s taken us a while to get around to it, they’ve finally got their own space; www.thingybod.com – offering custom character design and personalised avatars (that’s personalized for all you with a USA spellchecker).

The story so far…

The name ‘bods’ sprung up way back when I produced characters for Wolverhampton City Council’s Free School Meals publicity; a boy, a girl and a worried looking carrot. I think it may have been the client who coined the name ‘bods, I’m not sure, but it suited them and stuck and sometimes these things are out of your hands.

The school meals characters had been around for a while when I was approached to produce an invitation to a fancy dress party (as a favour for a colleague), and a friend suggested I create some more ‘bods but this time in fancy dress. The 21st birthday girl was dressed as Uma Thurman’s character in Kill Bill. The invitation was well received, and so I dropped it in my portfolio, where it caught Glen’s eye…

Glen had the idea of using characters of ourselves for our publicity material for Début. Again, this was easy, I’m pretty plain and Steve’s known for having a head like an alien (only more so). We dropped them on the business card with the tiniest amount of spot UV and everybody loved them, including Calloway Green…

…this was my first commission, in exchange for some coding. It was interesting to say the least; Andy, one of the directors, looks like Horatio from CSI, one of their guys was wearing a pair of Spiderman PJ’s and another carried an axe.

And that’s how it started, pretty much, and before I knew it I was creating ‘bods for people I’d never met. I thought Steve came up with the name ‘thingybod’, but it turns out I misheard him; more happy accident than stroke of genius.

And so now we’re offering custom avatars alongside our design and marketing communication services.

I really do love what I do. I like looking at people’s faces. Working out what makes them, you know… them. And everybody’s beautiful. I thought I’d become cynical in my old age, but it seems that I can tap into some dormant, subconscious, perhaps naïve insistence that there’s beauty in everyone. And I don’t mind that so much.