Cartoon character design for Kooties cartoon characters

The Kooties™ are a group of cartoon characters I developed for Fineline Properties (I also designed and created the Fineline website). The word "kooties" was given to me by the owner of the company, and I was given free reign to develop the character design. We probably did over a hundred different concepts and variations before settling on the final look. The concept was expanded to have the Bad Kooites™ (featured above) as the Kooties we all know from childhood, as well as ten positive or good Kooties who helped kids rid themselves of Bad Kooties.

The characters were licensed to a plush manufacturer, and a full line of each character was produced, small, medium and large dolls, as well as a keychain-sized version. A line of stationery was also produced, including notepads, notebooks, stickers and the like. The Kooties were also test marketed by Keds/Stride Rite shoe company. Although the test market went well, a change in management ended the project.

The owner of Fineline and myself were interviewed on the local NBC affiliate WKYC on their morning show about the Kootie plush dolls. We were also featured on the Business Section front page of the Akron-Beacon Journal newpaper.

Currently a license for clocks and watches is in the works for release in late 2005.

Additional design projects for the Kooties, such as style guides, promotional materials were also developed. I designed the Kooties website as well.