Missouri History Museum's Educational Department Children's Mascot

 

In my opinion, understanding who your target audience is, and what they want, and writing to them (and only them!) is the most important component of being successful as an author.  - John Locke

In 2015, The Missouri History Museum (MoHis) sent out an RFP for a gargoyle mascot for educational youth programing based on gargoyles in the museum.

MoHis serves thousands of children every year coming from a wide variety of ethnic and economic backgrounds. In the spirit of John Locke, I built my mascots to match. My proposal included two versions based on different age ranges and strategies to connect with children. Glory 1 (Age 4-9) was designed to be the lovable friend that kids connect to, whereas Glory 2 (Age 8-14) was the character kids want to become.

I designed the winning character, Glory 1 (shown below), to appeal to young children from diverse cultural and racial backgrounds -- and their parents, too! It is huggable, androgynous, playful and animal-like. Its personality was inspired by the MoHis theater department's playful energy and characters. The design was influenced by Dora the Explorer, Mickey Mouse, and an age 4 child's body-build.