Big Mascots & Big Costumes

AvantGarb

A Penguin Mascot with Style

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Penguins already have style. Their daily wear is a tuxedo.

Kona the Penguin adds zing to the traditional penguin garb. Kona is the mascot for Kona Ice. There are many details that make Kona a one-of-a kind.

A Penguin’s Very Specific Needs:

Kona Ice Penguin Mascot

  • The pattern on the Hawaiian shirt is unique to Kona. We had the pattern enlarged and printed on fabric.
  • The lei around Kona’s neck had to be the same VERY BIG scale as the really larger-than-life Penguin – it, too, was designed and created in our studio.
  • ….and ohmygoodness, Kona’s flip-flops! When I saw the flipflops, I knew I was in love with thePenguin!Kona's Flip Flops

 

 

The Kona Ice Experience

Shaved Ice, The Kona Ice Truck way, is an experience. The Kona Ice people wanted us to have the full Kona Experience. They had a Kona Ice Truck show up at the loading dock in the Stutz Building – where we have the mascot studio. We all indulged in a shaved-ice experience really an extravaganza —okay, a spur-of-the-moment party. That’s what happens when a Kona Ice truck is in the neighborhood!

Kona Ice Truck @ StutzFor about an hour, it didn’t feel like a cold, November day, It felt like a sunny, tropical day. Jimmy Bufffet was singing through the speakers

on the truck, and we were mixing delicious, colorful, shaved ice concoctions.

We worked closely with the Kona creative staff while we were making the mascot. The collaboration was fruitful ….and delicious!

Jennifer Q Smith – Queen of Fuzz

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Bringing BetXi Bear to Life – The Alpha Xi Delta mascot

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Bringing BetXi Bear to Life – The Alpha Xi Delta mascot

According the Alpha Xi Delta, AvantGarb is the”Glam Squad” for BetXi Bear. Her belt matches her shoes. of course! – and her shoes are yellow, patent-leather BetXi is ready for any occasion. Quote button

Lauren Fisher, wrote an article about making BetXi Bear, Bringing BetXi to Life – in Quill, the sorority’s quarterly publication.

Details, details, details

Getting the details right is what AvantGarb does best.

Making BetXi’s dress

We matched the fabric to theAlpha Xi Delta’s colors.

There is no fabric that is durable enough and has polka dots big enough for a socially active mascot like BetXi.

The artisans at AvantGarb cut out polka dots and stitched them onto blue fabric. We added light blueBetXi - Dress in process trim to the bottom of the dress and made that giant bow!

BetXi’s first appearance was at the Autism Speaks Walk in Indianapolis. BetXi travels from campus to campus promoting Alpha Xi Delta and their good works.

BetXi is classy, stylish and she has a big, big heart.Quote button

Alpha Xi Delta’s BetXi Bear

Small Business makes Big Mascots – UPS blog

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We ship big mascots and we use UPS a lot. We use UPS so much, as a matter of fact AvantGarb made it into the UPS blog – Small Business makes Big Mascots. With big, custom mascots, good, reliable shipping is crucial. The mascot has to be at the game or at the product promotion or at the play-offs or cheering the runners at a marathon. We play a very tight game with logistics.

I have faith in our shipping sources. So, when UPS called, I answered. I am, after all, a wee bit of a shipping nerd or possibly a shipping obsessive.

Being featured in the UPS blog is an example of the power of accidental marketing. This is how it happened.

I tweeted @UPS to complain about a minor billing issue – the UPS people took the complaint seriously & they made my billing smoother – 1 bill a month rather than many. I tweeted something nice about shipping & UPS’s PR people gave us a call.

UPS is a classy company. Not only do they get mascots where they need to be when they need to be there, they respond calmly and efficiently to a complaint.

Turns out we’re mascot mavens &  shipping savants here at AvantGarb.

 

JJ Jumper

 

 

Choppy – ChopSaver Lip Balm

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Choppy CorSaver Lip Balm - For People w/ Lips

A week before Super Bowl 2012 festivities started in Indianapolis, the ChopSaver people- Dan and Noelle Golsling came to visit. They wanted a mascot for their ChopSaver Lip Balm – For People with Lips. If your a small biz w/ a great product, you have to pay attention to the SuperBowl’s outreach possibilities.

ChopSaver Lip Balm - For People with Lips

AvantGarb was swamped. We didn’t have a spare second to make a right-this-very-minute-new mascot. There were 3 Kangaroos, a Horse, a Soybean, a Grizzlie and the Griff waiting to be made. However, ChopSavers came with a referrral from a close friend, Carol Frohlich.

….and Dan & Noelle are ardent entrepreneurs and they have THE MOST LUSCIOUS LOOKING LIPS!

Of course we said yes.

Making  “Choppy”  was like driving the Indy 500. The sewing machines raced and whirred for 3 days.

Choppy ChopSaver Lip Balm Mascot on the treadle machine….and sometimes we used our big, old, powerful cobbler machine. Rather than turn the fabric, foam, patent-leather-vinyl, the walking foot turns to change the stitching direction (sewing machine info for sewing nerds).

Whenever the ChopSaver folks show up, the excitement & entusiasm level rises. Annie & Mike ( a couple of Garb Ganger) finished the last stitches and wriggled the ChopSaver mascot onto the interior structure while with help from the ChopSaver gang.

Choppy-Annie securing interior harness

Everyone in the GarbGang has luscious lips now because we use Chopsaver Lip Balm. Plus, it was a blast working w/ Dan & Noelle.

Choppy w/ Mike, Jennifer & Annie

 

 

 

Know No Stranger took a field trip to AvantGarb

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The other day, Know No Stranger came to AvantGarb on a field trip. KNS is a collective of artists who put on puppet & shadow puppet performances —-well—-they also break dance and tell stories and the josh w/the audience a bit and they are totally sweet and totally cool and they are very in love with lo-tech – like overhead projectors.

…so KNS came to AvantGarb. They wanted to talk about different kinds of foams and adhesives. These are things I find endlessly fascinating. So we talked foam adhesives and where to buy fur.

A couple of days later, I got in touch with KNS because we needed some hands at AvantGarb to finish a mascot, Matt & Mike came by to help us.

Turns out they took some pix and wrote a blog. Here’s what they thought – KNS at AvantGarb.

We had a blast!