mascot makers

Beverage Can Mascots – It’s all in the Details

January 11, 2025Leave a Comment

It’s the Pop-top that makes the beverage can mascots over-the-top adorable!

They are a kind of “Pop-Art” , an art that raises the ordinary into the extraordinary.

That is what the mascoteers at Avant Garb do. We bring an ordinary sized container into an extraordinary size of, well…..REALLY, REALLY BIG!

The Beverage Can mascots are social media stars. They give people the gift of story and the story is backed up with photos on their phone.

People take photos of friends and family w/ the GIANT cans —and because the photos of the cans are on their phones they become part of the family of friends. It becomes a personal, serendipitous, word of mouth marketing, social media event.

Mascots are experiential marketing at it’s best. The give the gift of story.

Labels for the cans are printed on heavy duty, athletic fabric – a process called dye sublimation. The colors bond with the fabric. The labels don’t fade with wear.

With an enthusiastic performer, the beverage mascot cans move, groove and interact with their enthusiastic fans.

There are many beverage choices. People who interact with the Beverage Can mascots will tell their friends and family about the can mascots. Interacting with or watching the “Pop-Top Can” mascots makes them friends. We’re not getting maudlin about this. It’s true!

When a company spends significant time and money getting an original, custom mascot to entertain and interact w/ current and future consumers, they are sending them a love letter. The company is saying. “We want to be friends “

Thinking about a mascot? Get in touch – [email protected] 317-523-6267

Mascots Are Loyal &True

January 7, 2025Leave a Comment

Favorite players and coaches may change teams, students will graduate and tastes may change. The mascot remains true to the brand, the team, the school and even the idea.

Mascots are loyal and true.

Mascots are also totally, uniquely, adorably themselves.

Mascots are totally engaged with the brands, teams, schools and causes they represent.

Their ambition is to connect with everyone they encounter.

Mascots bring peace on earth and joy to the world.

Mascots are designed and created to be miraculous loyalists to the school, brand, event, do-good organization and even idea.

Here at Avant Garb – Big Mascots Big Costumes & Awfully Big Puppets – we work with you to design mascots with the right tone and enthusiasms.

Our mascot are one-of-a-kind. They are carefully sculpted and stitched.

Enlarge your brand with a mascot!

Be a knight in shining armour

Avant Garb brings your mascot ideas to life!

Get in touch

[email protected] 317-523-6267

Fuzz + Foam = Fun!

Mascots Are Brand Diplomats!

November 30, 2020Leave a Comment

They are BIG and somewhat unmanageable.

They are MASCOTS, and mascots are diplomats for your brand.

Think of mascots as enthusiastic community liaisons who represent your brand in very public places.

Lives change in the presence of a mascot:

Victor E Bull the mascot for U. Buffalo

Say you’re looking at a couple of schools. Both are terrific schools. At one school, the mascot shows up to greet the potential students. You take a selfie with the mascot and go to the bookstore to pick up a plush of the mascot. You’re already invested in the school culture.
Or you’re at a sporting event and turn to the person next to you and say “Holy cow! I love that mascot!” and that comment leads to a new romance or a lifelong friendship.

Both scenarios are monster events. Something BIG happened because a mascot was present.

BIG, Somewhat Unmanageable & Fun

You’ve probably seen the Geico Gecko. The mascot is a Brand Awareness Monster for GEICO. The Geico Gecko has brought big, somewhat unmanageable attention to their brand and it’s been really fun and exciting to witness the personality of the brand through the Gecko.

Many have switched to the brand because they like the mascot.

We all know, Disney uses mascots brilliantly. Who doesn’t recognize Mickey, Minnie, Pluto and Donald. They have lead million to Disney parks, theater, movies and products.

Mascots are powerful. They represent the brand’s true desire interact with their community.

Mascots are Enthusiastic, Community Liasons

Community is formed around mascots. That’s good for the brand, the team, the school and the world.

Thinking about getting a Brand Awareness Mascot?

We’ve been making mascots since before they were a “thing”. We will work with you on design and bring the mascot to life in our mascot studio ,

Let’s connect and discuss big things!

Say Hello

Tweets by avantgarb

What comes next/ Mascots in a Post Pandemic World

July 22, 2020Leave a Comment

Even during the quarantines and the pandemic, the mascots reach out to us with —well—goofy joy. Like us, the mascots have adjusted. They totally get social media. They groove with ZOOM. They easily interact with fans, students and customers no matter what the circumstances.

They are with us in on our screens as we work from home and tiptoe into the office.

When we all come out of our homes to explore the ever-changing new normal, the mascots will be there to greet us.

Stay in touch with each other, wear a mask and connect with your favorite mascots.

xo Queen of Fuzz and the Mascot Makers

https://twitter.com/PierreTPelican/status/1243721675797073928

https://twitter.com/i/status/1243721675797073928

Let’s connect and discuss big things!

Say Hello

©Jennifer Smith/Avant Garb Inc. 2020

Flocks, Herds, Multitudes of Mascots – The Queen Of Fuzz Talks Mascots

May 2, 2019Leave a Comment

Jennifer Smith interview – for Indiana’s Got Talent blog

Jennifer Q Smith is the Queen of Fuzz at Avant Garb, a company that designs and builds mascots for teams, universities and corporations throughout the country. She has been making, wearing and analyzing costumes, wearable art, street wear and mascots all of her life. Even as a 4 year old, she donned her cowgirl outfit, strapped on her holster and hopped on her stick horse to patrol the neighborhood. She was part of the wearable art movement in the 70’s with Friends of the Rag in Seattle.

She wore her site-specific costumes on NYC streets. Her wearable art pieces have been shown at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian, at MoMA exhibitions and at PS1, where she was a Studio Artist. Jennifer Q has been married forever and has 2 always fascinating daughters.

David Boyer interview with Jennifer Smith

How did Avant Garb first come into being?

I had been designing and making costumes for art performances and for theater in Seattle, NYC and San Francisco. When I started Avant Garb, my plan was to design costumes for avant garde theater.

However, a small, chocolate chip cookie company in Berkeley asked me to make a giant cookie for them. Making the cookie changed my outlook, and I altered my plan. The day after it was finished the Chocolate Chip Cookie mascot, was on the front page of the S.F. Chronicle. I thought that was pretty exciting. That was the beginning of Avant Garb – Mascot Makers.

What was your first “mascot’?

Several years before the Chocolate Chip Cookie, I was with a costume and performance group in Seattle named, “Friends of the Rag”. We were commissioned to create costumes and a performance for the opening of the opening of the Seattle Aquarium in 1977. I designed and wore a costume called, the “Sexy Salmon” It was a big hit. That was it for me!

Following the Sexy Salmon, I made a black velvet “Formal Clarinet” for the Seattle Symphony. Joan Mondale, the Vice President’s wife came to Seattle to see a Friends of the Rag performance. I was wearing the Clarinet. I later met Joan Mondale in DC, at another Friends of the Rag production. I told her that last time we had met, I was a clarinet. She said, “I remember”.

There must be so much meticulous detail in creating one of your mascots. How long does it usually take to complete one? Or does that depend on the character involved?

It takes a million hours to make a mascot. We sculpt the head and cover it with fabric and fur, make the patterns for the body, the muscles, big belly, giant head, legs, arms, tails that boing and really big mascot shoes. Yikes! Yes, there are detail, details, details – like eyebrows, painting the eyes, making sure there is plenty of vision ( which needs to be hidden) and ventilation ( also hidden)…. and claws and clothing and logos. Yup, it takes a million hours.

Is there a lot more involved in one of these costumes than meets the eye? I mean, are there certain safety and health requirements that have to be met?

The performer’s safety is always at the front of my mind. We work hard to give performers good, stable vision. That means, there is an athletic helmet that is secured inside the mascot head. Sometimes the hardest part about making the head is placing the helmet so that the performer has good, stable vision. We also put air vents in the head. Air needs to circulate so the performer can breathe. We have engineered mascot shoes so that the performer’s own shoes are secured into the mascot shoe. Nobody likes to wear someone else’s sweaty shoes. Mascot performers shouldn’t have to either. We send each mascot out with its own Mascot Manual so clients know how to care for their mascot.

Have you found that just as many adults enjoy your work as kids?

Mascots are a public spectacle. They are for children and adults. When a mascot shows up, we all know we’re going to have fun. Mascots create community. Strangers connect when a mascot is present. Mascots are for everyone.

On the subject of mascots, what was “Barf-boy” used to promote? I’m sorry, with a name like that, I just had to ask. LOL

Everybody asks about Barf-Boy. He was a mascot for a children’s biology exhibit named, “Grossology.” Grossology was about everything that is disgusting about the human body – like well…barf.

We made 5 Barf-Boys for exhibits in Children’s Science Museums all around the country. He’s pretty great, isn’t he?!

Any exciting news about Avant Garb to let us in on before you go?

The exciting news about Avant Garb is that we are a company in the United States that makes things by hand. We make it by hand, people can touch it, interact with it, have their picture taken with it. Yet, mascots are of the moment. They interact with us in our physical world and they are present in our digital world.

And the mascots become part of the fabric of all of our lives. Everyone has hugged a mascot, had their picture taken with a mascot, laughed at a mascot’s antics or turned to that stranger and talked about the mascot. The mascot and the team, product, event they represent has become part of the story that connects all of us.

I kinda believe mascots could bring world peace. It would be a goofy world peace, but what the heck!

I love making mascots – flocks of mascots, herds of mascots, multitudes of mascots!

I believe you!

The Mascot Studio – Mascot Makers in the Old Car Factory

July 25, 2018Leave a Comment

The Mascot Studio – Location, location, location!

AvantGarb is in the coolest building in the United States. Way back in the day, it was a car factory. Now we make mascots here in our mascot studio.

We’re the only ones who make mascots here, however, we have a plethora of neighbors – artist, techies ad agencies and a restaurant. Since we’re in Indianapolis, the epicenter of car racing, we have race car maintenance here, as well!

There is also a street that goes through the building.

The Stutz Business & Arts Center is an old car factory. Stutz Bearcats used to be made here—in our studio, you can see fragments of the old factory workings –lotsa pipes and wheels controlling the steam heat. The building is warm in the winter and it’s cool in the summer —well, the building is always cool is the coolest sense.

Like Where You Work

It’s good for the soul, and really good for business to like the place you work in…..and we like the where we work. The location, and, of course, the work!!!
Shipping & Receiving Hub

We ship mascots all over the country and all over the world. AvantGarb is in Indianapolis, a shipping hub. With a 24/7 loading dock, shipping & receiving is efficient & hassle-free.

Race Cars, Tech, Art & Mascots

The building is still filled with cars. The building was designed to be a place where real,

The Car Room has a very cool collection of cars. Sometimes We, at Avant Garb, meet with clients, strategize mascot strategies and gaze at beautiful cars

tangible objects are made. It was also designed to be a place that holds ideas and innovation.

Originally, Stutz Bearcat cars were made here. Now there are tech companies, artists and a mascot making studio. Innovation continues everyday.

Whenever we meet with client at our studio, we also show them around the building to look at the old Stutz cars and the newer Lamborghinis and Corvettes.

Rather than cars going up and down the large, freight elevators it’s mascot being shipped out into the world.

Need a mascot to represent your brand? Get in touch.