We’ve designed something a bit different for the Ikano Bank Marathon this year… Moosey – the official Ikano Bank Robin Hood Marathon mascot!

Yep, you read that correctly. Ikano commissioned us to design their mascot for this year’s race – and for that mascot to be a moose. That being said, Moosey’s inception wasn’t as straightforward as it might seem – there are more facets to creating a bespoke character than just drawing a moose.

The idea behind the concept was to give Ikano Bank a character to engage with. A friendly, easy to approach figure that shows Ikano’s values and internal branding, aimed at encouraging family engagement. The mascot needed to be wearing running clothes in the Ikano brand colours, and we were initially looking at creating a moose/elk/stag hybrid – to play on the idea of “Nottingham meets Sweden”.

At the same time as developing Moosey we were creating the new Ikano billboard, wishing marathon runners good luck in the race on Sunday.

Moosey is the product of sketches worked up in Illustrator. Initially, we were looking at the hybrid creature mentioned above, but naturally the inner moose shone through and Moosey was born! There are more Moose in Sweden than any other country in the world – even Canada – so it made sense to lean more towards a moose-esque aesthetic. Our designs were then expertly brought to life by the Mascot Makers over at Frenzy Creative, who boast an impressive roster of promotional character costumes.

Moosey has been out and about in the last few weeks promoting the marathon. He’s even managed to befriend a celeb in the form of Marathon ambassador and paralympic Gold Medallist Richard Whitehead!

Moosey isn’t the first speciality design we’ve been asked to create. He’s reminded us of the Little Fruities from the Fruity Beauties brand, or the avatars for the First Moves from James Sellicks explainer video.

Good luck to everyone running in the Ikano Bank Robin Hood Marathon – especially Moosey. It takes place this weekend in Nottingham on Sunday 24^th September. If you need a bespoke character design or a speciality design creating, get in touch with us!