We all know the power of a good brand character or mascot. When engagement, storytelling, and emotional connection define brand success, characters are becoming just as crucial as typography, logos, and colour palettes. From brand identities to advertising campaigns, a well-designed character brings a brand to life.

In an age where brands are fighting for emotional connection, well-crafted characters are doing some serious heavy lifting. They’re not just cute faces or comic relief, they’re vessels of personality and cultural relevance. In many ways, a brand’s character is its emotional shortcut.

And they’re effective. A 2020 WARC study analysed over 13,000 traditional television commercials to show that brand characters boost the effectiveness of TV ads. But as someone who’s spent a good chunk of time working with brilliant artists and directors to bring characters to life for brands, I think we’re overdue a design-led conversation. One that looks beyond the viral mascot moment and digs into the craft, the shapes, the quirks, the back stories.

So we asked some of our collaborators – including director Neil Stubbings and illustrator Dan Woodger plus creative leaders such as Landor ECD Chris Moody and former creative chief of 4creative and McCann London, Lynsey Atkin – to help us unpack what really makes a brand character land, from a design perspective. Here’s what we found.