Licensing
Specialized skills for a specialized industry.
Introduction.
The Children’s Licensing and Toy Industry made a zillion dollars in 2020 and is on track to do the same in 2023. Technology has literally changed the game with innovations in every corner of the industry. However, one thing has remained a crucial tool in the creation of every successful licensing program… The style guide.
Whether your property is live action, 3D or 2D at some point down the line you’re going to need line art. That’s where we come in. With over 20 years experience in Animation, Illustration & Toy design, LCI Studios specializes in creating High End Vector Illustration.
Project Spotlight: Garanimals Character Design
Over 20 years of experience & 25 style guides worked on.
Launched in 1992, LCI Studios has been involved with some of the biggest brands in the industry. Some of these are Nickelodeon, 4 Kids entertainment, and Major League Baseball Properties, to name a few. Helping to create or contributing to style guides for such properties as:
Crash Test Dummies, Major League Baseball Mascots – all teams, Major League Baseball Baby Mascots – all teams, Crash Test Dummies, Frogger, Hatchimals, Tom & Friends, Rainforest Cafe, Spam, USPS, Oogie Loves, Lost in Space, Rock Band, Dinosaur King, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Transformers, Jesus in Jeans, Anaheim Roughriders, M&M’s, The Mask, Lord of the Rings, Spongebob Squarepants, Duck Dynasty, Sprout TV, Austin Powers.
Lending our extensive expertise in creating infinitely scalable vector artwork has given us valuable experience that can only be gained by working with brands and companies of this caliber.
Character work & design
While working with pre-existing IP’s is great, nothing gets our blood pumping like creating a character design from scratch and seeing it out in the real world when your done!
Examples: Garanimals, Baby Mascots, and most recent the Ottorbot mascot for the Danville Ottorbots minor league baseball team for Major League Baseball Properties.
Project Spotlight: The Danville Otterbots
Vector Specialists at your service!
LCI studios specializes in the creation of vector art. With over 15 years working within the Licensing industry creating vector based assets, our studio understand the unique needs of Licensors and Licensees. We can tailor your artwork to your specific needs. Whether that’s a limited palette for Screen Printing, Traditional Printing or graphics for HD broadcast. We can also mimic the look of your brand so that any new graphics blend seamlessly with the old ones.
Need to refresh an older brand and give it a new look that appeals to a modern audience? Let us show you what we can do.
Translating live action to line art
Some product applications can't use photos. That's where we come in!
Maybe you don’t have an animated property. Maybe it’s a live action movie property. That’s ok! One of our specialties is translating live action into vector line art. We’ve worked on the Lost In Space, Lord of the Rings, & Austin Powers style guides.
One of our favorite projects was the Oogie Loves Big Balloon Adventure style guide. We took the puppet-like characters from the movie and created a whole set of character poses for merchandising. Heck, we’ll turn you into a licensing program if that’s what you need! So, give us a ring. If you’re nervous about the process we’ll do a free sample and show you what we can do!
Animation experience
Having a team Mascot is like having your own Mickey Mouse ™. Sure you’ve got licensed merchandise but how about we take your property a little further?
Imagine having animated episodes starring your characters appearing on your website, better yet up on the big board during half time or between innings! Good way to drive sales of that Merch huh? We produce those episodes quickly and affordably using tools like Adobe Animate. Take a look at the example below and then give us a ring…
Project Spotlight: Major League Baseball Baby Mascots
Sports - Mascots - don’t have one? We’ll design one for you!
With over 25 years experience working for Major League Baseball Properties, LCI Studios has an extensive Sports Mascot background. We understand how to work with your characters to not just help you create sellable merchandise but to expand your characters story. We take a unique approach with every licensed property and work with your brand to bring your characters to life through illustration, Animation or Merch Design.
Don’t have a mascot? We’ll design one for you! We’ve worked with a variety of clients to create characters from scratch. All you need is a design brief and we’ll take it from there. Here are a few of the characters we helped create…
Product design - toy design experience
Our lead artist and founder, Lawrence Christmas, started his career here in New York as a Toy Designer for a small company called Happiness Express. Let us help you in the Merch Department with innovative concepts and design!
Need an Online Style Guide? - link to online style guide demo
Every property needs an online style guide. Your assets need to instantly available to your licensees 24-7. We’ve created a customizable WordPress based solution that can be up and running in a few days.
Just have your design team send us your assets and a mockup! Take a look at this examples…
This style guide is based on one I did for myself in the early 2000’s. Recently, I dug it up while cleaning off my backup drives and I thought it’d make a perfect subject for an online guide.
However, it doesn’t matter the look or design of your guide. This particular guide had no design. We made it up as we went along. My team and I can recreate the look and feel of any guide. Print, PDF or virtual.
So, have your design department whip up a template in Photoshop or Illustrator and pass it on. We’ll have you up and running in a few weeks! Secure & password protected.
Character License Style Guide Example
People we work with...
Some of the wonderful people that keep us in pencils…
Ready to start your licensing project?
Someone will get back to you within 24 hours or sooner!
