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Ken Gamage (Dip, BDes, MSc) has been creating digital illustrations, idea generation and corporate brand assets for print, TV and online mediums since 2003 serving 50+ international clients with prominent brand names like Disney, Hooked on Phonics, Reckitt Benckiser, Scholastic and Hitachi. He received his Diploma in Interpretive Illustration at Sheridan College Institute of Technology and Advanced learning in 2000 and his Bachelor of Design (BDes) from Thompson Rivers University and The University of Toronto in 2010. More recently, Ken has expanded his career trajectory by completing his MSc in Media and Communications at the London School of Economics. Sparklefish Studio is represented by John Brewster Creative Services (Connecticut, USA) and Meiklejohn Illustration (London, UK).

Sep 18, 2009

Dettol Detergent & The Saudi Arabian Ministry of Health





This project was actually done quite some time ago (last December), but I wanted to let it sit with the client before I posted it publicly. The above character designs are to be used in television commercial animations in Saudi Arabia, with the purpose of educating children about hygiene and of course, implicitly market the Dettol Detergent brand. What is displayed here is merely a snapshot of the varied sketches and color designs that I provided for my client, Reckitt Benckiser (Dettol Detergent) & The Saudi Arabian Ministry of Health. Special thanks to Alice at Meiklejohn Illustration in London for handling all the back and forth dialogue (over three different time zones!)

The unique challenge here was visually navigating through a cultural framework that is obviously different than what one would find in North America. For instance, because the color green is the symbolically the color of Islam, artwork created for the middle east must be highly sensitive to exactly what shade of green is used. It was a bit of a tightrope walk here, considering that I used quite a bit of green to depict the Dettol brand color, as well as to signify some of the germ villains that are the arch enemies of the muscle bound hero character.

Sep 8, 2009

Ooga-Booga-Man, Droopy Head King, Horn-Head-Weird-Arms...





Obviously, very, very different than the usual digital work that I do. These hand sculpted characters (from top to bottom: 'the droopy head king','ooga-booga-man', 'horn-head-weird-arms') were a fun little experiment that I did years ago when I was living in Vancouver. It's always healthy to breathe some new inspiration into your typical working discipline, through a not-so-usual medium. Lots of fun, maybe I'll do some more in time to come.