Pip — Abstract Brand Mascot, Copenhagen

The chain had a logo and a colour palette, and nothing else. What they wanted was a character people would photograph — something that could stand outside each shop without being a person and without being a sign.

What they asked for

An abstract character at roughly 1.8 m, built from the brand’s own colours, with no face to speak of. The brief was explicit that it should not look like a mascot costume or a cartoon animal: a shape, a silhouette, a personality carried by proportion alone.

Designing something with no face

Without a face, everything rests on proportion and posture — the size of the head against the body, the angle of the shoulders, how the weight sits. We resolved all of it in 3D first and the client approved from renders, because at this level of simplification a small change to the head size changes the whole character.

The finish

Gloss-painted fibreglass, colour-blocked in three flat tones with an automotive clear coat over the top. Fibreglass was the only option here: a metal finish is coloured by a chemical patina and cannot be matched to a brand palette, whereas automotive paint reproduces a specific colour code exactly.

Installation

Bolted to a steel plate set into the pavement outside the shop, positioned clear of the door line. Nothing to repaint, and light enough that two people can move it if the site is ever reconfigured.

What it cost

Surveyed fibreglass ranges for 1.5–2.0 m run $900–$5,900, with simple geometric forms at the lower end because there is no face or hands to refine. This commission came in at $3,400 delivered, eight weeks from 3D approval.