I was tasked by the owners of L.A.'s Oldest Tiki Bar, Tonga Hut Tiki Lounge in North Hollywood, CA to design and create an iconic enamel pin featuring their beloved mascot, the Drooling Bastard.
The original brief was simply to create an enamel pin that featured the mascot. So I went through a variety of sketches that showed off the drooling face of the character prominently.
After the initial round of sketches, I proceeded to digitize a few in an attempt to close in on a particular design to go with. The far right one was a completely different character that I thought would make a great pin as well just as a quick one off.
Ultimately we ended up with a more full bodied design where the figure is holding it's trademark bowl in which it's drooling into. This is the same exact post you'll find the figure in at the bar itself upon walking into it. We went with the left version which was more round, although I personally would have preferred the more angular one.
The final product featured a driftwood sign with the name of the bar along with some colored glitter for the water in the bowl. The backing card was created based off the bar's preexisting coaster design that I recreated in vector format to reuse for any future work.
And on the backside was the logo for my company, Hip Tiki, being a DBA of Hip Arcade LLC. Was super excited and thrilled to have been asked to create a piece of merchandise for the bar and hope to continue to do so in the future.