30 Sites with Great (and Not So Great) Mascots
All professional websites include a logo, and sometimes that logo is also a character. Yet, this logo character is not necessarily what we would label a "mascot." With a graphic logo, you will find that graphic everywhere, including in designs for brochure and business card printing. However, a website mascot may only land online, especially if the character is too detailed or large-scale to fit onto smaller print materials.
More and more we are seeing a trend in web design to include both a logo and a character or mascot. Sometimes, this mascot is used to help guide visitors through the website. Other times, the little guy, gal, or animal remains solely on the home page. No matter how often the mascot is incorporated into the site, it is always clear that this character is more than just a logo. The mascot is there to help get you excited about or endear you to the company, just as a mascot for a sports team does.
In this collection, we found 30 sites with mascots – and couldn’t help but notice the monkey theme. As you check out these pages, ask yourself whether or not the mascot distracts from the brand or builds upon it. In some cases, the character is a useful, personalizing agent that helps you connect with the brand better. In other cases, the mascot seems to be some 3rd entity injecting itself into the design.
Which of the mascots below work to build and which distract? Do you think mascots help improve brand recognition or not? Does it all depend on the brand in the end?
Inspire Monkey
Cheeky Monkey Media
Photoshop Lady
Mail Chip
N. Design Studio
Silverback
Adaptic
Mix Turtle
PSDgator
Bee Finance
Elune Art
Designzillas
Ellis Lab
Nybble Tech
KroliKov
FoxTie
Pizza By The Slice
SR28
Robot Media
Kars4Kids
Gecko Tracker
Think Orange
Wishlistr
DateJS
Firebug
Fork: the Open Source CMS
Justin Bird
DharmaFrog
Jason Reed Web Design
1488 Fans
2543 Readers
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So many monkeys! I think that mascot logo branding can work really well if the mascot manages to reflect characteristics of the name in a meaningful way. For instance, Ellis Lab has a mascot that totally works here. The little man looks like how some people might picture a character named “Ellis” in their minds. Kind of nerdy, well-meaning, professional.
Great roundup, thank you!
Sarah Bauer
Navigator Multimedia
I had the same impression about the Ellis Lab website! Yes, so very many monkeys…
Mascots can be a highlight in the name of a company, but could make it visually in a disaster.
I like some of them, I noticed that a monkey or ape is used the most.
Great collection of designs i have seen some of the best designs last year son some forum and i took the step to recreate some designs of my own.. websites like these personally take you to some level just rocks
Photoshop Lady, FoxTie, Firebug and MixTurtle are really good. Mascot logo uses the most. Thanks to designer for mascot logo. I think they have lots of creativity all. Mascots can be a highlight in the name of a company.
I think for the most part the mascots work in the design, but that is not always the case. For example I don’t really understand the mascot for Fork: the Open Source CMS.
I agree. Maybe they were trying to be creative with the word “fork” by using a “magic fork” (i.e. a trident) to give the impression of how magical their CMS is. Still, takes too much thinking.