Recently I was approached by a new client, Spaner Marketing, with an advertising concept for a company called SageQuest. SageQuest uses GPS technology to help delivery drivers, technicians, and other employees who spend time behind the wheel by tracking their locations, vehicle efficiency, etc. The ad tagline was “Talk To Your Trucks”. They asked me to illustrate some cartoon vehicles to go with the ads.
The challenge was to try to avoid something that looked like a knock-off of Pixar’s “Cars” franchise. I thought about using the eyes as headlights but that’s very cliche and it crunches the face down too low on the vehicle. Also, most headlights aren’t round these days so it might look odd on modern vehicles. So here’s a few doodles I submitted playing around with possible ideas:
Eventually the client decided they wanted to float pupils over the hood and use the windshield wipers for eyebrows. To help differentiate from Pixar I also left teeth out of the mouths (except for when it was needed for a big grin), and kept the windshields nice and dark. Here’s the final ads with copy:
