Con McHugh has teamed up with efficiency model On to create a 60-second spot for the brand new Cloudboom Max working shoe, remodeling it right into a likeable character filled with appeal, wit, and bounce.
The marketing campaign started with a easy concept: what if the shoe itself launched its personal options? On’s artistic crew imagined a sketched-on persona, full with arms, prepared to point out off its tech. Con was invited to take that concept and run with it, shaping not solely the look of the character however the way it moved, gestured, and interacted with the script.
“It was an enormous quantity of belief,” says Con. “That they had the voiceover locked, however little or no else. I had the liberty to discover how Max regarded and the way he moved. We wished him to really feel ridiculously cool, not only a speaking shoe.”
Drawing 1,400 arms
A giant artistic problem quickly unfolded: arms. For a lot of illustrators, they’re the final word nemesis, typically prevented or simplified. However this challenge required a complete sequence of them. Round 1,400 hand-drawn frames, to be precise.
Con wasn’t fazed and leaned into the chance. “I would by no means been one to keep away from drawing arms, however I hadn’t precisely drawn 1000’s both. We experimented with floating arms, gloved arms, and morphing arms. The ultimate model was a playful combine – thick, bouncy, squishy, with simply sufficient naivety to really feel like avenue artwork, or one thing torn from my sketchbook.”
A mixture of 2D and 3D
To provide the shoe itself actual weight and dimension, Con collaborated with TwoMuch Studio, which created a refined 3D render of the Cloudboom Max. The manufacturing course of grew to become a type of artistic rally: sketches and animatics bouncing between Con and TwoMuch till the timing and rhythm felt spot-on.
As soon as locked in place, Con set to work on the painstaking frame-by-frame animation, increase sequences over weeks of lengthy days in his Bristol studio. “My days grew to become this rhythm of cacao, stretches, drawing till midnight, possibly a sandwich, possibly a stroll by the harbour,” he laughs.
The result’s a playful piece of mixed-media animation that fuses the appeal of hand-drawn illustration with the sleekness of digital 3D. The ultimate spot, full with TwoMuch’s sound design, captures the persona of Max with humour and coronary heart.
From jazz posters to world campaigns
In fact, Con is not any stranger to combining analogue methods with different media. His Bristol Jazz Pageant animated poster sequence first put him on the radar in 2023, mixing music, motion, and character illustration in a manner that felt contemporary and memorable.
On the core of his apply is rhythm, restraint, and an embrace of imperfection. As a neurodivergent artist, he is taken with how advanced concepts could be distilled into clear, easy, and infrequently witty visuals. His work carries a nostalgic, human contact that stands out in an age of polished digital design.
Based mostly in Bristol, Con studied design at Norwich College of the Arts and illustration at Hochschule Mainz in Germany. He continues to stability business collaborations with private initiatives, and, extra lately, life with a brand new pet referred to as Mungo.
