Izi is a friendly, heart-shaped character created for a charity project dedicated to bringing comfort and emotional support to children during hospital visits and medical procedures. Designed to be more than just a plush toy, Izi is a little companion who helps children feel safer and braver during unfamiliar or frightening experiences. Through a warm, approachable design and expressive features, the character turns the foundation’s message into something tangible — a comforting presence children can hold close.
1. Character Design — Creating Izi
The character-development process began with an existing visual concept for the Izi plush toy, which I used as the foundation for translating the physical design into a distinctive animated character.
I focused on preserving the recognisable heart-shaped silhouette while developing the character’s proportions, facial features and overall expression. I designed the large, expressive eyes, curved eyelashes and simple smile to give Izi a warm, friendly personality that would appeal to children and communicate a sense of comfort and reassurance.
The colour palette was based on the project’s established visual identity, combining shades of blue with mint green and soft yellow. These colours were applied consistently across the character to create a playful, harmonious and recognisable appearance.
The final design bridges the physical plush toy and its animated counterpart, ensuring that Izi retains the same visual identity while remaining expressive and readable across illustrations, storytelling scenes and animation.
3. Story Development - From Sketch to Scene
With Izi's visual identity established, I developed a series of illustrated scenes showing how the character accompanies children through different medical experiences.
Each scene was designed to communicate a specific emotion — curiosity, reassurance, trust or relief — while maintaining a consistent character style and visual language throughout the story.
The illustrations were created with animation in mind, carefully considering character poses, expressions, composition and the interaction between the characters and their surroundings.
At the Dentist
At the Hospital
During Vaccination
During x-ray
