Butter Boy
Character Branding, Environmental Graphics, Infographic Design, Community Marketing
Insert Coin for Chaos
A mascot with a cult following in the making. Butter Boy began as a quirky character sketch—part croissant, part claw machine hype man—and evolved into a fully developed brand identity designed to transform how Four Sisters Bakery sold day-old pastries. Inspired by retro claw machines, Cuphead-style animation, and chromatic aberration, I created the full character branding, environmental graphics, and signage. The result was an immersive, unforgettable in-store experience that boosted customer engagement, strengthened brand visibility, and cleverly redirected attention to fresh pastries—all while turning a practical sales issue into a community-building moment.
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OVERVIEW
Butter Boy is a whimsical marketing project developed for Four Sisters Bakery in Black Mountain, North Carolina. I collaborated with the bakery team to transform a common sales challenge—overselling discounted day-old pastries—into a novel, community-focused marketing experience using a claw machine and a custom character brand.
DISCOVERY & CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT
The idea was born from the bakery’s front-end team, led by my spouse, who proposed recontextualizing the sale of day-old pastries through play and nostalgia. Inspired by classic claw machine culture, we created a full character-driven concept that would create an additional barrier between customers and discounted pastries while simultaneously attracting attention, engagement, and foot traffic.
CHARACTER & WORLD BUILDING
Working from an initial illustration of "Butter Boy" — a charming, vintage croissant-man character drawn by a team member — I expanded the concept into a full visual world:
Developed a chromatic pastel color palette inspired by early Disney and vaporwave styles
Designed an immersive claw machine background and environment for Butter Boy
Referenced traditional arcade aesthetics to align placement, signage, and interaction flow
Crafted supporting infographic materials explaining game rules, pricing, and bakery policies in a cohesive style
EXECUTION & IMPACT
Butter Boy now lives inside the claw machine at Four Sisters Bakery, welcoming customers to "win" their day-old pastries through a playful, memorable experience. This project not only boosted community engagement and social media visibility but also redirected customer attention back toward purchasing fresh pastries while adding a quirky, beloved fixture to the local culture of Black Mountain.
