How Puffin Was Drawn

Every character starts as a feeling before it becomes a drawing. Ours started as a feeling everyone knows: that moment at the end of a really good evening when somebody says “we should probably go” and every part of you quietly answers, not yet.

This is the story of how that feeling became a bird in a purple beanie.

The feeling first

Before there was a character, there was a phrase: one more. One more stop on the metro. One more slice. One more ride. One more sunset. It is the most generous little phrase in the world. It doesn’t mean too much. It means this is good, let’s stay with it.

We wanted a brand that felt like that phrase. Warm, unhurried, a bit dreamy, a bit funny. A place that reminds people to stay a little longer, in a world that keeps telling them to hurry up.

A phrase is lovely, but it needs someone to say it. So we went looking for that someone.

Why a puffin?

We tried lots of animals on paper. A cat was too aloof. A bear was too sleepy without being funny. A fox was too clever by half.

Then someone drew a puffin, and everything clicked.

• Puffins are naturally comic. That huge colourful beak, the upright little body, the waddling walk and the famously wobbly landings. They look like they are always about to tell you a joke.
• Puffins look wise and a little sad at the same time. Their eye markings give them a thoughtful, slightly melancholy expression, which made it easy to imagine an inner life.
• Puffins come from wild, windswept places. A bird from a cliff in Iceland, landing in a busy European city, felt like the perfect fish out of water. Or rather, a seabird out of sea.
• Real puffins are loyal and home-loving. They return to the same burrow and partner year after year. That cosy, faithful quality fitted perfectly.

And yes, the name of the bird and the name of the blog happen to sound rather good together.

Making him relaxed

Real puffins flap their wings at a furious pace. Our first sketches looked much the same: alert, busy, wide-eyed. They were cute, but they were not right. They looked like birds in a hurry.

So we slowed him down. We gave him heavy-lidded eyes, like someone who has just had a very nice thought. We gave him a calm half-smile that never quite leaves his face. We let his shoulders drop. Suddenly, he wasn’t a bird rushing to catch a fish. He was a bird who would happily miss the fish if the sunset was good enough.

That was when he became Puffin.

Nah… just one more. Sketch, I mean. They kept drawing one more sketch until I looked like I’d just woken up from a lovely nap. Which, to be fair, I usually have.

The beanie and the jacket

Clothes tell you who someone is before they say a word.

The purple knitted beanie came first. A bird from the windy north would definitely own a warm hat. But it had to be soft and slightly too big, worn a bit lopsided, so it could slip down over one eye when he dozes off. Purple felt right because it sits between the navy of the night sky and the pink of our clouds. It is a twilight colour, just like him.

The oversized orange-red jacket came next. We wanted something that echoed his beak and stood out against dark city streets and metro carriages. It had to be far too big, the kind of jacket that works as a coat, a blanket and a pillow all at once. Big jackets are what you wear when you plan to sit somewhere comfortable for a long time.

The denim shirt underneath keeps him grounded. He is dreamy, but he is also an ordinary city resident who takes the metro and eats pizza and knows the names of the people at the bakery.

The colour palette

Our colours are borrowed from the sky at the very end of the day, the hour when most people head home and Puffin decides to stay.

• Navy is the night sky, the quiet metro tunnel and the calm after closing time. It is our base, the colour that lets everything else glow.
• Pink is the dreamy cloud and the first blush of sunset. It is soft and a little bit playful.
• Coral is Puffin’s beak and his jacket. Warm, friendly and full of personality.
• Peach is the lower edge of the clouds and the warm glow of a pizzeria’s lights. It is our cosy colour.
• Lilac is the moment just after sunset, when the sky can’t decide what it wants to be. It ties everything together.

Put them together and you get something that feels like a long summer evening, even in the middle of winter.

A world made of clouds

Puffin lives in a real-feeling city, with real metros and real pizzerias. But around him, there is always a touch of dream. Soft pink clouds drift through his skies. An armchair made of clouds waits for anyone who needs a rest. An hourglass fills not with sand but with clouds, because time in Puffin’s world is soft and forgiving. Little pink lightning bolts pop up here and there, tiny sparks of joy that remind you a good moment is happening right now.

The clouds are our way of saying: this is a place for daydreaming. For staring out of windows. For letting your head drift for a while.

The philosophy behind it

In the end, Puffin was drawn to carry one simple idea: stay a little longer. Notice the good moment you are in. Give it a few more minutes. Talk to the night driver. Ride the coaster one more time. Look up at the sky before you go inside.

If you’d like to know more about the character himself, read Meet Puffin. And for the slow, everyday version of the philosophy, there is the joy of just one more.

Thank you for staying a little longer with us.