Samson Fong's Capstone Portfolio

Welcome to my 2024 Senior Seminar Capstone Portfolio! My Capstone Project was to make mascots for my other classmates' projects over the span of 15 weeks. These mascots are showcased below, and I hope you enjoy what we've created!

Design forRishi Patolla

Rishi Patolla's Capstone Project was based on the horror game series "Outlast" but took inspiration from a mansion rather than an Asylum. I decided to use a grayscale as an homage to Outlast's night-vision green color palette. Seeing as the enemies in Outlast are monstrous patients, and Rishi's game was set in a manor instead, I designed a grotesque Butler character who would likely patrol areas in the game to hinder the player's progress.

Design for Angelica Gallegos

Angelica Gallegos' Capstone Project was based on a UX Design for a mobile app specializing in locating lost pets, finding pet shelters, and informing users of current pet events. Because of Angelica's emphasis on making sure pets would have good homes, I decided to design a dog wearing a kennel (representing the pet shelter). The color scheme for the mascot was provided by Angelica, who is also using the palette for her app.

Design for Hernan Moreno

Hernan Moreno's Capstone Project was a horror game based on his personal experience working in a bowling alley diner. I had initially created a childlike monster due to the assumption that children would be the biggest threat to a retail worker, but he surprised me by stating that it was the managers and the parents that would cause him the most trouble. I am looking for an opportunity to make a new mascot for him at some point.

Design for Anthony Mendoza

Anthony Mendoza's Capstone Project was a mobile app that functions as a social networking app for K-pop fans, as well as having games, quizzes, and other useful features for K-pop fans to express their love of the craft through. I designed the mascot's hairstyle off on the BTS group and used the color palette from the starting slide from Anthony's presentation on his app. Anthony suggested I add eyewear to the mascot, and I settled for a star shape based on Anthony's app using frequent star motifs in its design.

Design for Cinthia Cuevas

Cinthia Cuevas's Capstone Project was a documentary about pottery and ceramics, showcasing both techniques in pottery and providing interviews with experts in ceramics. Due to her documentary being named "Pothead" I decided to make a mascot that had a teapot for a head, with a puppet like body similar to certain fairy tales about curious puppets.

Design for Aliya Lee

Aliya Lee's Capstone Project was to design concepts for a Sims 4 DLC based on Dungeons and Dragons with an emphasis on fantastical clothing. I decided to make a dragon based on a previous Sims game (notably Sims 1 and Sims 3) dragon, but wearing a knight helm and a rogue cloak and boots, due to Aliya's stylistic fantasy clothing.

Design for Sophi Cuevas

Sophi Cuevas' Capstone Project was a webcomic about a soldier-turned-vampire named Leon. For the mascot, I made a bat form for Leon with golden accessories similar to his clothes, since he is a Vampire and Sophi didn't have a bat form for him yet. The wings and scarf are based on his clothing and are a similar shade of blue as a result.

Design for Saree Castaneda

Saree Castaneda's Capstone Project was concepts for a pizza-themed merchandise line based on a fictional punk grandma named "Crust Mama." I decided to design a mascot who was a pet cat who shared the same coolness as her. Some of these traits include the large smile and the sunglasses, as well as the posture. I used a bright, pizza-esque color palette that Saree provided for the cat, which works with the character proportions to make a design reminiscent of the early 2000s.

Design for Kristine Bray

Kristine Bray's Capstone Project was to have a podcast with a few hour-long episodes about transportation and various political issues in Denton, TX. We came up with the idea of having a microphone sitting on a bench at a bus stop (which was colored and patterned like a bus seat, due to Kristine's passion for buses and public transportation). The bright coloration was Kristine's suggestion after I initially made a more monochromatic look, which wasn't quite as visually interesting to look at.

Design for Angela Wang

Angela Wang's Capstone Project was a website for the Jonsson Engineering branch of UT Dallas's campus. Therefore I chose to use Temoc (UT Dallas's mascot) as a base for my design, but with a green coloration instead of the standard UTD orange (due to the Jonsson colorations).

Design for Allison Umlauf

Allison Umlauf's Capstone Project was a UX design project for a cosplay app that used an AR scanner that would scan the user's body to provide them with data for their cosplay with key features being how to work different designs with body types being a major consideration. I used her logo as a mask/face for the character and went for a butterfly motif due to how the logo vaguely resembles an abstract butterfly.

Design for Wilson Lai

Wilson Lai's Capstone Project was a horror game where you explore a hotel in the middle of being invaded by monsters from other dimensions. He requested that I make a large shadowy demon that looked vaguely human with a sharp weapon as a monster. I decided to use a crowbar instead of an axe due to the overuse of axes as weapons in horror media.

Design for Zachary Bryant

Zachary Bryant's Capstone Project was a game that involved flying around and shooting at opponents in a sci-fi apocalyptic environment. I designed a desert-faring soldier due to the sand aesthetic that his level has, as well as giving him a wingless jetpack due to the need for him to fly around nimbly without being too bulky.

Design for Megan Jaquett

Megan Jaquett's Capstone Project was a modeling project where she would make 5 3D weapon assets. I made a four-armed knight who wields four of these weapons and incorporated the staff/magical rod into the lower body of the knight, making it look like a magical scarecrow. The desaturated colors and unusual proportions of the knight are reminiscent of dark, grim fantasy armors that one might see in a game like Dark Souls.

Design for Anabela Castano De Los Santos

Anabela's Capstone Project was an animation of a girl named Nadya who can travel through dreams. In the concept sketches that Anabela showed me, I thought one of her costumes was a raincoat, which led me to use yellow as a major color in her design.

Design for Sarah Choi

Sarah Choi's capstone was about graphic design. She told me she likes cute things, pink and cats. I wanted to design a pink cat for her, but then she showed me a character that she used in a previous design.
When I was coming up with a color palette, I decided to use one of Sarah's other art pieces as inspiration to add flair when it came to finding a color palette. I believe the pale-yellow streaks add a lot to the design. She asked me to make the cat pink with the background purple, which resulted in the outline for the character needing to be lighter to compensate.

Design for Jolynn Yeh

Jolynn Yeh's Capstone Project was an animation about the passing and grief of a pet, with the dog returning as a ghost at the end of the video. I decided to make a ghost version of the dog she will be using, since she hadn't made a design for it.

Design for Shannon Raines

Shannon Raines' capstone was environmental design. She was uncomfortable with divulging information about her project to me, so she suggested I make either a stingray or selkie-inspired character. In the end, I decided to combine both, with the color palette and markings being inspired by artworks of selkies by Grace Freeman and Natasa Ilincic.

Design for Quinn Okker

Quinn Okker's Capstone Project was an interior design capstone. The first thing I noticed was the lighting sample that was provided was quite colorful and attention-grabbing. This would end up being the color palette for the character. I also decided to use the bookcase in the room as a head, the carpet as a cloak, and the light stand as a body and legs.

Design for Marianne Nicole

Marianne's capstone was an animatic involving fairies in a flower forest. The clothing is reminiscent of clothing that one might see in an old fairy tale, and I decided a bright, vibrant palette would help with this design. I believe that the facial features being drawn in complete white help make the design unique.

Design for Sydney Tate

Sydney Tate's Capstone Project was an animatic about a laboratory being rampaged by an escaped creature. I believed that a gelatinous amphibian creature with large dark eyes and a large mouth helped make the character look alienlike, which better fit in the lab.

Design for Ulysses Hargett

Ulysses's capstone was a mathematical music album. This concept evoked feelings of geometric shapes and patterns for me. Because of this, I designed a stone glyph disc jockey-type character who had a sort of magical theme going on.