CASE STUDY

Building a Global Learning Community: How Diverse Character Development Shaped Addiev's Training


Creating a Diverse Learning Experience
Addiev
 knew they needed more than just words in their training materials. They needed characters – relatable figures who could guide learners and make complex concepts engaging. That's where my expertise in inclusive character design and corporate illustration for internal communications came in! By creating diverse and approachable characters, I helped make the training materials more engaging and relatable, ensuring that employees could connect with the content and better retain key information.

Working Together, Learning Together
I started by brainstorming with the Addiev team, who shared a list of ethnicities, gestures, and expressions they envisioned for the project. Next, I got to sketching! Drawing on my expertise in character design in corporate training, I aimed to create diverse character creation that represented a variety of ages, backgrounds, and body types. This approach ensured that everyone felt seen and included in the training materials, making the content more relatable and effective for all employees.

AT A GLANCE


Challenge: Create relatable characters to enhance Addiev's training materials and foster a more engaging learning experience.

Solution: Developed a diverse cast of characters reflecting various ethnicities, ages, and body types.


Exploring the form: A First Nations woman from every perspective with a neutral facial expression.


Exploring body language and expression.


Happy expression, four perspectives: A First Nations man.


Exploring body language and expression.


Exploring the form: An African woman from every perspective with a neutral facial expression.


Exploring body language and expression.


Serious expression, four perspectives: An African man.


Exploring body language and expression.


Speaking expression, four perspectives: An Asian woman.


Exploring body language and expression.


Exploring the form: An Asian man from every perspective with a neutral facial expression.


Exploring body language and expression.


Happy expression, four perspectives: A Gender Neutral person.


Exploring body language and expression.


Exploring the form: A Gender Neutral person from every perspective with a neutral facial expression.


Exploring body language and expression.

From Sketches to Personalities
Once Addiev approved the initial sketches, I focused on refining the corporate training character designs. I fleshed out each character, giving them a full range of emotions—happy, surprised, thoughtful—and corresponding hand gestures to enhance engagement. As part of the corporate training illustration process, we also explored different angles, including front and side views, ensuring the characters looked dynamic and consistent from every perspective. This meticulous approach helped create versatile and relatable visuals that brought Addiev’s training materials to life.

Making a Connection
One of the biggest hurdles? Creating characters that resonated with a global audience. This required a focus on inclusive character design and diverse character creation, striking a balance between visual consistency and unique personalities. Elements like hairstyles, clothing choices, and subtle age differences played a crucial role in making these characters feel authentic and relatable. By incorporating these thoughtful details, we ensured that the characters connected with people from various backgrounds, enhancing the overall impact of the training materials.

Process: Collaborated with Addiev to define character traits, expressions, and poses. Hand-drawn and illustrated hundreds of characters using Adobe Photoshop.

Impact: Enhanced training materials with relatable characters, promoting inclusivity and global learning.


Happy expression, four perspectives: A Middle Eastern woman.


Exploring body language and expression.


Exploring the form: A Middle Eastern man from every perspective with a neutral facial expression.


Exploring body language and expression.


Sad expression, four perspectives: A Latin American woman.


Exploring body language and expression.


Exploring the form: A Latin American man from every perspective with a neutral facial expression.


Exploring body language and expression.


Exploring the form: An East Indian woman from every perspective with a neutral facial expression.


Exploring body language and expression.


Sad expression, four perspectives: An East Indian man.


Exploring body language and expression.


Speaking expression, four perspectives: A European woman.


Exploring body language and expression.


Exploring the form: A European man from every perspective with a neutral facial expression.


Exploring body language and expression.

A Library of Learning
In the end, the project resulted in hundreds of hand-drawn and painted characters, all brought to life in Adobe Photoshop. As a corporate illustrator, I didn't just create a collection of illustrations; I developed a library of diverse learners designed for corporate illustration for internal communications. These characters were crafted to guide and engage everyone using Addiev's training materials, making complex concepts relatable and accessible. It was a project I was truly proud to be a part of!

Testimonial

"Ainsley was given complex, artwork specifications for a series of graphic novel characters. The digital illustration work delivered was exceptional, the deliverables were spot-on regarding specs, and the source, layered artwork files exceeded our expectations for structure.
Ainsley is a gifted artist and pleasure to work with and who delivered ahead of schedule, on budget, and communicated progress throughout the project. We highly recommend Ainsley!”

- Addiev, Project Lead


 

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