It is with great pride that we present the latest addition (or should I say additions?) to the Ludejo family!
On Friday the 10th of April, at 17.43 pm, we became the proud parents of a lovely set of Besto’s!
In fact, you might say that we’ve adopted an entire zoo. Don’t worry, we haven’t made a career switch; we do love animals, but our passion for language and the energy we get from helping you with your translation jobs exceeds the pleasure we derive from looking after baby animals (especially if it includes regular diaper changes).
However, Playground Besto (that’s the name of our latest project) does provide us with the opportunity to show our skills as a multilingual communication agency.
Playground Besto initially started as a relatively small project. Malon wanted to do something nice for our clients, something to show off our graphic design skills. Those of you who know Malon, know that she loves beautiful things.
The initial idea was to create a collection of designs that could be downloaded by clients to use as a wallpaper screensaver on their laptop or smartphone. The idea was pitched to our graphic designer, who came up with a stunning collection of avatars based on the Ludejo team members’ favourite animals. The animals were called ‘Besto’s’, given that the word ‘Besto’ means ‘animal’ in Esperanto. (Ludejo means ‘playground’ in Esperanto – hence “Playground Besto”)
Playground Besto
As the project evolved, it was almost as if the Besto’s came to life. All the team members seemed to develop a crush on their avatar (which, given the cuteness of the animals, didn’t really come as a surprise) and it seemed a bit of a waste not to expand the project. After all, how awesome would it be if all the Besto’s had their own personality and their own story? And what if we could find a way to link the Besto’s to our mission statement and our services? Graphic design, copywriting, translation, audio and video productions… In no time we had approximately one hundred ideas about the ways in which we could further develop Playground Besto.
The idea was that everyone could download a colour by number version of their favourite Besto.
Still, before we could delve deeper into our creative ideas, we needed a solid foundation. That foundation was provided by Marrit, our graphic designer who designed all the Besto’s. All the graphics are executed in a style called low poly, a style which Marrit first encountered during the second year of her studies.
My first low poly design was an owl
“During my second year, several teachers told me that they didn’t think my style was professional enough for a graphic designer. That was a tough pill to swallow, but I decided to look into other styles to see if there was something I liked and which looked a bit more mature. The first time I saw a low poly design, I thought: ‘wow, this looks really cool!’ I was so excited about the style, I taught myself how to do it within three days. My first low poly design was an owl, which was quite a challenge, but I was very pleased with the end result, and so were my teachers. I decided to add the owl to my portfolio, and when I applied for the job as graphic designer at Ludejo, Andrew immediately said he really liked it and that he would really like to see if we could somehow use it in a project or on our website. And that’s really how the design for Playground Besto originated.” – Marrit
The next step was to make the images available as colour by number templates on the website. The idea was that everyone could download a colour by number version of their favourite Besto. And although the templates were initially targeted at kids, they were a huge hit with adults as well (which was, frankly, quite a relief, knowing that we weren’t the only ones above the age of six who’d gotten their crayons out).
Of course we would like to share all the ins and outs about Playground Besto straight away, but given that the project is still in its infancy, you’ll have to make due with the colour by number pages for now. We promise that there will be lots of Playground Besto content coming your way over the next couple of weeks, so make sure to keep an eye on our social media channels!
