The making of Vernon P. Hearnburner
Hearn Plumbing, Heating & Air reached out to Photonic Studio to help with a logo character design for their business. After their previous yard sign marketing effort went viral this character was the next step in growing their business. They decided to make the “H” sign into an animated 3D character to use across social media and their web page.
Photonic loved the idea of a logo-based character and started sketching right away. Then we refined those ideas and developed character concept spreadsheets to help team Hearn define the H character. Over a couple of zoom sessions, we were able to define his body type, scale, proportions, and detailing.
Third generation
Trying to come up with a meaningful name, Tom Hearn, the third generation of team Hearn decided to use Vernon or Vern for short. Tom’s grandfather, David’s middle name Vernon was the perfect fit. “David started the company 75 years ago so we thought it was a nice throwback.” One dark and stormy night in Madison, Ohio, Vernon P. Hearnburner was born.
How Vern came to be.
The creative sessions for the video were a lot of fun. We couldn’t stop coming up with ideas about where Vern came from and what mischief he was getting into.
Experiments and testing.
Use cases
Vern appears on social media, the Hearn website, and at trade show conferences.
The benefit of using 3D models is they have multiple uses such as static images, animations, or interactive experiences.
When we render images with transparent backgrounds it allows for more control between multiple groups such as the website or social media team. Vern can easily be inserted into many scenarios.
Some Vern Renderings.
