Have you seen this thing?
That's C.C., Cocos mascot, a cute creature that has been all over our blog, videos, and social media. We all love C.C., and we all love our marketing art designer Xiaoxia Gao. Xiaoxia is in charge of all the art you have seen from Cocos in the past 3+ years.
Recently we required a way to get more people interested in Cocos as well as something to help get our image out there, that Cocos is a fun company but very serious about building games. Thanks to Xiaoxia, C.C. was born, and we've had a fantastic time with C.C.
We were able to talk to Xiaoxia after her recent wedding about working at Cocos, creating C.C., and what exactly is C.C.
Cocos: Can you tell us where you went to school, what you studied and how long you have been at the company?
Xiaoxia: At the university, I studied in Fujian, my major was communication engineering. But my love for design started when I was in my freshman year. Until my junior year as a part-time designer, I decided on my career plan as a designer in the future. I have been working at Cocos for almost three years now.
C: Why did you choose to come to Cocos, and how do you like it?
XX: Cocos is a professional, dedicated, passionate, and creative team. Usually, the work mode is relatively flat and highly coordinated. For example, I will participate in the whole process of an event, from the definition of the theme and visual style in the early stage to the design and production of all materials in the mid-term to the feedback and summary of the later stages. This lets me feel highly efficient and gives me freedom in my work.
In fact, our company has very young and has an energetic atmosphere. It may also be that our circle of thoughts is the same, and everyone understands each other. We are very good friends in the marketing department.
My previous experience made me think it's challenging to make friends at work, and work is more of a two-parts of my one life. But coming to Cocos is more of a feeling of my home. We not only cooperate at work but also like to get together in private, such as script killing (escape rooms / table-top murder mysteries), werewolf killing (a social game in China), skateboarding, etc. Everyone often gathers together to play and eat hot pot on weekends. I even learned to play Xiamen Mahjong. I believe talking the local dialect is just around the corner.
C: What are some of your favorite accomplishments with Cocos?
XX: The thing that makes me happy so far is designing our mascot, C.C., for Cocos. After showing it to the company, I was so glad everyone loved it.
I remember when C.C. was placed on made the first batch of t-shirts, many colleagues and developers liked it a lot. Panda, our technical director, also created a 3D commemorative version for all of the engine team. Now, you can see many students wearing the clothes I designed every week. I am thrilled and proud, and it also makes me more determined to do more things with C.C. and create more swag in the future.
C: What made you come up with our new mascot, C.C.?
XX: I still feel that marketing can be used to start a dialogue with users, especially when using a mascot because it has a vivid and three-dimensional iconic image. It transcends the constraints of language and can give new value to the brand.
In the early stage of creation, I discovered that our brand logo has a strong degree of symbolism, the Cocos head. I began to think about what can I do through this symbol?
So I made it into an image and gave it a personality. It has a human touch that makes it attractive.
C.C. does have a bad habit of being too cute, but I hope that C.C. can better help the Cocos team. It can be a programmer or enjoy the same things programmers love. C.C. is yours. I will also do more stuff with C.C.: emoticons, shirts, figurines, ornaments, office supplies, etc.
C: What is C.C?
XX: I'm still trying to figure it out. But for now, it's whatever your imagination wants C.C. to be.
C: What have you done with C.C. since we started using it for promotions?
XX: This year, C.C. has been transformed into an astronaut. Recently, astronauts have become very popular in China, and many friends in the office placed pictures and swag on their desks space-related. On a whim, I combined C.C. with astronauts and had C.C. travel in space in fat astronaut clothes. It was quite interesting. So when I received the new demand for swag, I immediately made a combination. This year there will be T-shirts, mousepads, notebooks, badges, etc. I hope everyone liked it.
C: One thing that amazes us is the fun art styles you've added to the company. What art styles do you like right now?
XX: There are many types of art styles. I can feel the difference and beauty between different styles. In addition to work, I spend a lot of time constantly browsing and understanding domestic and foreign art styles and what styles have been popular recently, and I continue to iterate. Update and improve my aesthetic standards. Personally, I prefer the retro style. But for new styles, I recently admire the acid design.
C: Why have you gone with a futuristic art style with Cocos game engines, and will you continue this trend for future releases?
XX: Our Cocos product is leaping from 2D to include 3D games. So I hope to reflect the technical performance of our engine in the three-dimensional world through a future technological sense similar to cyberpunk and other styles.
I most definitely want to do more. I want to try a more 3D style to represent the different versions of what our developers could build with Cocos.
C: Any future things happening to C.C. we can share with people?
XX: I like to make more C.C. emojis and do the main visuals for events. All of these are very fun. So I'm hoping to make more for WeChat and our Discord group.
Next year, I hope to make a 3D model of C.C. to play with and have C.C. in other costumes and styles. I hope you enjoy what I build next year!
Thanks, Xiaoxia, for this fantastic interview. We hope you love C.C. and will be able to share stickers and other fun swag with you when we see you at events next year.
