Character & Merchandise
Petey & Piper
A character-led merchandise system for Peterbilt, built across ecommerce, apparel, plush, accessories, and production-ready product artwork.
- Character / Illustration
- Product & Merchandise
- Ecommerce
- Role
- Senior Graphic Designer / Character & Merchandise Designer
- Client
- Peterbilt / PACCAR, through BDA / DesignLab
- Year
- 2024
- Deliverables
- Character concepts, Final character artwork, Merchandise artwork, Apparel graphics, Product mockups, Pattern applications, Backpack and lunch cooler artwork, Sticker and accessory artwork, Ecommerce product assets, Production-ready proofing support
- Tools
- Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Product mockups, Production proofing, Ecommerce asset preparation
Challenge
Peterbilt needed a kid and family-friendly merchandise collection that could turn the brand into something more playful, approachable, and collectible. The work needed to connect with fans through character, product artwork, and ecommerce without losing the recognizable Peterbilt truck personality.
Approach
I developed Petey and Piper as a character pair that could carry the collection across plush, apparel, lunch coolers, accessories, product artwork, and ecommerce assets. The system needed to be simple enough for production, expressive enough for kids, and flexible enough to work across multiple product types.
Final character system
Petey and Piper were designed as a matched character pair, with simplified forms, clear color logic, and expressions that could translate across product types.
Concept evolution
Early exploration helped define the balance between truck accuracy, kid-friendly personality, and merchandise appeal before the final character direction was selected.
From character system to merchandise system
The character system expanded into apparel, plush, lunch coolers, stickers, accessories, and ecommerce visuals. Each application needed to keep the characters recognizable while adapting to different product shapes, sizes, and production needs.
Physical product samples
The character system moved into real merchandise samples, including plush characters and branded lunch cooler products.
Ecommerce launch
The final system supported a live Peterbilt ecommerce collection, helping the character artwork move from concept into shoppable product presentation.
What I owned
- Explored early character directions and visual styles.
- Developed final Petey and Piper character artwork.
- Extended the character system across apparel, accessories, bags, lunch coolers, stickers, water bottles, keychains, plush, and other merchandise.
- Created product artwork and production-ready visual assets.
- Helped translate the character idea into ecommerce merchandise presentation.
Why it mattered
Petey and Piper gave Peterbilt a friendly character system that could reach families, kids, and younger fans without losing the brand's truck identity. The project helped turn a vehicle brand into a more flexible merchandise and ecommerce system.
Impact
- Created a character system that could support multiple product categories.
- Helped extend Peterbilt's brand into kid-friendly merchandise and ecommerce.
- Built artwork that could move from concept presentation into physical product samples.
- Supported a more playful, collectible expression of the Peterbilt brand.