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Malvi · 3D characters · 2022–2024

A marshmallow with somewhere to be.

A family of 3D characters for a small-batch marshmallow maker, made at Whiskey Design.

A winter world of striped candy mountains, frosted blue trees and white clouds, with a toasted marshmallow and a s'more waving from the snow and a narwhal with a striped horn of stacked mallows.
The Winter world, April 2024

Malvi makes small-batch marshmallows in Cumming, Georgia, and they come square. Over two years at Whiskey Design I turned that square into a character: one soft cube with a face, re-dressed for every flavour, every season, and the Hot Cocoa tin it ends up holding.

Client
Malvi Marshmallow Confections
Studio
Whiskey Design, Kansas City
When
April 2022 – July 2024
My role
Character design, 3D modelling, look development, lighting, rendering
Tools
Cinema 4D, Redshift
01One mallowApril 2022

Start with one mallow.

The first test sat on a desk like a toy someone had left there. A day later it had a party hat, sprinkles, and the open grin the whole cast would keep.

A white marshmallow character in a pink party hat standing on a wooden desk.
First test, 19 April
The marshmallow character in a pink party hat with sprinkles on its head.
The mascot, 20 April
02The castApr – May 2022

Then give it friends.

Same body, new costume. Each friend is one change: stripes and wings, ears and honey, a graham cracker lid, a mug to sit in.

A marshmallow bee with yellow and brown stripes and two blue wings.
Bee
A marshmallow bunny with pink ears and honey on its head.
Bunny
A marshmallow sandwiched in graham crackers with melted chocolate.
S'more
A marshmallow peeking out of a pink striped mug that also has a face.
Cocoa cup
03Drop testApril 2022

Let them fall.

A quick physics test in the brand's flat style: five faces stacked up, then knocked over, to see how a marshmallow tumbles and settles.

Physics test, 1280 × 1280, 7.7 s
04Flavour stacksJun – Jul 2023

Every flavour is a costume.

Three mallows to a stack, each dressed in its flavour's own ingredients: hibiscus and raspberries, peanuts and a chocolate ribbon, candy canes, honeycomb and bees.

Three stacked marshmallows with hibiscus flowers and raspberries.
Raspberry Hibiscus
Three stacked marshmallows wrapped in a chocolate ribbon with peanuts.
Fluffy Nutter
Three pink marshmallows with rainbows and cotton candy.
Cotton Candy
Marshmallows stacked with chocolate squares and candy canes.
Peppermint Chocolate
Marshmallows stacked with honeycomb, a honey dipper and bees.
Honey
Coffee-coloured marshmallows stacked with chocolate and coffee beans.
Spiked Espresso
Marshmallows stacked with caramel, graham crackers and flowers.
Caramel S'more
05SeasonsMay 2023

Give them somewhere to live.

Three worlds built from one shared kit of soft, toy-like forms, one per season, each with the cast round a campfire or out in the snow.

Spring

Lilac trees, a campfire

Two marshmallow characters by a campfire under lilac trees and a pink evening sky.

Summer

A meadow, a passing bee

Marshmallow characters by a campfire in a green meadow with round trees and a bee flying past.

Winter

Candy mountains, a snowman stack

A winter world of striped mountains and blue trees with a marshmallow snowman and a narwhal.
06Hot Cocoa wrapAug 2023 – Apr 2024

A world that wraps all the way round.

Winter was then rebuilt as a wrap for Malvi's Hot Cocoa tin: one seamless strip rendered at 400 dpi, so the mountains at one end run straight back into the snowfield at the other.

The winter tin wrap: candy mountains, blue trees, a narwhal, a snowman stack and marshmallow characters on snow, scrolling in a continuous loop.
Seamless wrap, 4504 × 1512 at 400 dpi, shown looping
The winter wrap with the Malvi Hot Cocoa title and the line 'Velvety, semi-sweet hot cocoa mix with chocolate crumbles'.
The wrap with Malvi's Hot Cocoa title, April 2024
A pink marshmallow character holding a small blue Malvi Hot Cocoa tin.
The cast meets the tin
07TropicalAug 2022 · Oct 2023

Flavour you can see.

For the tropical flavours the ingredients became characters too: a hibiscus flower, a sprinkled berry, and later a passion fruit flower with a tiny mallow at its heart.

A purple hibiscus flower, a marshmallow with sprinkles and a pink berry side by side.
Tropical set, Aug 2022
A pink and purple passion fruit flower with a small orange marshmallow face at its centre.
Passion fruit flower, Oct 2023
Credits

Made at Whiskey Design.

Client
Malvi Marshmallow Confections, Cumming, Georgia
Studio
Whiskey Design, Kansas City
Mason Barry
Character design, 3D modelling, look development, lighting, physics test, rendering
Tools
Cinema 4D, Redshift

Every image is an original 2022–2024 render at its native size.

The Malvi cast together: a narwhal, a bunny, a s'more and a flying bee; the big pink Hot Cocoa marshmallow holding its tin; the party-hat mascot, a mallow in a pink mug and a nutter mallow with peanuts.
Curtain call: separate 2022–2023 renders placed on one floor