Let me start by critiquing this not from a design point-of-view, but rather from a fan's. First off, my niece can draw better than this, and she's 3. After a few seconds of looking at this I can't help but wonder what he's holding in his left hand... coal? You know he looks kinda like a character on a saturday morning cartoon. "Coming this fall, the adventures of Failure Frog, the son of a coyote and a lizard. Join him on his hilarious adventures...." Or maybe he looks more like a mascot for some useless children's organization. I suppose the upside is that if this fellow's TCU career doesn't pan out, he could always hook up with the D.A.R.E. dog, I think they'd go great together.
Well now that that's out of my system lets spend some time analyzing this from a design standpoint, and we'll start by looking at his outfit. Check out the design on his collar and shirt/short sleeves. There are groups of black and white triangles to what effect? They are stupid, don't match, and are entirely pointless. Next, notice the word frog is printed on his shorts. For anyone who is unfamiliar with TCU, this graphic is counterproductive in educating them. The dude looks like some type of wolf, yet his pants say Frogs. TCU's mascot is not a wolf or a frog, but rather the Horned Frogs, more appropriately called the Horned Lizard, but nothing in this picture would clue you into that fact. And he doesn't have any shoelaces, yet he's dressed in basketball clothes... not a likely combination.
The color usage brings about my next complaint. The three main colors are purple, black, and gray. The guy's skin is the same color as his shirt and shoes. Such an error screams poor design, seems cheap and speedily done, like a children's color-book.
Lets look at the lines in this picture next. First off check out his shirt. Is it crooked for a specific reason? Were they perhaps going for the billowing wind effect? If so, why just the shirt, why not have the pants doing the same thing? I think it's just poor design. The shirt should be in a straight line and it should cover his stomach. Why's he showing the skin? Maybe it's a girl creature, who's to say? Next focus on his arm spikes. The ones on his right arm look more like fins then spikes, but I suppose they are passible. But look at his other arm, that looks more like poorly drawn arm hair to me. And while we're focusing on that arm, zoom in on his elbow.... What is that? Some type of tattoo?
As far as shape and form go this picture is just all wrong. The two dimensional drawing with the overlapping lines on his face to give the three dimensional impression just doesn't work for me. Pay particular attention to his mouth, notice how it doesn't seem to connect to the back of his face on the top? And how about his hands? Why are they white would be my first question, but what is that on the back of his right? Very large varicose veins?
The texture is all wrong as well. He looks soft, especially his face, yet he's suppose to be a reptile.
The colors contrast poorly, the picture has many irregularities and odd patterns, and it's poorly drawn. All in all, not a good design.
I like this. It's very simple yet effective. At the sake of sounding slightly less heterosexual I will say that this little guy is kinda cute. But not cuddly cute because he's also tuff looking. He's not mean per-say; he isn't going to go out looking for a fight but clearly somebody that'll hold his ground if threatened. This is a very good design for TCU's mascot.
The colors in this picture couldn't be any better. The black and the purple contrast nicely together, and bother are the exact hue of TCU's school colors. The white border around the purple helps highlight the school's name, and the grayish hue rather than a white color give the lizard more of a realistic feel.
The shapes and the lines on the lizard are very well done, and quite comical as well. The pointy triangles help stress the point that this is a horned lizard. His claws are sharp and intimidating. I especially love his sharp little teeth, black chin that resembles a goatee rather than claws, and his little six pack on his chest.
The Purple TCU show clearly who and what this logo is, and the shape of the colors as well as the rounded pull-down layout give the picture a more organized feel.
The Gestalt Principles are utilized very effectively in this picture. The purple TCU letters follow the Laws of Proximity and Similarity. The Law of Continuity can be seen in the lizard's body, following the darker outline that makes up his shape. And the Law of Closure can be seen in many of the different designs on his body.
Really my only complaint with this picture is that they didn't draw his left eye, he looks kinda weird once you focus on his face and realize it's missing.
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