From Machine to Mascot: The Story Behind M.Tech’s 3D Brand Character

Big Leap has already built a handful of brands. From social media branding to creating brand identity, our services, ranging across 3D animation to character/product animation, carried out by our team of enthusiastic creatives, were always sure about one thing: branding is not an easy job when you really clearly know who your client is, what they do, and how they would be best represented.

I know it sounds ironic, but it’s true. The more you know, the wider the horizon gets. The market is full of identical brands selling identical products, and what’s one more brand going to do? That’s the question every ad guy in any creative agency is wrestling with all day. Here, more than how much you know about the brand, what counts is how much you can feel what the brand is about. It is indeed a strange place to be in, but at the end of the day, creative work is like talking to the wall, hoping that it has something original to say back to you.

The client was M.Tech, a market leader across the Middle East, specialized in the supply of automatic jumpform systems that use electronic screw jacks to achieve the best results in a safer and more accurate way. The company was formed in 2007 and is well-renowned in the jumpform scene for their bespoke solutions that offer reliability and high quality using a well-maintained fleet of equipment, strong management, and the knowledge of the best solution for each situation and client requirement.

Our primary research found out that M.Tech’s reputation and efficiency in the jumpform ecosystem were unparalleled. They already had strong brand recognition and a brand image, solely based on their sheer commitment to excellence and attention to detail, but it was all happening offline, just like the nature of their business.

With this, our task became simpler. They are a market leader, known by every other client in the industry across the GCC. Our challenge was to integrate all this data into a modern brand image. This is where the idea of a mascot came in.

When seen from inside a car on a passing billboard, a mascot looks simple. Easy to create. But it is neither simple nor easy to create. The process of creating a 3D mascot, when systematically laid out, sure looks simple. It is a process, and Big Leap has all the talent it takes to make the best ones.

But the invisible part, what brands really pay for, is the thought behind it. A mascot manifests first on a piece of paper. That is the initial design, but it had to start in the creative’s mind, and it takes real hard thinking to understand the client’s brand philosophy and give it a psychological resonance, relatability, and a kind of simplicity that slides into the viewer’s mind and stays there.

This was the process happening inside our creative director's mind when he was sitting down with the client trying to understand what they really needed. And that’s exactly when it hit him—the jack, the core component of their work, that’s where the idea lies. A self-lifting jack—a really modern tool, but a very basic idea!

'Jack,' the mascot’s visual language comes directly from the self-lifting mechanism used in jumpform systems. The character was meant to represent the machine’s core functions, such as lifting, climbing, and supporting heavy structures.

The body had encoded the hydraulic/mechanical form. It is compact and ideal for heavy-duty strength and stability.

The lifting piston obviously had to be the head. Its circular component certainly gave a head-like vibe.

Jack’s strong and agile hands were modeled after the hydraulic rods and mechanical linkages to give it an engineered look.

Legs had to resemble the self-lifting action. With oversized feet, we wanted to reinforce his strong legs that support secure load-bearing.

This mechanical yet cool guy already had a western vibe to him. It was way cooler for him to have a cowboy style, not only in appearance but also in the way he moved. And that’s exactly what you can see in the 3D mascot video/3D character animation Big Leap did for M.Tech.

Jack didn’t throw nuts and bolts around, nor does he work in construction—Jack is a cool guy who likes to get on top of skyscrapers and listen to cool music from his tape. Jack is cool, agile, and able, but ultimately, Jack is a mechanically chill guy. And that, my friends, made Jack possible.

Thanks for reading! If you’re looking for a brand image or a mascot, feel free to get in touch with Big Leap’s team and get to know everything about our workprocess. Our portfolio ranges across 3D and 2D animations, product explainer videos, character animation, VFX, and pre-visualization.