BIG ZEN

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 Internal Concept — “Big Zen Has Issues 

 This project was a self-initiated exploration into how far a fictional brand mascot—Big Zen, a reclusive and charming Sasquatch—could be developed and positioned as a cultural icon across various media formats. The creative experiment fused magazine satire, visual storytelling, and social media–ready formats to test the narrative and design limits of a single character. 

 To demonstrate how a mascot can evolve from a visual gag or brand extra into a fully realized, multidimensional media figure—complete with implied lore, public perception arcs, and genre-spanning relevance. The ultimate goal was to blur the line between parody and brand power, showing how humor, cohesion, and aesthetic polish can drive strong engagement and story buy-in across platforms. 

•  Concept Development: Originated the "Big Zen" mascot and his character arc as an emerging media figure.
   
• Narrative Design: Wrote all editorial-style captions, quotes, and cover story summaries to emulate distinct magazine voices (Vogue, Sports Illustrated, Guns & Ammo, etc.).
   
• Art Direction: Directed the style and tone of all generated assets, ensuring realism, visual diversity, and alignment with each magazine’s brand.
   
• Image Generation: Created all Big Zen covers using AI tools, refining prompts for consistency in pose, expression, styling, and layout integrity.
   
• Slide Composition: Imported and arranged assets in Canva, maintaining visual hierarchy, font pairing, and brand tone consistency throughout the carousel.
   
• Copywriting: Developed satirical-yet-sincere titles, pull quotes, and article blurbs that support character development and viewer immersion.

•  ChatGPT + DALL·E / Image Gen Tools – For text/image ideation and iteration
   
• Canva – For final formatting, layout design, and type styling
   
• Photoshop (optional) – Minor retouching and adjustments to realism and composite alignment

•  Complete 6-slide carousel with fully realized magazine covers and corresponding editorial commentary
   
• Successfully turned a mascot into a multidimensional figure through layered storytelling and design
   
• Created a repeatable format for applying this same approach to other mascots, characters, or brand figureheads
   
• Validated visual tone and character voice through shareable, highly adaptable assets for content marketing, audience testing, or brand identity proof-of-concept