I had the opportunity to chat with Olivier, who designed the Raving Rabbids figurines, a couple weeks ago. I thought you’d like to hear his story and how he designed these… Enjoy! 😉

Can you introduce yourself?

My name is Olivier Lemaitre and I worked in the industrial design field for 25 years. I’m the head of Nowiew, a design agency, and I’m currently working on the Raving Rabbids figurines.

How did you meet the Raving Rabbids?

I was already working with Polymark on various projects such as Scooby-Doo or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. They bought the rights for the bobbing head of the Raving Rabbids. Since I like being challenged (we didn’t have much time) I joined the adventure.

It looks like an easy figurine to work on but it’s actually pretty complex. I did my first mockups thanks to computer generated images (with Imagine & Shape) which saved a lot of time. Production took another week and the final product was delivered in the next days, immediately confirmed by my client.

Why did you use Computer Aided Design?

I can’t work in the industrial design field without CAD software now. The huge advantage is to give clients a real surface to work with… Thanks to that, we don’t stop the digital line. Plus, this line has to start from the very beginning and this beginning is us, the designers.

You were talking about a challenge… Aren’t the Raving Rabbids easy to design?

In my field, I always say it’s harder to make simple things than complicated ones. Clients (and users) will not spend time reviewing all the details of a complex figurine unless there’s a big problem. They will look at how realistic the product is, because it’s full of details. But when you look at the Raving Rabbids, they’re all refined. And that’s where people start judging its curves, which are much tougher than anything else to make perfect. When it’s that smooth, you have no room for mistakes.

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Thanks a lot Olivier! 🙂

Best,

Rémi