Around 2002, while doodling and thinking about tattoo designs for myself, I scribbled down a little character that I thought represented me at the time. He was a combination of two Native American characters with kind of a trickster edge to them: Kokopelli, the hunch-backed flute player, and Coyote. I polished him up a bit with color and textures, and decided that while I wasn't crazy about tattooing him on my body, I kind of liked him as a logo for myself and my freelance illustration. I was somewhat inspired by Rudy Gutierrez, who was using a slightly similar, simply drawn figure as his logo. I eventually called the little guy Kokoyote, being not particularly original, but more or less unique as a name, as far as the internet seemed to indicate.

The Original

But in time, we must all put aside childish things. I've felt for a while that my logo no longer represents me, or the kind of work I do now. He's a little slapdash while my work has become steadily slicker and more refined, and he's flat and geometiric while I've been moving towards being more shaded and dimensional. Mostly, he's basically straight ink linework, which I simply don't even show in my portfolio anymore. So I updated him - I took the same design, went back and did him over from scratch.

The Evolution

And I kind of like it - I have to think about it, but I'd probably be okay showing it off to children's book clients at least. At the same time, I find myself wondering, why? Do I even need him at all? Would I just be better to let the little fellow die off and move on? Is there anything about him that helps sell my illustrations?

Feel free to chime in and vote, your words may save or condemn a deformed little character.