Caricature Puppet Creation

One of the newest characters to pass through the James Kemp Puppets shop is Lil’ Trent. Lil’ Trent is a caricature of Trent Ranburger, a local celebrity and bedding magnate who is known for doing outrageous stunts and jokes as part of his advertising campaigns.

Sublime Media Group was approached to produce a new series of ads for Trent Bedding because of the success we’ve had with other clients in bringing attention to their brand. When we sat down for the initial meeting with Trent, he told us he wanted to do something cool with one of our puppet characters. So we thought, why not do something original? We got the idea to create a caricature of Trent as the basis for the puppet. Trent is no stranger to the idea that he’s a goofy guy. He loves it, and everyone else does too.

In the weeks leading up to the start of the project, I had spent a lot of time thinking about who could create an accurate yet endearing caricature of Trent. Who better to approach about the project than my friend Edward Eyth. Ed is an incredible design artist with the most incredible eye for details. Ed has worked as a concept artist on several major Hollywood films through the years including Back to the Future II, Hook, Flight of the Navigator, Masters of the Universe, Captain EO, and so many more. In the 90’s Ed found himself the creative director and head Muppet designer at the Jim Henson Company. It is an honor to call Ed friend, and as much of a pleasure working with him.

Trent Ranburger Caricature Puppet

A Great Design Makes All the Difference

I first worked with Ed on a couple of puppets for Baby Einstein last year. I can’t really elaborate on that at the moment, but hopefully I’ll be able to talk about it soon. Ed set in on creating quite a few different versions of the Lil Trent character that all remarkably mirrored Trent himself. We chose the design we liked best and I began work. Working with Ed is never to be considered lightly. Ed is the nicest guy you’ll ever meet, but his attention to detail and body of work mean that he can be the most marvelous critic. I love having Ed to bounce off of because he pushes me. He pushes me to be the absolute best artist I can be, and my best work has come from working with the man.

I was in the middle of several other projects at the time and was preparing for a trip to Texas for a shoot with the Balcom Agency on a project for the NFL and Dairy Maxx, so working on Lil Trent was a little stressful. Nonetheless, I worked my butt off and was able to finish Lil Trent on time. The work speaks for itself. Check out these great behind the scenes photos of the build as well as this cool behind the scenes video.