At Colour Heroes, our creative team love developing characters and showcasing each character’s personality. Illustrated characters bring an experience to life and create opportunities to learn through storytelling, in a fun and engaging way that families will remember for years to come.

Our work with Tangmere Military Aviation Museum

Tangmere Military Aviation Museum were looking for a high-quality children’s guidebook to engage their family audience. We knew we had to elevate their offer into something that could be used in a wider context for promotional events, social media, a children’s book, advertising and small touches around the museum.

The introduction of a character, ‘Tangmere Ted’, created a natural link between families and Tangmere Military Aviation Museum’s history.

Chris, our Creative Lead, is known for bringing vision and creative flair through his characters. It was important that the character told a story but was playful and lively to appeal to children. Chris took inspiration from Teddy Donaldson, a famous aviator, known for his high-speed flight record based at Tangmere after World War II.

The character was created and used to guide children through a new 20-page activity book, bringing history to life through illustration, storytelling, games and puzzles. His warm and friendly guidance helped children navigate around the educational content of the book, including difficult subjects around war but an important part of the museum’s history.

Tangmere Ted was so well received that he has been turned into a full-size character mascot costume! He is used extensively at events to boost family engagement and to tell the story of the museum’s significance in the history of aviation.

Development of Tangmere Ted character into a life size costume

How we help

The team at Colour Heroes specialise in family visitor resources for museums and heritage sites.

Our services include:

Character design for museums and attractions
Illustrated maps and trails
Interpretation panels and storytelling
Printed bespoke activity books and children’s resources
Mascot development for use across signage, merchandise and events

How Colour Heroes helped create Tangmere Ted

1. Character development

Colour Heroes’ team worked with the museum to define:

Tangmere Ted’s personality and traits (brave, friendly, curious)
His connection to aviation history
His role as a child-friendly guide to the museum’s stories
The story, audience, tone and purpose

2. Illustration and mascot design

Using our in-house illustrators, Colour Heroes:

Created hand-drawn concept sketches
Refined Ted’s look to match the museum’s brand
Ensured the character had personality, movement and expression
Produced final artwork suitable for print, signage and digital use

Why Tangmere Ted works so well for the museum

A character like Tangmere Ted helps the museum:

Make aviation history accessible to children
Encourages families to explore more of the site
Creates a memorable ‘face’ for events
Increases dwell times and repeat visits
Strengthens the museum’s family-friendly identity

All of the above align with Colour Heroes’ mission to help attractions engage families through character interaction, storytelling, illustration and playful learning.

Other notable characters we have created

Our team have created many different characters over our 25-year history, including:

West Somerset Railway – Brunel the Beagle

‘Brunel the Beagle’ is the canine mascot of the historic West Somerset Railway (WSR), which is a 20-mile stretch of heritage railway through the stunning Somerset countryside and coast.

Named after the famous railway engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, WSR were looking for a character design to engage with their family audience.

Matt, our Senior Illustrator and Designer, whose character creations are well known for their engaging, realistic qualities, created ‘Brunel’. Brunel is a huge star at WSR and has been developed into a life-size mascot to greet families. Brunel also stars in children’s trails and makes special appearances at events across Minehead Station.

Brunel was also turned into a stuffed toy and is available to buy in the railway shop, and appears on key rings, fridge magnets, notebooks, goodie bags and even on his own pencil case!

WSR run seasonal children’s trails, and Brunel is always the star of the show, dressing up in various costumes including a wizard, a pumpkin, a knight and an Easter Bunny! Our team create the design for the children’s trail sheets, which are packed with puzzles and fun activities to tell the story of West Somerset Railway.

Harvester – Harvester Rabbit

Harvester Restaurants use rabbit characters, most notably Harvey the Harvester Rabbit, in their children’s menus, activity packs and augmented reality experiences.

Matt created the Harvester Rabbits which were turned into life-size costumes.

Erewash Museum – Dalby Dog

Erewash Museum is a free, social history museum in Ilkeston, Derbyshire, housed in the historic Dalby House. It offers family-friendly events and school holiday activities and runs exhibitions on local history, industry, military heritage and art.

We created the character Dalby Dog to help make local history more accessible to children, encouraging families to explore the museum’s collection and to provide a friendly ‘face’ for school holiday activities.

Allow Colour Heroes to turn your characters or mascot into a living, breathing bundle of fun that families can’t resist. Please call us at 01347 824 459 or email our friendly team at info@colourheroes.com.

Character creation and mascot design