Subnet Studio

Bongo Maxx · Brand character · Our own IP

One character. The same man, everywhere he goes.

A brand character only works if he is unmistakably the same every time: the face, the hair, the moustache, the build. That is exactly where AI usually fails; the character drifts from one image to the next. Bongo Maxx is our own character, built to prove it can be done.

We designed Bongo and locked him in a character sheet: face and full body, every feature fixed. Every reel since starts from that sheet, so whether he is rollerskating past the Colosseum or longboarding at sunset, it is the same man.

One locked character, carried through five reels and an Instagram photo dump so far, in new places, outfits and moves, without a re-design.

  • 1

    character sheet

  • 5

    reels so far

  • 0

    re-designs

Bongo Maxx: his locked face, then the same man on the Venice boardwalk and longboarding at sunset

The films

Rollerskating in Rome · 0:17
Longboarding at sunset · 0:08

The character we locked

From this…

Locked once, then held in every frame that follows.

Bongo Maxx character sheet: face, with white curly hair, a waxed moustache and gold earrings
Bongo Maxx character sheet: full body, front on

What we made

…to this.

Bongo Maxx grinning in a car selfie on the drive down to the beach
Bongo Maxx longboarding along a boardwalk at sunset
Bongo Maxx laughing with friends at a beach bar at night
Bongo Maxx close-up in sunglasses on the boardwalk

The Instagram photo dump.

A day on the Venice boardwalk, from the drive down to the beach bar, posted as one carousel. A character lives on social, so he has to hold up in a phone-camera snapshot as well as a reel.

  1. Bongo Maxx on the boardwalk with his longboard, pointing down the promenade
  2. Bongo Maxx grinning in a car selfie on the drive down, longboard on his lap
  3. Bongo Maxx lacing his sneakers on the kerb beside his board
  4. Bongo Maxx mid-air above his longboard at sunset
  5. A tattooed local sits on the boardwalk with his skateboard and dog
  6. Bongo Maxx with an arm round a friend on the boardwalk
  7. An iced coffee and a sandwich on a boardwalk table, palm trees behind
  8. Bongo Maxx skating away down the boardwalk at golden hour
  9. Bongo Maxx laughing with friends at a beach bar at night
  10. Surfboards stacked against a wall, the sun setting over the beach

Credits

  • Original character and IP: Subnet Studio
Next: Handmade jewellery, shown in the life it’s worn in.

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Want something like this?

Send us the brief. We’ll come back within a working day with how we’d approach it.

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