Research: The Flintstones Characters
My collection of products this term is based on the TV show The Flintstones which primarily targets children. I mentioned in a previous blog post that I wanted to complete some further research on the flintstones. In this blog post, I will be looking at the different characters of the flintstones to analyse them and start the generation of ideas.
I want to familiarise myself with the characters to draw some inspiration from them. These are the characters included in the Flintstones.
The first character is Fred Flintstone:
Fred is the father of the family, married to his wife Wilma. Fred's most iconic phrase is 'yabba dabba doo'. Drawing inspiration from this phrase, I can perhaps name my collection or a individual piece of item 'yabba dabba doo'. This iconic phrase is also at the very beginning of their intro (linked below).
Freds personality was inspired by Ralph Kramden on the series 'The honeymooners'. He is loud, anti-social and offensive. I can also watch 'The honeymooners' at a later stage to see and create links between them.
Fred can be impulsive, high tempered with a very childish behaviour. Despite these qualities, Fred is kind-hearted and selfless when it comes to his family. He is a very friendly person and definitely the loudest in the room (which sometimes annoys the rest).
Fred is interested in bowling, playing pool, poker and playing golf.
Fred also invented multiple soft drinks with unpredictable effects. Some of these include:
'The Fred Flintstone hiccup cure', 'the hair grower', '411up', '412up'. '777up', 'Fred-O-Cal' and 'The Flintstone Rockuzzi'. I can also use this as primary inspiration for the name of my products.
Looking at his appearance, Fred is wearing orange, black and blue clothes. This can be my colour scheme when it comes to designing my products.
As I mentioned the intro in this section, I decided to also add some comments from the intro.
This is the link for the intro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uq7noaMwLfg
In their closing theme, there is a large piece of meat when Fred orders it from the drive in. This rib piece is in a curved shape which can be easily turned into a chair. I can use that also as an inspiration for my collection.
There is also a lion at the very end. I can use that specific animal for texture and print inspiration.
The next person I will be viewing is Wilma Flintstone:
Wilma is the wife of Fred Flintstone. Similarly to Fred, Wilmas personality was based on another character from 'The Honeymooners' named Alice Kramden. Wilma is very intelligent, strong-willed, serious and always tries to advise Fred on some of his actions.
Wilma really enjoys cooking, with her speciality being Gravelberry pie. She was once a waitress at a resort. She met Fred there as he was working as a bellhop.
Wilma and Fred got married in Vegas.
The next character is pebbles:
I am very interested in pebbles as she is a kid. I am targeting children in this collection of products so it will be interesting to study her own products or her behaviour throughout the show. I am planning on analysing pebbles in more detail.
Pebbles is the daughter of Wilma and Fred. She was born at the Bedrock Rockopedic Hospital on February 22nd.
She has a catch-phrase similar to her fathers, 'Yabba Dabba Dozie'.
Pebbles has a signature bone always in her hair. I can draw inspiration from that bone and see how I can develop it into a furniture.
Pebbles is cute and adorable. She is sweet and pure and full of energy. I really like pebbles as a character in the show.
She wears green clothes with the black patterned texture.
The next character is Bamm-Bamm Rubble:
Bamm-Bamm was adopted by Betty and Barney Rubble as they found him on their doorstep. Their neighbours were the Flintstone family. Inevitably, Bamm-Bamm fell in love with Pebbles.
At a later stage in their life, Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm get married with two children, Chip and Roxy.
Bamm-Bamm has a lot of strength and is a very humorous source in the show. He became a mechanic once he got older.
The last character I will be looking at in this post is Dino:
Dino is the pet in the family. Dino is probably my favourite character in the series. He is very adorable and sweet looking. I definitely want to include a product or furniture inspired by dino. The family met Dino one year before Pebbles was born.
It is a signature thing for Dino to knock down Fred and lick his face once he gets excited throughout the series, which I find adorable as he is showing his affection this way. When pebbles and bamm-bamm came along, Dino was very overprotective and babysitting them.
Dino is over emotional, playful and very loyal to his family.
I can definitely research existing products inspired by dinosaurs to see how I can implement him into my designs.
Conclusion: I had a lot of fun reading more about these characters. It took me back to my early years where I would watch this show over and over again. It has a very special place in my heart.
I am aware that there are more characters in the flintstones, however, these are the main ones. I may explore some more characters in future blog posts.
Even though there is a lot of potential to stick to the Flintstones for my product inspiration, I also want to look at actual cavemen and their lifestyle (future blog posts). However, an idea I had while writing this blog post was to design each piece of furniture inspired by one flintstone character. I could create 5 products on 5 different Flintstone Characters and name them after their signature phrases with my own touch of creativity.
I reaalllyyy like this idea and I definitely want to develop it in future blog posts.
I am planning on watching some more episodes in the show in order to analyse the furniture further and see how I can draw more inspiration (this may be an excuse for me to binge watch the Flintstones).
References:
Fred flintstone (n.d) Available at: https://flintstones.fandom.com/wiki/Fred_Flintstone#articleComments (Accessed: 18/04/21)
Wilma Flintstone (n.d) Available at: https://flintstones.fandom.com/wiki/Wilma_Flintstone (Accessed: 18/04/21)
Pebbles Flintstone (n.d) Available at: https://flintstones.fandom.com/wiki/Pebbles_Flintstone (Accessed: 18/04/21)
Bamm-Bamm Rubble (n.d) Available at: https://flintstones.fandom.com/wiki/Bamm-Bamm_Rubble (Accessed: 18/04/21)
Dino (n.d) Available at: https://flintstones.fandom.com/wiki/Dino (Accessed: 18/04/21)
So Flintstones as a visual inspiration rather than what it stands for (the nuclear family, the American dream, suburban living)? If you want your designs to be highly stylised then this is an acceptable source to work from. Perhaps consider your target market and whether or not this kind of aesthetic is suitable.
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