Meet Marvin

Posted on 09. Jan, 2010 by Flauwy in News

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His skin color is pale, he loves wearing hats and he has an amazing memory. No, your first thought goes into the wrong direction. I am talking about the new mascot for Memory-Sports.com: Meet Marvin the elephant. To celebrate his official introduction I gave Memory-Sports.com a fresh new look.

Marvin the Memory Master

About the elephant

The elephant has appeared in cultures across the world. They are a symbol of wisdom in Asian cultures and are famed for their memory and intelligence, where they are thought to be on par with cetaceans and hominids. Aristotle once said the elephant was “the beast which passeth all others in wit and mind”.

Wikipedia

What other creature among mother earth could be a better companion for us memory athletes than this epic animal? It is already the symbol for the World Memory Championships. And now it is also ours!

Named after his creator

© Marvin Clifford

When I was thinking about a proper name I decided I wanted to honor Marvin’s creator. Our new mascot was born by the feather of the great Marvin Clifford, a friend of mine and very successful comic writer in Germany. He is the creator of the famous Shakes & Fidget, a World of Warcraft parody. He and his partner Oskar Pannier even created a browser game out of their comic (Shakes & Fidget: The Game) which was recently crowned with the German Developers Award for best Casual Game 2009.

From the very first second I thought about a mascot I knew it should be drawn by Marv. He is not only an extremely talented comic writer but also one of the most funniest people I have ever known. If you are interested in his work you should check out his blog.

The creation of an elephant

Like every creating process Marvin went through several stages. I thought you should have a look at the early drafts.

Stage 1

Marvin Draft 01

Marvin Draft 02

Marvin Draft 03

Stage 2

Marvin Draft 04

Stage 3

Marvin Draft 05

Marvin Draft 06

Marvin Draft 07

Marvin Draft 08

Marvin Draft 09

Final Version

Marvin the Memory Master

Celebration Redesign

Loading Time

This was the right time to improve Memory-Sports.com once more. I must admit that the loading time was still pretty high even with constant optimization over the last year. So I got my virtual screwdriver and gave my best to lower the overall size of the page – the new look was optional. Memory-Sports.com is loading about 20% faster than before.

New Look

I know that you guys don’t have the best memory (otherwise you wouldn’t read this page ), so I’ll give you a little reminder of the former look:

Memory-Sports 2.0

Memory-Sports 3.0

New: Upcoming Championships

Yes, that was still not all of the cake. Check out our new page with all announced and unannounced Memory Championships. If you have information about any championship please don’t hesitate to contact me and give me more details. There is a nice contact form under list.

That’s it for today. Now go – go and enjoy your new Memory-Sports.com 3.0. But be careful that you don’t step on Marvin’s foot. He will never forget it!

Tags: Marvin the Elephant, redesign, upcoming championships