In honor of Storkcraft’s 80-year anniversary, we had the pleasure of sitting down with London-based artist Abigail Burch to discuss her journey behind designing Storkcraft’s first-ever mascot, AJ.
Storkcraft, a family company in every sense of the word, is family-owned and has been dedicated to serving families since its inception in 1945. Our new mascot’s name, AJ, demonstrates the unbreakable bond between brothers Adam & Justin Segal, who represent the A and the J in our mascot’s name. Adam is Storkcraft’s President & CEO, while Justin is Storkcraft’s Creative Director and Vice President of Product & Brand.
Adam Segal (Left), Justin L. Segal (Right)
In this exclusive interview with acclaimed UK-based artist Abigail Burch, we dive into the inspiration behind the creation of our new stork mascot. For centuries, the stork has been associated with the delivery of babies — making it the perfect mascot to represent Storkcraft’s mission of creating quality-crafted, safer, grow-with-me furniture for families embarking on their parenthood journeys. But there’s more to the story: our mascot also taps into the power of childhood memories, evoking a sense of playfulness, warmth, wonder, and care. Follow along on as we explore how AJ the Stork came to life.
Let’s hear from the designer herself, Abigail Burch!
1. Can you tell us a bit about yourself? What’s your name, where are you from, and how long have you been pursuing your art?
I'm Abigail Burch, and I'm an illustrator based in London, UK. I've been working as an illustrator for around 10 years now. My practice revolves a lot around characters, taking animals and taking human characteristics, I see out and about, and turning them into characters that you can relate to and be inspired by.
2. What is your artistic practice, and what inspires your creativity?
I would say that I'm constantly hearing or seeing things that will trigger an idea around me. I also I collect books with animal references — I'll draw from these a lot, which will then maybe spark an idea of a kind of character that I think would be suitable.
An inside look at Abigail’s studio.
3. How did your journey with Storkcraft begin, and what inspired the collaboration to bring AJ the Stork to life?
Justin found my work on Pinterest, and I got this email inquiring about an illustration of a stork. I was interested because I like drawing animals. We had a call, and he explained the vision that he had for the character, and how they were going to use him throughout the brand.
4. Can you walk us through your creative process when designing the stork? How did you bring the character’s personality and charm to life?
I always draw from reference. To start it off, I would have just drawn a whole bunch of storks from different angles so I can kind of get to know the different characteristics because he obviously has to be recognisable as a stork. The stork needed to be able to hold some things in his hands — for example, a box.
Afterwards, I thought about how the design would kind of support the personality of him. We didn't want AJ to be too young, and we wanted the stork to appeal to both adults and children. We went back and forth with like little tweaks here and there to get him just right.
Initial sketches of AJ the Stork.
5. What does it mean to you to know that the stork, a character you brought to life, will create lasting memories for families and children across North America through storybooks, plush toys, and more?
It's really cool. I think as an illustrator to see your designs come to life, It's just very, very cool.
6. If the stork could deliver a special message to families, what do you think it would be?
I see the stork as quite a calming and reassuring presence. For parents, I feel like it would be a sense of motivation because parenting is a tough gig. For kids, I think it would just be about having fun and encouraging them just to be curious and explore and overall bring a positive feeling to their environment.
The final renders of our mascot, AJ.