Character style guides

Ever since the Muppet characters have been used for merchandising, as a result of a production not initially meant to sell a product, The Jim Henson Company and Children's Television Workshop have made Character Books available to developers to ensure that character consistency is maintained when reproducing outside of the respective companies. These style guides serve to establish a definitive manner in which characters will be drawn or scuplted. Most notably, guidelines are given to ensure proper proportions and colors. In some cases, the Pantone scale is used to reference a particular color -- an agreed upon system of coloring defined by numbers.

Sesame Street

1973

• Drawings by Bob Taylor
• Photographs by Charles Rowan
• Produced by Muppets, Inc.

All character pages are a combination of black and white photographs and pencil drawings.

• Big Bird
• Oscar the Grouch
• Ernie
• Bert
• Cookie Monster
• Grover
• The Snuffle-upagus
• Fat Blue-Anything Muppet -- named and pictured: Professor Hastings, Dragnet Detective, Twiddlebug; also pictured: a King, Grandmother Happy, a boy, Simon Soundman, Russian soldier, Mr. Johnson
• Pumpkin-Anything Muppet -- pictured: various AMs pictured
• Lavender-Anything Muppet -- named and pictured: Herbert Birdsfoot, Bennett Snerf; also pictured: Twiddlebug, girl, boy
• Green-Anything Muppet -- named and pictured: Twiddlebug, Sherlock Hemlock, Farley, Tony, The Salesman; also pictured: woman, police officer, farmer
• Little Anything Muppet -- named and pictured: Roosevelt Franklin (described as Reddish-Magenta); also pictured: Betty Lou, Prairie Dawn (described as Bright Hot Pink); described, but not shown: Pumpkin-Orange
• Lavender-Anything Muppet (with hands) -- named and pictured: The Count, The Amazing Mumford, Harvey Kneeslapper, Granny Fanny Nesselrode, The Mudman; also pictured: elderly man, Marty
• Herry Monster
• Guy Smiley and Prince Charming -- color described here as warm gold
• Little Bird
• The character pages are followed by eleven color photos also found in the earlier Sesame Street calendars and The Sesame Street Library.

1979

Photos and drawings by Mel Crawford, Michael Frith, Bill Pierce, Joe Mathieu, Judy Ross, Chuck Rowan, Neil Selkirk, Joe Veno and Rick Wetzel
Art Director/Designer: Sue Schiller
Produced by The Children's Television Workshop, NY, NY. 80 pages.

Introductory Material

• Color photograph of the Sesame Street cast, Season 8
• Size comparison chart, in color, with photos of various Muppets for which the lower bodies have been draw in in color (except for Big Bird, whose entire body is shown as a color photograph)
• Color guide
• General Muppet description and Muppet index
• Credits

Character pages

Unless otherwise noted, all character pages contain a combination of black-and-white photographs and drawings in black ink.

• Big Bird, Little Bird & Poco Loco (photographs only for Poco Loco)
• Snuffle-upagus (photographs only)
• Ernie, Bert & Rubber Duckie (photographs only for Rubber Duckie)
• Oscar the Grouch (photographs only)
• Grover, Super Grover, Cookie Monster & Herry Monster
• Frazzle and Some Other Monsters
• Guy Smiley, Prince Charming & Don Music (photograph only for Don Music)-- Described here as Orange Gold, Pantone 123
• The Count, The Amazing Mumford (photograph only), Biff (photograph only), Rodeo Rosie (photograph only) & Mr. Chatterly (photograph only) -- Described here as Lavender, Pantone 529
• Sherlock Hemlock, Farley (photograph only), & The Salesman-- Described here as Yellow Green, Pantone 375
• Prairie Dawn, Betty Lou, & The Busby Twins (all photographs only)-- Described here as Hot Pink, Pantone 820
• Fat Blue Anything Muppets (photographs only)-- Described here as Warm Blue, Pantone 829
• Pumpkin Anything Muppets -- Described here as Yellow-Orange, Pantone 137
• Lavender Anything Muppets (photographs only, except Herbert Birdsfoot, for whom a pencil drawing is also provided) -- Described here as Pale Lavender, Pantone 529
• Muppet Groups, Animal Muppets, including Barkley, Twiddlebugs, Sam the Robot, Martians, Chris and The Alphabeats, Jerry and The Monotones, & The Witches (all photographs only)
• Typical Muppet pig, cow & Horse (all photographs only) -- colors can vary
• Live Characters: Susan, Gordon, Maria, David, Linda, Bob, Mr. Hooper, Olivia, Luis (all photographs only)

Sesame Street Set Scenes

• Set photos of Sesame Street

1988

2000 (Architecture Guide)

Sesame Street Architecture Guide (2000)

Sesame Street Architecture Guide (2000)

Sesame Street Architecture Guide (2000)

Sesame Street Architecture Guide (2000)

Sesame Street Architecture Guide (2000)

Sesame Street Architecture Guide (2000)

Sesame Street Architecture Guide (2000)

2001

Sesame Workshop produced the Sesame Street Muppets Drawing Guide, Illustrated by Nancy W. Stevenson. The 2001 Drawing Guide contains mostly pencil drawings, which show much greater detail than the previous Character Books and include guidance for depicting Sesame Street Muppets in various positions and from multiple angles.

The Guide consists of a cover page, table of contents, 4 introductory pages, and 12 character pages featuring extensive pencil drawings. The character pages cover 10 Muppets:

• Bert
• Big Bird
• Cookie Monster (2 pages)
• Count Von Count
• Elmo
• Ernie (including one drawing of Rubber Duckie)
• Grover & Super Grover
• Oscar the Grouch (2 pages, which include several drawings of Slimey)
• Rosita
• Zoe

Excerpts from the Drawing Guide appear in the liner notes for the 40 Years of Sunny Days DVD set.

Also in 2001, Sesame Workshop produced a separate Sesame Street Style Guide that provides information such as guidelines for representing the Sesame Street Muppets and preferred fonts for use in advertising typography.

Sesame Street Babies

Style guide issued for the Sesame Street Babies brand.

Other Sesame Street Style Guides

Home Video Style Guide. Date unknown.

Sesame Beginnings Style Guide. Date unknown.

The Muppets

Guides created for the Muppet characters have included photo packages and drawn illustration books. Each of the versions have featured various angles of the puppet and character positions.

1976 Photographs

1979

The Muppet Show Style Book.

Style guide tms 1979 2.jpg

Tms sg79 page (2).jpg

Relative Sizes

TMS STYLE GUIDE Kermit.JPG

Kermit photo reference

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Kermit illustrations

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TMS STYLE GUIDE miss piggy.JPG

Miss Piggy photo reference

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Miss Piggy illustrations

Style guide tms 1979 6.jpg

Fozzie illustrations

Style guide tms 1979 7.jpg

Animal illustrations

Tms sg79 page (1).jpg

Bunsen and Beaker photo reference

Janice tmssytleguide.jpg

Annie Sue and Janice photo reference

Floyd tmssytleguide.jpg

Floyd Pepper illustrations

TMS STYLE GUIDE Crazy Harry.JPG

Crazy Harry illustrations

Tms sg beaker page.jpg

Beaker illustrations

TMS STYLE GUIDE PIS.JPG

Pigs in Space illustrations

Tms sg79 page (3).jpg

Animal illustrations

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Swedish Chef photo reference

Tms sg79 page (4).jpg

The Swedish Chef illustrations

Muppet show style guide 1979 5.jpg

Muppet show style guide 1979 6.jpg

Muppet show style guide 1979 7.jpg

Styleguide-muppets-drawn1.jpg

Nigel, Muppet Newsman, Thog and J.P. Grosse illustrations

CharacterGuide-2.jpg

Floyd, Zoot and Janice illustrations

CharacterGuide-3.jpg

Bunsen and Beaker illustrations

CharacterGuide-4.jpg

Animal illustrations

CharacterGuide-5.jpg

Dr. Teeth illustrations

CharacterGuide-6.jpg

Scooter illustrations

CharacterGuide-8.jpg

Fozzie Bear illustrations

CharacterGuide-9.jpg

The Great Gonzo illustrations

CharacterGuide-7.jpg

Muppet Color Guides

Muppet show style guide 1979 9.jpg

1989 (Muppet Kids)

1993? (Jim Henson's Muppets)

2002

Images of the 2002/2003 Style Guide

2005

Card Mailing Box outer for the Hardcover 2005 style guide and wooden crate

Card Mailing Box outer for the Hardcover 2005 style guide and wooden crate

"The Muppets Branding World Premiere" 2005 Style Guide Faux Wood outer box

"The Muppets Branding World Premiere" 2005 Style Guide. Softback Book. 307 pages

"The Muppets Branding World Premiere" 2005 Style Guide. Hardback Book. 307 pages

Inside the 2005 Style Guide

Inside the 2005 Style Guide

Inside the 2005 Style Guide

Inside the 2005 Style Guide

Inside the 2005 Style Guide

Inside the 2005 Style Guide

Inside the 2005 Style Guide

Inside the 2005 Style Guide

Inside the 2005 Style Guide

Hardcover 2005 guide, with wooden crate and Kermit's 50th Branding mini guide envelope with insert.

Inside the Kermit's 50th Branding envelope

Inside the Kermit's 50th Branding envelope

Other

Styleguide-muppets-gonzo1.gif

Kermit Collection Style Guide

Swedish Chef Style Guide. 20 page CD size booklet with CD. Date unknown.

Muppet Babies

The Muppet Babies Character guide. Date unknown.

Baby Kermit character guide

Baby Animal character guide

Baby Gonzo character guide

Baby Piggy character guide

Baby Fozzie character guide

Baby Rowlf character guide

The Muppet Babies Style Guide. 20 page CD size booklet. Date unknown.

Other

Guides were created for other Henson/Muppet Television shows.

Bear in the Big Blue House Style Guide. The Style Guide is spiral bound, 148 pages with 2 CD's complete with illustration, photography, graphic elements, reference materials and packaging design. Date unknown.

Fraggle Rock Style Guide. The guide contains photography, design elements, illustration, reference materials and packaging guidelines. Date unknown.

The Hoobs Style Guide. The Style Guide is 100 pages and 2 CD's with spiral binding, and has a foam die cut cover featuring the shows main characters. The book is filled with photos, illustrations, patterns, borders and packaging guidelines, all to aid in product development to support the show. Date unknown. External link: The Hoobs Style Guide