Bear with me for a sec for a quick jaunt down memory lane. The first iteration of the MailChimp logo was quickly thrown together by Ben in 2001 using Fireworks. Over the years, each revision of the logo made it slightly less clumsy, but it still wasn’t quite right. So in late 2007 we got in touch with Jon Hicks (who designed the Firefox logo and most recently worked on the user interface design for Opera Mini 5), and he was really busy at the time. But good things come to those who wait, and by August of 2008 we had a shiny, new Freddie complete with a body and everything! (If you’re interested in reading more, check out Ben’s original post here.)

OK, back to the life sized chimp suit.

The first order of business was working with Maydwell Mascots to get the technical renderings together.

When he saw this drawing, Dan’s first thought was, “What the heck? This suit is gonna suck!” They assured him they knew what they were doing, and all faith was restored when Dan received the first production pictures of the head.

Ah yes, now we’re talkin’! With the head approved, the fur was then selected and applied.

Things were starting to look kinda cool and just a wee bit creepy at this point, but Dan was liking it. Up next was the body.

Hmm, but it seems like something is missing…

Ah, much better! With the proper chimp butt in place, he’s alive! And aside from being just plain awesome, this suit is amazingly hi-tech.

The chimp feet actually have Vibram rubber soles, making the Freddie suit a complete all-terrain vehicle.

Since you’re likely to get hot in there, Freddie’s head includes a built-in battery powered fan that sits inside of his hat and vents through a hole in the top. You turn it on with a tiny switch just inside his left ear.

Last but not least, every chimp needs to be able to use their iPhone or iPad when wearing the Freddie suit (especially for say, an iPhone app promo video), so we had these chimp hands customized with a special slit for your index finger to fit through. Our video guy Josh is really happy about this one.

Oh, and speaking of video, check out how some unsuspecting MailChimp employees react to Freddie when he unexpectedly comes alive in MailChimp Freddie Big Hidden Camera Crazy Time!

One of the most exciting things about our new chimp is the fact that he now has a body– unlike before when he was just a floating head. We thought that this definitely called for a celebratory gesture, and what could be better than a life-size cardboard cutout?

We like to think of ourselves as trend-setters, meaning you’re probably asking yourself where you can procure one of these for your business. We ordered our chimp from Party Standups, a company based out of Bradenton, Florida (near Sarasota). All of their cutouts are made from weatherproof corrugated plastic and can range in size from 1 ft. 4 in. up to as large as 8 ft. The image itself is printed on white 4mil vinyl using 6-color process inks, and then laminated to the corrugated plastic before it’s cut to shape. The ordering process is super simple– just upload your artwork (most standard image formats are accepted, although the company recommends a resolution of at least 100 dpi), choose your desired options (like size), add to your cart and voila! In 5 to 10 business days you should have your very own life size friend.

In typical MailChimp fashion, the folks around here have been thinking of all sorts of creative things to do with our new pal. (No, not those kinds of things.) If you’re in the Atlanta area, he is rumored to be making a guest appearance on Friday, October 3, at the 2008 Webmaster Jam Session. (Bananas may or may not be involved.) The Webmaster Jam Session is a two day event that brings together web designers, developers, marketers and visionaries to learn about the latest ideas and trends in web design, development, search engine optimization and social media. On Friday, MailChimp Co Founder and Email Marketing expert Ben Chestnut will be talking about designing for email. In his own words, “email might suck but it should still look good”. You can also catch Aarron Walter, MailChimp’s user experience designer, in these sessions on topics ranging from web standards to what’s important when building a website.