Some projects start with a detailed creative brief, weeks of concepting, and multiple rounds of stakeholder approval. Shrimpy was not one of those projects. Shrimpy started with a phone call that boiled down to: "We need something big, something fun, and something that glows for New Year's Eve. Can you make a character?"
The answer, obviously, was yes.
The Brief (Such As It Was)
The event organizers needed a signature character for their annual NYE celebration near Brett's Waterway Cafe. Something that could serve as the visual centerpiece — the thing you see from across the waterway, the thing you take a photo with, the thing that drops at midnight instead of a ball. It needed personality, it needed to be visible at night, and it needed to feel like it belonged to the community.
Florida. Waterfront. New Year's Eve. My brain went immediately to sea creatures, and once the idea of a giant pirate shrimp with glowing LED eyes hit, nothing else stood a chance. Shrimpy was born in a sketchbook and refined in about 48 hours.
Designing a Character That Glows
Shrimpy isn't just a sculpture — it's a character with a personality. The pirate hat, the expression, the posture — all of it was designed to be instantly lovable and slightly ridiculous in the best way. Public art that takes itself too seriously misses the point. People want to smile. They want to laugh. They want to stand next to something absurd and take a selfie. That's the job.
The LED integration was designed to enhance the character without overpowering it. Glowing eyes give Shrimpy life at night. LED spine lines trace the body's silhouette, making the shape readable from hundreds of feet away even in the dark. The lighting is bold but not garish — it's character lighting, not a rave.
Construction and Installation
The body is carved and shaped foam with a durable exterior coating — built to withstand outdoor conditions while keeping weight manageable for crane mounting. The internal structure supports the LED wiring and mounting hardware, all designed for repeated installation and removal across multiple events.
For the NYE event, Shrimpy was crane-mounted on a boom with a blue LED ring surrounding the mount point. Below the boom, a glowing fishing reel — sponsored by Florida Public Utilities — added another layer of visual storytelling. The whole assembly created a towering, illuminated spectacle that dominated the waterfront skyline and gave the crowd a focal point for the countdown.
The location near Brett's Waterway Cafe meant visibility from both land and water, which was critical for the event's atmosphere. When you're walking along the waterfront and you see a 20-foot pirate shrimp glowing against the night sky, you know exactly where the party is.
From Event Prop to City Mascot
Here's the part we didn't plan but probably should have predicted: people loved Shrimpy so much that it became the city's official mascot for NYE — and has since been adopted for other yearly community events. What started as a one-night character is now a recognized symbol that the community rallies around.
That's the power of character-driven experiential art. When you create something with genuine personality — something people connect with emotionally rather than just visually — it takes on a life of its own. Shrimpy became a shared reference point. "Meet me at Shrimpy." "Did you see Shrimpy this year?" It entered the local vocabulary.
Marketing Scalability
One thing we designed for from the beginning was scalability beyond the physical installation. Shrimpy's character design works across mediums:
- Flat cutout versions for year-round signage and wayfinding
- Merchandise-ready artwork: t-shirts, stickers, hats, koozies
- Social media graphics and event branding
- Reduced-scale versions for indoor display and photo ops
A single character design, executed well, becomes an entire brand ecosystem. The physical LED installation is the flagship, but the marketing extensions are where the long-term value compounds. News coverage of the original event generated organic reach that no ad budget could match, and every piece of merch extends that story further.
"The best public art doesn't just decorate a space — it gives a community something to belong to."
What Shrimpy Taught Us
Shrimpy is a reminder that experiential art doesn't have to be serious to be meaningful. Not every installation needs to be a meditation on light and space. Sometimes the most impactful work is a giant glowing pirate shrimp that makes people laugh and brings a community together on the last night of the year.
If you've got an event, a venue, or a community that needs a character — something with LED integration, visual punch, and genuine personality — we'd love to hear about it.
