Illustrator’s ‘beans’ inspired digital adventures for children

BEANS Entertainment, the developers of Bean&Gone, a new interactive brand that delivers shared engagement experiences for children across digital and physical media formats has released its first application, PlayPatch.

The start-up from Cardiff was cofounded by Dan Clemo and Jason Veal, who previously founded creative branding agency Sugar Creative Studio.

The company acquired the world rights to the bean-shaped characters created by British illustrator Richard Fowler in the 1970s, the inspiration for Bean&Gone. Prior to PlayPatch, the company created an interactive website.

Chief executive Mr Clemo said: “We were childhood fans of Richard Fowler’s work, and were inspired to make new digital adventures for young children, based on his creation.

“Bean&Gone is all about recapturing the same wonder that I felt as a child reading the original Beans, and as a father, watching my children read my old books. .

“The release of PlayPatch is a pivotal moment and we’re already seeing some early successes. Until this point we’ve been engaging children with the Beans through the use of Popjam, inviting them to colour in our characters, and we’ve received hundreds of fan art submissions.

“We’re also been experimenting with the release of sticker books, jigsaws, keyrings and the Bean Club, an activity box subscription,” said Mr Clemo.