The X Factor is Europe’s biggest singing contest, so when mobile phone retailer The Carphone Warehouse decided to sponsor the show we knew we needed a visually engaging campaign that the public would notice and enjoy enough to make them want to take part in the experience themselves.

Our idea was to invite consumers to record singing performances on mobiles, which after being animated online would then be turned into TV ads, aired weekly on the show’s ad breaks.

We needed to find an engaging and innovative design solution that would incorporate a large amount of user-generated illustrations without losing its consistency or appeal.

Each week over the duration of the show, contestants were picked from the website and their animations and singing performances used as TV idents, which could be viewed on the websites TV winners section and then seen by up to 12 millions viewers during the Saturday night X Factor shows. By the end of the show almost 9,000 wannabe stars had sung and drawn in the audition section and over 137,000 votes were cast.

We decided the unique work of the Swedish Illustrator Kristopher Strom was the perfect quirky style that would form the centre of the X Factor challenge. And would inspire the nation to want to become singers and illustrators themselves by creating totally unique illustrations that would come alive with their vocals. After singing on their phone users could choose from a selection of Kristopher Strom’s predrawn characters or they could create their own character in their own illustrative style. They could then judge their (and others’) performances. We created hundreds of bespoke characters and animations for the many judging reactions.