We all know Fella. If you have been a member of deviantArt for at least 1 day it's quite probable you've encountered him at least once, he's everywhere! And this shouldn't come as a surprise, he's dA's mascot after all! But how much do you know about him? Let's take a look at a Brief History of deviantART's mascot.

Fella was brought to life thanks to switched, who designed him back in April 2001 for a mascot contest.

Back then he didn't look exactly as we know him today, his figure was a lot more basic and circular and his expression wasn't as human as we're used to today. However his main features remain, his mischievous look and his colors, most probably based on the site layout's at the time




Going a few years forward, while deviantArt was assembling its creative staff it was ¢greatLP who redesigned the original Fella and gave him a more refreshing and dynamic look, a little more like the way we know him today.


Since then, Fella served to be deviantART's representation of what it means to be "devious", and appeared on several ads, banners and other graphic identity of the site across the web. But fella was intended to go beyond being just a cool character used for web ads.

Fella made his debut as a physical toy back in 2007 in the form of a Plushie, which was of course, designed by ¢greatLP as well

Keeping the main features of the mascot, his colors and quirky look with the proportions of a stuffed figure.

The Plushie was officially launched via the dA Store on December 8th, 2007

Fella was now available for everyone to hug and be touched in devious ways.

The toy was very popular, and it sold out pretty quickly, thanks to the Holiday Sales of that year. Everybody wanted a Fella Plushie for Christmas!

This item got re-stocked a few times until the closure of the Store in 2013, including bundles like a special edition which included some stickers and a combo of both Fella and the Super Llama Plushies.

Thanks to the popularity of the toy, a few official contests were launched where the plushie was the main protagonist, being the latest, the Fella Around the World Contest of 2009, which also served to officially introduce the Super Llama Plushie, the second plushie from deviantART.

People from all over the globe took a picture with Fella and the Super Llama in an attempt to win one of the plushies and also get a special contest badge.

The contemporary Fella

It was around May 2008 when Fella suffered another slight redesign, once again thanks to ¢greatLP resulting in the Fella we all know today; his hands now include fingers and his face is a lot more expressive.

But the Fella Plushie wasn't the only Fella-related item in the DA Store, not for much time at least.

 In March 2010 the PepperFella T-Shirt made its debut in the DA Store. Its design was in charge of no one else than Artgerm, who designed a Fella Version of his very iconic character Pepper.

Nowadays Fella can be found everywhere around the site, is the subject of countless Fan Arts and photographs (people is always happy to take a photo with him) or as theme for a contest, and now with the official group fella, he's not only the icon of deviousness, but also a friendly figure who welcomes new deviants everyday.






Known back then as ¢greatLP, Pedro took part of deviantART's creative staff and was in charge of Fella's image for around 4 years. Now known as thekidKaos, he has gone in a different direction, but remembers his work as Fella's official illustrator and gives us a few words about it.

My name is Pedro Delgado, I'm an illustrator (mostly traditional) based in Madrid, Spain.

I used to spend lot of time on DA. Here I got my first job as a comic penciler, among other stuff. One of  the gigs I liked more was being the official Fella related Artist for about 4 years. That was fun!!

After some hiatus, working as graphic designer, nowadays I'm back with comic books alongside cheeks-74 and his awesome crew.

Back in 2007 some of the staff guys saw this  illustration I made to thank my watchers for their support.

DA was setting up the Creative Staff, and we were drawing many Fellas. They did some tests asking for our personal vision based on switched's original design. They wanted something more expressive, with a face and hands. I may thank Heidi for her support thru all the process, it was actually her call to go with my version. Around May 2008, the current official Fella was launched.

The version I did was the Fella I wanted to do. Nothing would change, couldn´t be happier with the result

"Fella is one cheecky lil' guy! He represents the mischievous, devious artist inside all of us. He´s that spark that makes you go nuts and bananas and come up with some awesome piece. That´s why every deviant loves him."
:D