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By Melanie Johnson

Call it a chance to put their personal stamp on Cal Poly ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½’s beloved Billy Bronco.

For the 23 students of Visual Communication Design 4990, the Illustrating Billy Bronco course, a project to re-imagine the university’s mascot also was an opportunity to learn how to design with a client’s desires in mind — a skill they will need to master for their careers.

Karen Lindell, director of marketing in CPP’s Department of Strategic Communications, says the idea for a class to illustrate Billy Bronco was sparked during the university’s recent rebranding initiative. Associate Dean Andy Wilcox, College of Environmental Design, proposed establishing VCD 4990 to tap into the expertise of students and faculty. It would be a win-win situation to have a PolyX learning opportunity for students of all majors and for the university to see new and fresh illustration concepts that appeal to students.

“The class was established knowing that CPP was going to be the client,” Lindell says. “We wanted an illustrated Billy that represents the university well and is student driven.”

Throughout the course in fall 2025, the 23 students each developed their own design for Billy Bronco. The concepts were eventually narrowed to six finalists, and the students worked in groups to refine the illustration and animation. Students put Billy in a variety of situations, from shooting a basketball to sipping coffee to enjoying a hot dog at the annual Hot Dog Caper. There was even a disco dancing Billy.

“I was amazed,” Lindell says. “I didn’t really know what to expect. I enjoyed all of the talent and seeing the students’ interpretations.”

For Senior Ethan Francisco, the lone architecture student in the class, designing a version of Billy was an opportunity to stretch his artistic muscles in a different way. Francisco says he saw a poster about the class on Instagram and also received an email from the college and decided to give it a try. The Fremont native loves to draw and try different art styles, and says he is at the point where he is exploring more of his hobbies outside of architecture — whether that’s singing a range of music in the Barkada Band, which is part of a Filipino student organization on campus, taking a nutrition class or illustrating and animating characters. One key lesson he learned? Horses are hard to draw, he says.

“Going into the class, I didn’t know it was going to be a project for StratComm. I just thought it would be character drawing,” he says. “It was pretty fun. I didn’t realize we didn’t have an official Billy Bronco mascot illustration. It was definitely intimidating and a little challenging to think about what a Billy that represents the entire school looks like.”

Art Assistant Professor Jian Lee says she enjoyed seeing Billy Bronco from the student perspective. It was clear that the students saw Billy as one of them and multifaceted. Yes, Billy is a horse, but he has some human qualities as well, Lee adds.

“Billy is very friendly and approachable. He helps everybody but at the same time, he is athletic, energetic and has a muscular aspect to him,” Lee says. “That was a little hard to combine. Trying to combine two conflicting personalities was the hard part.”

Every time a new course is designed, it’s important to start with the basic foundations and principles, so the first four weeks of the class emphasized character design in general. Then, students moved on to designing Billy and spent the last month of the semester creating a short, animated story. The students conducted research on how other institutions design their mascots, as well as researching Billy’s history to better understand his personality and character. Students displayed their final work in a University Library exhibit.

“This was a very special class,” Lee says. “I’ve never taught a class that had outside stakeholders who gave us feedback. It was a unique opportunity for students to experience. It’s a demonstration of what happens in the industry.”

Visual Communication Design senior Mia Cherry says she had never taken a class that was so niche, an aspect of it she liked. The Riverside native says the most rewarding part of the project was working as part of a team and seeing the final outcome. The most challenging part was figuring out how to satisfy the client, adds Cherry, who serves as the president of the Art Club on campus.

“I have not done a lot of freelance work or working with clients,” she says. “I noticed that the biggest part of working with a client is figuring out what they want and unlocking that. It was helpful when the people from StratComm came and talked to us beforehand about what they were looking for and later came and critiqued us.”

The process to develop and finalize the official Billy Bronco illustration is underway. Once completed, there will be ample opportunities for students to continue to put their design skills to the test, including a collaboration between the apparel merchandising management and theatre and new dance departments to fashion a new mascot costume and the creation of merchandise for the bookstore, stickers for water bottles and social media posts featuring Billy. The partnership among students, the College of Environmental Design and StratComm has been rewarding, Lindell adds.

“It was a true PolyX experience,” she says. “It’s hands-on learning and essential for students to get to work for a client and take feedback while working within parameters. And I hope they had fun. Essentially, they will be part of CPP’s history and legacy."