Melissa Tudor – Creative Director at Fanattik – talks in-world replicas, designing in metal and fandom

Melissa, to kick is off, can you tell us about your role at Fanattik and what a typical day in the office might be for you?
I am responsible for working on the creative team’s overall strategy and overseeing all product range development. I work closely with designers in the Creative team as well as the Sales and Marketing teams to develop all of our gifts and collectibles. I also handle relationships with brands we develop exclusive products for, such as visitor attractions throughout the world which is exciting. The team and I travel to brand meetings whether that’s Netflix in London or LA, or Wizards of the Coast in Seattle – nothing beats sitting down with people who live and breathe the brand.

And a typical day for me might be to review designs from the team, plan strategy for a new license and speak with brand partners all over the world.

You work with a lot of licensed properties. Have you had to adjust the way you plan and design to accommodate the rights holders? How do you navigate the do’s and do not’s through your designs?
Yes, believe it or not we’ve had restrictions around using blood with Jaws, weapons with Scarface and the more common issue around likeness restrictions with some actors. For the latter, we will typically find a creative workaround – for a limited-edition Jaws art print we showed the back of actor’s heads when they are looking into the water seeing a massive shark lurking beneath them. Our team have become seasoned professionals at finding workarounds for brand restrictions and find it a fun challenge!

There is a lot of industry chat about fans and fandom at the moment. Why do you think fan culture and products designed for specific fandoms are more in vogue now?
Many consumers are looking to reconnect with their childhood or past eras through collectibles and pop culture items. Nostalgia fuels demand for products that evoke memories of favourite movies, TV shows or childhood characters. I think it’s more accepted and ‘cool’ now in society to be a ‘mega-fan’ and to express your identity or passions visibly like a lifestyle choice. It’s possibly driven by the rise of social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram and Twitter.

Fans now share their passions openly, turning niche interests into mass trends. Companies like Fanattik are tapping into these deep emotional connections with IPs further fuelling demand; it helps being mega-fans and having those deep connections ourselves!

How do you keep in touch with trends in regards to emerging brands and new properties?
We love to attend the showcases held by the brands. We have an upcoming one with Universal Studios where we will get an early insight into what is happening with the IPs we work with, key marketing beats and IPs they’ll focus on over the next few years. We also attend licensing expos globally. These events are vital for discussing new opportunities and staying ahead of industry movements.

Beyond that, we regularly visit stores – and not just major retailers, but the independents too – to see how fandoms are being represented in real life and what trends are current. Our team also actively immerses with fandoms on social media and engages with those fan communities to stay close to what’s building buzz. And we work closely with top industry artists and designers, whose involvement across various brands gives us a creative edge

“Fans will spot inauthenticity straight away, so it’s critical that we’re respectful in every element of the design.”

Do you take any design cues from other licensing industry sectors or territories?
While we pride ourselves on creating products that feel fresh and unique for the brands, it’s essential to stay aware of global trends and the broader licensing landscape as mentioned earlier. We attend Comic Cons all over the world and the US market in particular is inspiring as it’s a huge hub for pop culture and collector culture. We have an eye on what resonates there and the audience engagement.

It’s more about understanding consumer behaviour as seeing the bigger picture helps us stay ahead, identify gaps in the market and ensure our products remain both authentic and commercially relevant. It also helps that our MD Anthony has 30 years of experience, not just in gifts but the sports and toy sectors too. This brings a valuable perspective on how to create compelling, brand-loyal products that work across different sectors and audiences.

You work a lot in metal. Are there particular design challenges you have to overcome when working in this medium?
One of the biggest challenges we face with metal products is capturing human features accurately – although we can get humorous results on the first round, it can get a little difficult when we need to go through countless rounds of amendments… Sometimes even well-honed designs can still get knocked back by the brands on occasion as they are rightly protective of the character likenesses! It’s a tricky job to translate subtle expressions or likenesses into such a rigid material so bringing in a wider variety of product types over the last year has kept things creatively exciting for us.

Fanattik is also well known for ‘in-world replicas’. Can you tell us a bit more about this part of your business and how you research opportunities in this category?
Our approach to in-world replicas is all about authenticity. We only take on a brand if we have passionate team members who genuinely understand and care about that world. If we don’t have that expertise in-house, we’ll bring someone in who does – like when we consulted with the head of a local Yu-Gi-Oh! tournament to ensure we got the details for that range just right.

Fans will spot inauthenticity straight away, so it’s critical that we’re respectful and accurate in every element of the design. That level of care has paid off – some of the video game producers we’ve worked with have asked for our pieces for their own personal collections, which we take as a real compliment to the quality and integrity of our work.

Are there steps that rights holders could be taking from a design, research and technical side to make your life easier?
We work with mainly retro titles, so often the style guides for those older properties aren’t as detailed or varied as modern ones, which can make it harder to ensure accuracy or explore new creative directions. More comprehensive reference materials – especially from different eras of the brand – would definitely help speed up our design and research process. That said, part of the fun is digging into the archives or watching old classics back as a team and reinterpreting them with care and creativity.

On that, what makes a good style guide for fan-led properties?
The best situation is having freedom and flexibility from the brand. While it’s important to have access to core assets like logos, character references and key colour palettes, the most valuable thing for us is the ability to create beyond the guide. We don’t want to use artwork that’s already been seen on a t-shirt or a bag as we are designing for collectors and hardcore fans who want something more niche, thoughtful and a little deeper in the lore. A good style guide gives us the tools we need, without boxing us in creatively.

You have developed a lot of products across different types of brands. Do you adjust your range depending on the origins of the brand?
Actually, there’s only a slight difference when it comes to product selection for gaming brands – we find a lot of overlap in what resonates across different properties. For example, our replica commemorative metal maps have worked well across multiple sectors because they tap into world-building and the lore which are huge parts of all IP’s culture and we only need to make adjustments based on the tone or aesthetic of the brand.

Last question! What are you a fan of and how to celebrate your fandom?
My fandom started young – I was that kid waiting in line for hours at midnight to get the newest Harry Potter book, complete with a lightning scar drawn on my forehead. Just last weekend, I ticked off a bucket list item by riding the Jacobite steam train over Glenfinnan Viaduct – as a huge Harry Potter fan, it was magical to experience the route made more famous by the Hogwarts Express.

I’ve also travelled to the US to sip on ‘blood bags’ in Mystic Falls of the Vampire Diaries (Covington, Georgia) and hang out at “The Wreck” and other filming locations from Outer Banks (Charleston, South Carolina). I’ve queued for hours at Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights just to experience ‘The Last of Us’ haunted house, coming face-to-face with a terrifying Clicker and the Stranger Things haunted house, where I stood under actors playing Eddie Munson and Dustin recreating the iconic guitar scene on top of the caravan.

And I’m always organising fancy-dress events at work where I’ve cos-played as characters such as Beetlejuice and Luna Lovegood!

For me, fandom has always been more than just a hobby and that passion feeds directly into the work I do.

Terrific! Huge thanks Melissa.