Care Bears - Development

Development

The Care Bears were initially created in 1981 by Those Characters From Cleveland (TCFC), the licensing division of American Greetings Corp. Jack Chojnacki, the co-president of TCFC, introduced the first Care Bear to six businessmen—three from AGC, and three from the toy company Kenner—in February 1981. On the employees' reaction to the toy, Chojnacki recalled in early 1985: "It had a high 'aaaaaah' factor."

Muriel Fahrion, the artist who helped create Strawberry Shortcake's look, was also among the franchise's first concept artists. Working with TCFC Creative VP Ralph Shaffer, Muriel designed the first six bears, creating the best-selling greeting card themes for their belly graphics. Susan Trentel, Muriel's sister and doll designer of Strawberry Shortcake, designed the Care Bears plush. Once out of the concept stage children's book illustrator Elena Kucharik became the primary artist for the Care Bears creating hundreds of full color illustrations for cards, books and a myriad of licensed products. TCFC's creative team of artists and writers worked to create numerous characters in the line, which was a joint development by Those Characters From Cleveland and MAD (Marketing and Design Service of the toy group of General Mills).

As they had done with Strawberry Shortcake, once titled "Project I", AGC called the Care Bears development "Project II" as they strove to make the character program secret until advertising was ready. At the start of the franchise, Care Bears was already established as its working title.