The Plucky Pelican and 8 Other Fancy Animal Personas

Tucked among the blackberry bushes and vine maples of West Portland, Oregon, is a house filled with fantastically dapper beasts: a cheetah sporting an eye patch; an otter in a tipped bowler hat; a great white shark dressed in a corduroy coat; a crow with bifocals perched on the bridge of its bill.

These fashion-forward critters are among the dozens of illustrated animals that paper the walls of a studio belonging to Lucy and Ryan Berkley, a crafty husband-and-wife team in their 30s. The couple has used their creations to build an empire on Etsy—the popular online bazaar that has launched numerous steampunk-ers, threadheads, and soap mixologists into stardom. But the Berkleys don’t just make novelties; they’ve invented an entire new universe for their fans—the same way that Richard Scarry did with his nursery tales, and Arnold Lobel did with Frog and Toad. Since they launched their business in 2007, the Berkleys turned their virtual mom-and-pop print shop into a sought-after brand, filing everything from personal requests for pet portraits, to a marketing campaign for Marriott, to t-shirt designs for Patagonia and the U.S. Olympic snowboarding team. (Ryan’s work has occasionally popped up in Audubon as well.) Over the years, the duo has had to pass on quite a few pitches. But in spring of 2014, they got an offer they couldn’t resist: The publisher Sasquatch Books asked them to turn 27 of their slickest prints into an anthology.

The book, Social Animals: A Berkley Bestiary, released last week, uses 70-plus earth-toned pages to sort Lucy and Ryan’s creatures into different circles: Social Butterflies, Worker Bees, Odd Ducks, Top Dogs, Black Sheep, and the Lone Wolf. The illustrations were all selected from Ryan’s stable of 125 critters, with the exception of three new ones he created especially for the book. Each drawing is paired with a snappy vignette, written by Lucy, about the animal’s knacks and expertise.

It took the couple about a year to pick out, redraw, and rewrite the selections for the book. Their process resembles a kind of playful assembly line. Ryan selects the species and dreams up their outfits, and then sketches them out with design markers and colored pencils. He refers to at least 10 photos for each print to really nail the physical details. Some take as little as six hours; some are perfected over the course of three days. (Birds are easy, Ryan says, but furry faces take more time.)

Next, Lucy steps in to build character with her mini biographies. Sometimes she can interpret their personalities right away: The clothes could be a dead giveaway, or the creatures might remind her of someone she knows. For example, the “Superstar Sheep” is a rebel without a cause, with his jean jacket, black v-neck, and defiant personality. “His latest hit, ‘Misfit Among Misfits,’ subtly explores inner angst,” Lucy writes. The “Mystifying Meerkat,” meanwhile, is inspired by Ryan’s grandfather: “Artists, pilots, and collectors alike find him at the watering hole to seek his absurdist advice.” Yet the Berkleys haven’t created any characters that closely resemble themselves. If they had to choose one for each other . . . Ryan is the “Crafty Chipmunk,” Lucy decides, and Lucy is the “Rivalrous Robin,” Ryan chimes in.  

Being prone to rivalry isn’t so bad, especially when you’re trying to turn your brand into a major business. That’s what Lucy, a self-taught CEO, focuses on when she’s not writing clever sagas about animals. “I don’t want to make it sound like I’m the boss,” she says, “but I kind of am the boss.”

While she holds down the fort in the real world, Ryan focuses on enriching the alternate universe they’ve created. “I can make any animal beautiful and relatable,” he says. “I’ll do anything to make them lovable, even if it means personifying them."

The Berkleys are already thinking about their next book, which they want to dedicate to kids and baby animals. This in part is inspired by their own little ones: Ramona, who is 3, and Linus, 1, who was born during the making of Social Animals. Ramona has already caught the nature bug from her parents: She can identify some birds by sound, and has taken quite a shine to a visiting Western Scrub-Jay she calls Theodore. (Linus, on the other hand, is content with chewing on his parents’ book.)

But the childrens book will have to wait: With Christmas creeping up, orders will start pouring in from all over the states, Canada, Europe, and even Australia. The Berkleys will have to hunker down in their studio, only taking breaks to play air guitar with the kids, attend a few local craft shows, and maybe, indulge in a pet portrait or two. Once the season is all wrapped up, then finally, it'll be time to "frankenstein" some new creations for their ever-growing, eccentric crew. 

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Meet the irresistable characters from Social Animals:

The Rivalrous Robin

"This early bird gets first dibs on the New York Times crossword."

The Crafty Chipmunk

"When he was young, this whittling chipmunk started carving faces into acorns despite his mother's refrain, 'Don't play with your food.' "

The Obsessive Owl

"Since his owlet days, this gent has dreamed of flying to the moon, but until recently, he spent all his time partying with the night owls."

The Cheeky Chicken

"This chick has been a fan of eccentric fashion since literally before she was born. In one of the only documented cases of the rare ovum polkaditis, the egg she hatched from was speckled with purple and orange polka dots."

The Mystifying Meerkat

"Appearances aside, this fellow is no ordinary flying ace meerkat. He's also a Dixieland pianist, skilled painter, and former owner of the world's largest model-Porsche collection, but he traded it for a biplane and a candy bar."

The Radical Raven

"With a hot temper and a double PhD in philosophy and math, this raven earns his rep as an intellectual bad boy."

The Superstar Sheep

"Despite his success as a rock singer, this sheep never found his social niche."

The Reputable Raptor

"As president of the Red Tail Society, this hawk has a distinguished reputation to uphold."

Social Animals: A Berkley Bestiary, by Ryan Berkley and Lucy Berkley, Sasquatch Press, 80 pages, $18.95. Buy it at berkleyillustration.com.