ERIC FRANER DESIGN

My name is Eric Franer. I have been working as a product designer on the Star Wars Team at Hasbro since 2015. I have worked closely with the Lucasfilm team to bring many of the iconic ships, creatures, and characters to life. 

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Throughout my time at Hasbro I have brought hundreds of Star Wars items to market. I have worked on various lines including Value, Kid, Stylized, Vehicles, Creatures and Fan, while simultaneously staying on the strict production timeline since we work in tandem with the new movie productions. I focused on vehicles and creatures when I first started at Hasbro, including the most recent version of the Wampa and the M-68 Corellia Landspeeder from Solo. Over the years my responsibilities have expanded to lead designer on the Resistance action figure line, Galaxy of Adventures line and the super articulated Vintage Collection line of action figures. This has allowed me more freedom to make the figures as accurate and true to entertainment as possible. Starting in August of 2018, I began leading the Vintage Collection, which is our fan line of 3.75 inch super articulated figures. 

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In October 2019, I started leading The Black Series, our 6 inch super articulated fan line. I am currently leading over 200 projects (between 2023-2025) and have brought over 500  items to shelf during my career. Since I took over the Black Series in 2019, over 450 of my action figures have been released to the markets. I have worked closely with the Lucasfilm team to bring many of the iconic ships, creatures, and characters to life.  I was the lead designer on the Black Series Grogu figure we revealed, we brought that item to market in record time, capitalizing on the success of the character once he was revealed. I organize, execute and coordinate development on new product design projects of various complexities. I work collaboratively with all departments and delegate work, provide feedback and bring new processes to the Black Seires to improve process and quality. I influence the Black Series team with a multi year plan, to future proof the line with smart selects for tooling purposes. I work with management and marketing to develop the strategy of the line.

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I have attended San Diego Comic Con (2017 & 2023), Star Wars Celebration in Chicago, Anaheim and London, Mexico Unboxing Toy Convention, German Comic Con in Dortmund, Fan Expo Canada, Pulsecon (2020-2-23) and Hascon. I have also helped build the Comic Con Dioramas in 2017 and 2019.

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In 2022, I was brought onto the Indiana Jones Adventure Series line, which consisted of 25 individual items. I took on this responsibility in addition to my Black Series responsibilities.

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I did the first ever Fan First Friday Livestream for Hasbro, which has now become a company wide practice that every fan brand uses. I have lead all of these lines independently. 

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Throughout my career I have utilized a wide variety of software. I am extremely proficient in Photoshop, Solidworks and Zbrush, and I have significant experience in Alias, Freeform, Keyshot and Sketchbook pro. I graduated from the DAAP Program at the University of Cincinnati with a Bachelors of Science in Industrial Design, the top ranked program for ID in 2015. I gained experience at a variety of companies through the co-op program at UC, ranging from medical device design to character design. My thesis project, Experiment 18, received the third place IDSA Award at DAAPworks 2015. This was the first time a concept art project had won an award in the DAAP program and I have continued to develop this project over the years.