THE HARRY 'LOOK' VALLEY DESIGNER PUTS TWINKLE IN YOUNG WIZARD'S EYE.

OAK PARK - For a mere muggle, Douglas Day knows an awful lot about the wizardly world of Harry Potter.

He should, after all, because he helped design the look of the bespectacled whiz kid.

Working with a team of nine artists for local design firm 30Sixty, the San Fernando Valley-born and bred designer sketched Potter and his Hogwarts Academy cohorts, figuring out how to translate the literary phenomenon of J.K. Rowling's 100-million-book-selling series into merchandise artwork. And with the hotly anticipated live action film hitting screens Nov. 16, there will be plenty of it flooding stores in no time.

Turning Harry from his richly worded literary self into a smiling icon of coloring books and lunch boxes was no easy task, according to Day. Aside from cover art from the four novels and Rowling's descriptions, the team had to rely on imagination to draw up Potter's world.

``No one had any idea what he'd look like,'' the 39 year-old artist recalled. ``Should his tennis shoes be Keds or Converse? There was a whole discussion on whether his jeans would have cuffs or not. It got pretty insane.''

Aside from the difficulty of deciding on Harry's outfits or how to handle best-pal Hermione's troublesome hair, the world of wizardry has its own oddities that don't always lend themselves to sketching.

``There's some tricky things dealing with magic,'' Day said. ``When he puts on his cloak of invisibility, we didn't know if his head would poke out the top or hand would be able to emerge out the side. It's not like you can just test this out.''

The new concepts are a far cry from where he learned the trade - copying Scooby Doo off TV as a child in North Hollywood. Nurtured by his artistic-minded father and a love of cartoons, Day studied illustration and broke into the design business doing movie posters and video boxes.

The Potter likenesses he helped with have already been slapped onto pencil cases and keychains that have been selling well throughout the year. There are some limits, however, according to Henry Vizcarra, 30Sixty's creative director.

``Harry will not be seen drinking Coca-Cola or selling butter,'' Vizcarra said. ``(Rowling) has been very clear about that - he will not become a spokesman for someone else.''

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2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Douglas Day isn't nearly as reluctant as he looks to show his drawings of the characters in the Harry Potter books.

(2 -- color) Douglas Day works on designs for items based on the characters in the Harry Potter books in his home office in Oak Park.

Evan Yee/Staff Photographer