the characters themselves were conceived and designed by kelly giannopoulos and diane semark. "we looked for the most interesting personality traits and then actually gave the mascots a past, a sort of legend that went with their story." the duo were designed with distinct plummage and faces, to reflect their gender. sugar's costume studio built the outfits based on their designs. their personality traits were modelled after jim carrey and goldie hawn, because "both of them have a wild and zany side." their original names were slider and curveball. on march 4, 2000, two new names were unveiled through the toronto blue jays "name the mascots contest" ace and diamond. winner of contest: toronto high school student a. mcconnell