Kitten Dingbat
Advanced Digital Media
Introduction
The objective of this project is to use basic shapes and the principles of figure/ground and economy (limited elements) to develop formal visual references. Dingbats (tiny pictures) have been used for decades as support graphics and small illustrations in advertisements and other communications. The uses range from high-end design (where images are often manipulated further using graphics programs) to the everyday use for quick and easy illustrative support). The challenge was to create an animal dingbat design that showed an easily recognizable "attitude" or expression that worked in a variety of different sizes.
Materials
-Fine line pointer/ink pen
-Tracing papers
-Tape and glue stick
-Photocopies for reductions and tests
-Adobe Illustrator
Creative Process
The creative process began with selecting an animal and personality trait. I recently got an extremely tiny grey and white kitten that loved rolling around in the bed, drinking milk and acting sly when she was caught doing something cute. So I decided to illustrate the kitten and the attitude I wanted to portray was "cute and sly." Once the theme was selected, the next step of the process was taking visual reference photos of my kitten and finding images that best depicted the attitudes of cute and sly. The visual research was used for quick notes, ideas and impression to establish direction. Next, thumbnails were drafted to support the notes and research. A final rough thumbnail was selected to be converted into a comprehensive final production in Adobe Illustrator.
Final Production
The final dingbat was created in Illustrator using image trace and the pen tool.
