Nostalgia.

I set out with the purpose of creating an icon set that could evoke millenial nostalgia. It was meant to call back to a sense of simplicity, fun, and good will. Many feel that the ninties were a time of hope and general well-being at least for many middle class families in the United States, and I wanted to capture that feeling.

I started with some sketches based on a personal novel with many ninties elements. I thought that would do well enough. I sketched a Gameboy, dandelion seed, and maple leaf charm.

Then, I turned those into vector graphics.

I made only one main change between my sketches and the vector graphics--that is, I put the dandelion seed on a lighter.

In the context of my novel, it made plenty of sense. However, I soon discovered when I brought it to my peers that it made very little sense to anyone else. They knew the Gameboy instinctively. They also understood what the lighter was meant to be, but questioned its relation to a Gameboy. Interestingly, the leaf charm was recieved with least understanding. No one knew why I had included it. I took that to mean that I needed to take this project in a different direction so that it could successfully fulfill the objective I had set out to complete.

Noting how many people seemed to like and relate to the Gameboy, I decided to begin a new, Gameboy theme. I figured if I based my design off of the earliest, blockiest versions of the Gameboy, it would give a nod to the nineties and call up memories for those who had their childhood during that time.

Since Pokemon had the biggest impact on me and my brothers who grew up in the nineties, I thought it would be safe to guess that it also held meaning for others. With that in mind, I crafted a line of Gameboys based off of Pokemon.

I soon recieved some critique that suggested that these icons might look too similar to one another. Because of this, they might lose some of their iconic value. As well, my peers said that the Gameboys weren't true enough to how Gameboys actually look.

As my next step, I decided to stretch the limits of what I could do to change these Gameboys into something anyone could easily recognize as being inspired by Gameboy, but also so transformed that they represented something entirely new and transformative.

The pokemon Gameboy hybrids did solve the problem of originality.

Yet, they brought with them an entirely new set of problems.

The first problem, according to my peers, was that these icons were entirely too busy and lacked a central focus.

Second, the art style between the icons varied too much.

Third, the quality of the art needed to improve.

With that in mind, I set out to improve them by hailing back to a simpler version. I figured tht the ears, tails, vines, and wings distracted too much from the original purpose of reminding the viewer of childhood experiences with Gameboys, so I removed the extra details along with a lot of the pokemon patterning. I would rely instead on color and screen icons to enforce the pokemon theme.

Besides, I figued that the similarity between the seperate Gameboy icons added a sense of cohesiveness and necessary repetition. I decided that they were just similar enough to be a set, but different enough because of the screen symbols and colors to be independent from one another.

In order to come up with the next six pokemon icons, I went back to sketching. At the suggestion of professional Cory Kerr (check out his work here: www.corykerr.com), I experimented with several different iterations of how the gameboy might look if I made them look more or less like pokemon and played with shape and size. As part of that experiment, I sketched a pikachu with buttons for cheecks and a direction pad tail.

I soon decided to just stick with simple, clean consoles with pokemon inspired keys and screen symbols.

As an aside, I also decided to make a Gengar Gameboy instead of a Butterfree Gameboy based on personal preference.

Finally, I implimented my new ideas as well as making sure I followed the guidelines for quality that i recieved from my peers and from Cory Kerr.

I was very happy with how the finals turned out. Just as I wanted, they honored the nineties with Gameboy and Pokemon nostalgia. They called back to those simpler, happier, millenial childhood days.

Success!

In closing, I would like to thank Cory Kerr and my fellow illustration peers for offering guidance and their professional critiques. I couldn't have done it without you!

I would also like to thank the creators of Nintendo and Pokemon. My childhood and that of millions of others wouldn't be the same without you.