I don’t get very large blocks of time to work on the Desktop Gremlin papercraft designs. So lots of quick sketches are jotted down onto sheets of letter-sized office paper and jammed into a tattered file folder that travels with me from my office to my home and back again. Because of this, I get lots of opportunities to test out different character designs and personalities in pencil-sketch-form before I ever fire up Adobe Illustrator to do my final design work. Desktop Gremlins as a "brand" has taken on a life of its own so some cool drawings just don’t fit the mold – but I still think it's interesting to see some of the ideas behind the final designs. I certainly enjoy flipping through loose sheets to re-inspire myself and decide which new gremlin is ready to be unleashed. Here is your chance to catch a glimpse of what lurks in that folder...
A frequently asked question at this site is "how did the idea of Desktop Gremlins come to be?" The origin of my paper models can be pinpointed pretty easily. My kids and I were (and still are) participating in many nightly sessions of what we like to call "art time." We love taking turns drawing the weirdest creatures that pop in our imaginations when saying a magic word or reading the unique color names on the sides of a crayon. It's joyful goofing around with art. With pages of these creatures haunting my dreams, I experienced one of those famous cool-ideas-that-you-have-in-a-dream-and-wake-up-scrambling-for-pen-and-paper-to-write-it-down-before-you-forget-it-and-then-the-next-morning-you-wake-up-and-realize-that-your-idea-was-completely-rediculous...only-this-time-it-was-not-rediculous-at-all-but-actually-pretty-good moments. (Whew!) Well, that's pretty much what happened. The sketch I drew that night on a yellow post-it note was of an octopus. The big idea was to create a paper loop to hold the character vertically to sit on your desk so it would be easier to show off to people. When I woke up that morning, I grabbed some scissors and cut my midnight sketch into a crude paper sculpture. This silly character sat on my desk at work for months and eventually inspired me to develop Desktop Gremlins as a unique "brand" and begin full development of The Alien and the Time Touchers which became my first finished papercraft. But I always knew The Octopus would have to be unleashed. And so he was... (The original "3:00 A.M." version still sits in my office even now and continues to inspire me on a daily basis.)
Ah..."Jangle." Where do I begin telling his tale of woe? I started sketching him very early in the birth of the Desktop Gremlins experience - before the brand was fully developed. "Jangle" represents an interesting exercise in staying (or rather NOT staying) true to a brand culture. I was very excited about the raw pencil sketch and had fleshed out his fascinating "origin story" quite easily. But when I started to redraw him with illustrator the doubts creeped in. When drawn with very flat colors (like my premier gremlin "The Alien") he looked more like cheap clip art. So I started playing more with shading, adding more colors, defining... ultimately he began looking nothing like what I was envisioning a Desktop Gremlin to be. It was a great exercise and I enjoy looking at the sketch from time to time to remind me about the importance of brand culture and the power it possesses. (I'll save this guy for a stand-alone children's book about the delivery of a very special holiday wish.)
The Time Touchers were a lot of fun to design. The "Tocker" (the short stubby gremlin) materialized into a solid character in my first attempt sketch. The trouble started with the design of his partner "Ticker." Originally, I kept thinking of the pair as a sort of "odd couple" with contrasting features. I tried unique details like fancy helmets and mustaches to separate the personalities of the two characters but it did not feel right. Ultimately, I decided these two characters should be brothers. That decision made "Ticker's" design a fun anatomy lesson – elongating similar features and sticking to a set of "gremlin species" rules. "Cuckoo" the bird entered the papercraft very late in the game as I was doing construction tests, but I could not resist... I love the little bird.
