MetroPixelated
These are the first 3 entries in what I hope becomes a continuing series of designs depicting actual cityscapes in the graphical style of NES/Famicom games. The first 3 - Boston, Chicago, and Seattle, are available now as prints at my Etsy store, and will shortly be available on shirts and device cases at my RedBubble shop. Each has a daytime/sunset version, so you can pick your preferred magic hour.
I want to make more pieces like these, so if you want to see your city in 8-bit glory let me know, since I’m open to suggestions!
MetroPixelated by The Daily Robot. Prints available at Etsy.
Boston Pixel Skyline at Sunset Print by the Daily Robot. Available at Etsy
It must be late March - the entire gaming industry and its myriad enthusiastic fans have once again descended upon this, my current home-metropolis. PAX East 2013 is here, but unfortunately this year I will not be in attendance.
Why not? Well, largely because I forgot to buy a pass a thousand months ago when they were still available, and also because I have to go to work at my “Day Job” (which doesn’t involve drawing robots!), and because I don’t have anyone with whom to go. It’s alright, in years past I’ve typically exhausted myself by the end of the morning at the always-wonderful Boston 8-bit chiptune shows. Listen: if you’re going to PAX be sure to catch a set or two - they’re a lot of fun and you don’t have to stand in line, which is a pretty big selling point for any activity the expo offers.
Anyway, I didn’t want to be completely left out, so I decided to re-work a design I did quite awhile ago featuring a faux pixel-art vision of this fair city. This version features a sunset on the Charles River, which would be a beautiful springtime tableau if it were spring here, and not “still completely winter” as today’s snow firmly reminded residents like myself.
If you’re in town for PAX have fun, and try to see a little bit of the city beyond the convention center while you’re here. There’s history, and stuff.
What was I talking about? Oh, right. This print is available at Etsy for the next few weeks, at least until Summer arrives, searing away what remaining romantic notions I might still have about early “spring.”
Tomorrow marks the conclusion of the 38th Boston Science Fiction Film Festival. Every year the Fest ends with “The ‘Thon,” a 24-hour Science Fiction Movie Marathon that runs from Noon on Sunday to Noon on Monday, and is currently held up the street from me at the lovely Somerville Theater. This will be my 5th (!) marathon, which sounds impressive until you realize that many of the event’s attendees have been doing this every damn year since the mid-70’s.
In 2010 and 2011 I did the logo design for the festival’s merchandise and whatnot, seen above. In the cold light of 2013 there’s a number of things in these designs I’d adjust or fix, but whatever, right?
Listen: if you’re in the area and are nuts enough to attempt this, tickets are still available and you should definitely go. It is a grueling test of will and fortitude, plus also a ton of fun.
blast off.
What Came in the Mail Today: A beautiful shirt (and about a million stickers, buttons, magnets, and other ephemera) from Boston8Bit’s Etsy store. You can still grab one of these (though many sizes are sold out) for the way low price of $15.
Guys, it’s so hot in Boston today that this is how the city actually looks from a distance.
Also, this print is for sale here.
I made a little pixel-art-style* print of the Boston Skyline. You can see John Hancock Tower. And the Prudential Tower. And sailboats. It’s available at Etsy.
The past few months I feel like I’ve been working with a pretty narrow view in terms of style, and this is part of a conscious effort to try some design-type stuff I’m less familiar/comfortable with.
*I say pixel-art-style because I did this in Illustrator, using little vector squares, so the work file isn’t really pixel art at all. I don’t know how to do “real” pixel art, and I’d say I barely know how to do fake pixel art.
