There’s that one story or rumor (“stormor”?) about how Walt Disney came up with the look of Mickey Mouse.  Circles and ovals are the most visually-pleasing shapes, and their convexity reminds us of something that is wholesome, smooth, and friendly.

Ah, but you see, three ovals might read “mouse” but that’s really the entire extent of the shape’s message. For me, the design of the basic Mickey silhouette does not convey a sense of personality or action.

But aha! Japan gave us Pac-Man, who is a only mere fraction of a circle.  Bare-boned and simple, the Pac-Man shape speaks so much with so little; a yellow circle with a deprived sector as a mouth.  Freaking brilliant.  Pac-Man is just simply Pac-Man, neither human nor animal…but somehow, just by its design, we can get a glimpse of his personality without the context of the game.

It’s really no wonder that so many designers use Pac-Man as a source of inspiration.  Here’s a good list of awesome Pac-Man inspired design-y items.  Read it and weep (and maybe buy).

Pac-Man Potholder:

Goddammit, why did I never think of this before?  I’m not too crazy about the eyes but I love how the maze pattern inside also acts as friction grip.

from Vat 19 [$14.95]

Pac-Man Leather iPod Case:

Cute to use the Pac-Man body over the iPod controls… though I wonder if his mouth poses scrolling problems.

from Videogame Central  [$29.99]

Pac-Man Candy Tin:

So simple, so sleek.  Funnier if the candy inside were shaped like fruits from the game.

from Anime Castle  [$2.99]

Pac-Man Power Pellet Ring:

Okay, so the design doesn’t feature a whole Pac-Man but it definitely captured the feel of the hungry little guy.  I’ve seen a lot of this type of “tension setting” jewelry on etsy but never this clever!

from Etsy [$55]

At the 2007 GDC Sony Keynote, Phil Harrison yapped about “the 3.0 phenomenon” that the PS3 is going to bring into the gaming and online landscapes.  He supported this argument by demoing LittleBigPlanet, and the crowd went wild.  Now, I’m no media expert so I have no idea whether or not LittleBigPlanet fulfilled Sony’s often overly ambitious prophecies.  This whole 3.0 thing could be made up marketing jargon for all I know.  But I do know this- LBP brought a fresh visual aesthetic to the world of design.  The craftsy texture look can go wrong in so many ways.  But backed by the concept of small worlds and planets, MM was able to make the most stylish digital solar system diorama ever made.  The calm emptiness of outer space,  and the bright, loud “handmade” system of planets sing beautiful and quirky songs together.

So ever since LBP’s debut, I’ve been anticipating a LBP copycat design explosion- websites, T-shirts, games, printed material, the whole enchilada.  I’ve been keeping an eye out for things like white with hot pink, burlap, cardboard, and knitted textures, iconography, sticker treatments, clay objects, and so forth.  So far, I haven’t seen anything that really has that signature LBP feel.  This is both bad and good; on one hand, I’m glad no one’s trying to rip off of that style, but then again, this might indicate that LBP didn’t make much of a mainstream design splash.

But today, I finally found something that definitely looked LBPy to me: a commercial for British Gas.  It’s part LBP, part Mario Galaxy, and part Coraline.  It makes sense that British Gas would want to send a message distinguishing themselves as a more intimate entity.

1UP user Malik was telling me about how Sudan is absolutely filled with pirated stuff because Sudan is a sanctioned country so legitimate copies are not allowed to be shipped in.  (I’m taking his word for it because I have absolutely no clue on Sudanese law).  While wandering around town, Malik’s brother Mohamed spotted one particular pirated game that just seems awfully familar:

Hey, that’s not the official Bully game cover…but why does it look so goddamn familiar?

…Oh!  Because I made that.

This was the cover I designed for the Bully Cover Story on 1UP a while ago. (Sam compared the two images on his 1UP blog here.) Malik explained, “I see Gamespot and IGN screenshots all the time on pirated games but only 1up has gotten one of their images to be used as a cover!”

Which totally makes sense!  They can’t just slap a screenshot from a website on to a game box– they need something more coverish, more editorial, more composed. I especially like the added bottom tag line:

DO YOU LIKE SCHOOL PLAY IT

But oh wow, this totally made my day.  So awesome and illegal at the same time.