You have one hour to give me ideas!

[telophase]

...as I have a meeting in an hour and have to have something to doodle to keep me awake and focused during it.

Thanks to the scrapbooking craze, I've managed to lay my hands on an inexpensive laminator* and some paper punches to make phone straps/keychains/charms/whatever with. So I'm looking for ideas for themed-type pictures to do for those type of items, like zodiac symbols or whatever.

Details: The images are going to be only an inch to an inch and a half in size. Nothing elaborate. Simple is the key. The problem with the European zodiac is that there's a full 12 symbols, which is a lot to do in two months. The Chinese zodiac has that same problem, plus is currently inextricably associated in my mind with Fruits Basket. The traditional four elements might work, but is now associated with Avatar in my head, arg. The Four Bishounen of the Apocalypse** are good, and I'll probably do new versions of them, but I don't want to add to the line as (a) they would no longer be the Four Bishounen of the Apocalypse, losing part of the joke, and (b) there's only so far you can take a good joke anyway.

So: any ideas of characteristics, labels, quiz results, etc. that you might see on a small piece of swag at an anime con?



* Which also makes stickers and magnets, amusingly enough.

** If you're new here, they're Snarky, Angsty, Brooding, and Cute.

Comments

[vom-marlowe.livejournal.com]

Flowers of DOOM.

Fowl of DOOOOOOM. (Which fowl of doom are you? I am a LIBRARIAN CHICKEN! I am a Pigeon!)

[weirdquark]

(Which fowl of doom are you? I am a LIBRARIAN CHICKEN! I am a Pigeon!)

Can they all be job related fowl of doom?

I would also like to see glasses wearing chibi bishonen trying with varying levels of success to be intimidating. (Non-glasses wearing bishonen are also good, but somehow less entertaining to me right now.)

[the-z.livejournal.com]

How about chibi versions of the archetypes of people you find at anime conventions. I once saw the list posted somewhere, but I'm sure we could all re-create it. You have things like the obsessive fangirls, of course, the yaoi fairy bois, the J-rock fans, the loli-goths, cosplayers, newcomers to anime, the parents that accompany the children-- I could see where this would get long.

You could also do features of cartoon sushi or other Japanese foods. Maybe try something cartoony with eyes?

[chomiji]

Someone was issuing "Bishounen Hunting Licenses" at Otakon last year.

(And if she does the anime fan archetypes, she simply must have an older female in glasses who is not necessarily someone's mom, labelled "Mother of All Things" or "Fairy Gothmother" or "Oba-San" or something ... because I'm tired of being marginalized as a mere parent of a fan.)

[weirdquark]

I don't know if this is something you'd want to do at such a small scale, but I believe there is not enough artwork of female characters kicking ass.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I agree, however pictures of hot bishounen outsell pictures of women kicking ass at the cons I sell at, as the people buying them are 14-21 year old girls who always say something about how they're going to put them on their bedroom wall. :)

[the-z.livejournal.com]

Also, I felt the need to note, bishounen ANGELS AND DEVILS SELL LIKE STUPID! You could just sell them as a collector's series each year or each con (make them limited edition with numbers on the bottom like a card battle-type game). Additionally, you could have them as blind draws by putting them in an envelope or such. Have the art of them out on the table and either let them pick at random or have them choose from angel or devil. You could just do them in series of 4 or 6. Maybe arrange a tournament later in the day for a prize (custom art?)

Sounds like alot of work, but I think it would fly.

You could just do them rock, paper, scissors game style too. Maybe Blue beats Red, Brown beats Blue, Red beats Brown...

What would be fun is get several artists in separate tables to come up with original designs with the same system.

Okay, I think this has gone beyond simple keychains. I'd love to toss in art to something like this.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, interesting.....

[telophase.livejournal.com]

My brain kind of wants to elaborate this, actually, in a way that wouldn't break the bank, and could also spread virally without having to worry about controlling it. Call it Battle Bishies or something.

1) Come up with simple gameplay system, maybe just Rock Paper Scissors or something similar would work.

2) Establish specific parameters for the cards - size, colors, weight of paper - so that they could easily be made into a deck that holds well in the hand. But something that anyone could produce from their printer using stuff you can buy at an office-supply store if necessary. (Maybe quarter-page cardstock? Or would that be too big?) Is trading-card size available or easy to get hold of?

3) Get (metaphorical) buy-in from several artists we know, to produce some cards of original characters for this. They'd either give them away or sell them themselves; this isn't a fancy distribution thing.

4) Get a website. Make the rules available on the website, as well as a simple starter deck's worth of images for people to print out and try on their own. Watermarked or otherwise marked, of course, to encourage them to drop by other artists' websites or con tables and buy nicer versions.

5) Sit back and see what happens. :) Have the game rules and setup available under a Creative Commons license, so that anyone can use them and make art for them, with the individual cards copyrighted to whatever artist does them under whatever license they want. It's up to the artists to do one set of cards and no more, or to keep adding to their own line, or to put out limited editions, or whatever.

Does that make sense? More ideas? Different ideas? Better ideas?

[arkanefyre.livejournal.com]

The five Chinese elements (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_elements_%28Chinese_philosophy%29)! Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth.

[arkanefyre.livejournal.com]

The Four Horsemen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Horsemen_of_the_Apocalypse) would be interesting if you could find some way to pull it off? The background could be the colour of the horse, and the design could be what the rider carries: bow and arrow, scale, sword, and erh, death represented by a skull?

[yhlee.livejournal.com]

If you did this, telophase, I would love you forever. And buy a full set off you.

[chomiji]

The Spirits of the Manga Classification System ... shoujo, shounen, seinen, josei, and hentai!

(Shoujo is a beautiful but relatively chaste-looking bishie, shounen is a kickass little punk with a BIG sword, seinen is a cynical- and tough-looking chap in timeless clothes and extra attitude, josei is an emo-looking young woman in a beautiful outfit, and hentai is ... too many choices! Probably a buxom babe being attacked by tentacles ... .)

[madame-manga.livejournal.com]

I LOVE this one. Genius. I would buy a full set in refrigerator magnets! ^_^

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, a genre version of OS-tan, I like!

[fuchsoid.livejournal.com]

I've no idea why, but the first thing I thought of was the four humours; choleric, phlegmatic, melancholic and sanguine. Which come to think of it, map pretty well onto Snarky, Angsty, Brooding and Cute

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I now have a sudden urge to redraw them in medieval clothing. I'd sell maybe three of them, but they'd sell to the right people. XD

[(Anonymous)]

How about anime/manga plot tokens? As in the evil twin, someone loses an eye/arm, etc?

[rilina.livejournal.com]

Oops, that was me.

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

There are five Asian elements, and you could do Asian characters for the four seasons with corresponding art-- cherry blossoms, snow, fall leaves, etc.

I like some of the other suggestions too.