Alphabet Monsters Design Notes b / B

What are Alphabet Monsters?

"Alphabet Monsters" is an original educational resource that designs uppercase and lowercase letters as Pokémon-like characters.
By utilizing the shape of the letters as monster silhouettes, we have designed them so that children can enjoy getting familiar with the alphabet.
As a design note, I will write about the behind-the-scenes of the production.

Note: The Alphabet Monsters chart (A3 size) is available for free download for home and educational use.

As a design note, I will write about the behind-the-scenes of the production.

* The Alphabet Monsters chart (A3 size) is available for free download for home and educational use.


▶ Alphabet Monsters Chart (A3 size / Free Download)

A twist from the initial idea

b and B required some ingenuity right away.
When I first saw the shape of b, I thought of a snail.
I thought that if I were to relate B to it, it could be a rugged snail with a powered-up head.
However,
b is a snail, and B is also a snail.
That would be easy to understand, but I wanted to add another twist.

The reason for choosing a caterpillar and a butterfly

The shape of B could, for example, be made into an animal with a big belly, like a raccoon facing right, but
I decided to liken it to the classic butterfly wings,
designing b as a caterpillar type,
and using the motif of a caterpillar turning into a butterfly.
After all, for a set of lowercase and uppercase letters,
I want to have as convincing a connection as possible.

b: Beam

I made the lowercase b a caterpillar character.
His name is Beam.
I made it sound like a name using the b sound.
I tilted the b slightly
to give the image of a bug clinging to a branch.
I placed two eyes inside the round part
to make the silhouette of b easy to recognize.
As an accent, I added metal parts to its body.

B: Bitafly

The uppercase B is the grown-up version of b.
It is a butterfly character.
The name is Bitafly, a slight variation of Butterfly that incorporates the B sound.
I used the shape of B as wings, but to make the alphabet silhouette clearly visible, I used a composition where only one side of the wings stands out, and made them metal plate wings. I also added bolt-like metal parts to the body.

The fun relationship between lowercase and uppercase

I think it would have worked as a snail, but by adding another twist, the distance between b and B became clear.
These two letters were a good opportunity to think about the relationship between lowercase and uppercase letters.

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