Everybody has a Benny in their life. At least, I hope they do. My Benny is curious and restless, just like four-year-olds are supposed to be. He lives next door and visits me often.
Benny Shows Me How To See A Metropolis
One evening, we were watching a story on TV that takes place in New York City. First, he was fascinated by the tall buildings. Then, about ten minutes into the program, he started telling me how much fun it would be to live there.
He could play hide and seek among the tall buildings. All the taxis and busses could take him wherever he needed to go. It wasn’t at all like where he lives. It was exciting!
Sara, Benny’s mother, sushed him and told him to be nice so other people could enjoy the story. So he got very still – for about a minute.
I don’t remember much of the story after that, but I remember seeing the New York skyline through Benny’s eyes.
I Try To Capture Lightning In A Bottle
When I got up the next day, I knew what I had to do. Somehow I had to distill the wonder Benny revealed to me into a craft.
It shouldn’t come as any surprise that long car rides with Benny can be a trial. Sara is always looking for something to occupy him.
Maybe I could kill two birds with one stone. First, I thought it would be fun to capture Benny’s vision of New York in an Altoids tin. It’s portable, neat, and tidy. So, I thought Sara would like that. Plus, Benny could happily play among the buildings during a long trip.
Putting The Pieces Together
I always start by looking for earlier work done by other artists. Many times they have already created just the answer I need. Even when they haven’t, their work inspires me.
I had always enjoyed the delightful travel size paper city – Paris made by Joel Henriques. But, unfortunately, he never created New York.
While I can’t begin to draw like Joel, I thought I could find a version of New York Benny would like. It works out the digital artist Grop had made the kind of elements I needed.
It took me a few days work to create the images I needed. But, once I sized them for the Altoids tin, I was ready to make the diorama pieces. Before I knew it, I had a working diorama.
I took an old Altoids tin I had lying around and spraypainted it. Then I made a simple label for it – NEW YORK, which I protected with a light coat of matte varnish.
Benny Gets His City
The next time I saw him I gave Benny his present. I told him it was for special things like long car trips. Sara reminded him to say thank you. Then he scampered off to play with his new city.
A few weeks later, Benny went to see his grandparents. They live several hours away by car. So he took his favorite pajamas, coloring books, and his city. Sara tells me that it was a great success. Her mother wanted to know where she got that little paper city in the tin box.
Skyline – The Curiously Amusing City Is Born
Now I knew the idea worked, my imagination raced. I could share Benny’s paper city with other crafters. It could be a papercraft printable. Then, perhaps, there could be a series of printables for other cities.
What could I call them? I remembered it was the city skyline that first captured my attention. So, of course, that had to be the name for the product – SKYLINE.
I couldn’t resist giving the nod to both Benny and Altoids. So I added the tagline ‘The curiously amusing metropolis.’
A couple of hours later, I had a logo ready for the world. Over the next week, I created the copy and pages for the printable.
It always takes me a couple of days to get everything ready for desktop publishing.
Then I put together the first production kit, Skyline – New York. I held my breath as it went through testing. Fortunately, it passed. So I added it to the store.
It is nice to know that other people have been able to enjoy what Benny saw. As for me, I am adding to the Skyline collection. I think I am going to use them as stocking stuffers this Christmas.