Nintendo Game Boy

Vector Drawing and Illustration

Designing in retrospect

For an illustration commemorating the Nintendo Game Boy, I wanted to emulate the style of advertisments from my childhood in the early 1990s -- a vision of the future that included a lot of neon green lasers. Computer technology back then didn't look too impressive by itself, so a lot of artistic license was taken in airbrushing vague beams of energy and promising a far more immersive experience than what was actually delivered. Still, it was unquestionably cool.

Photorealistic vector drawing

The Game Boy in this image does not exist. It's entirely generated in Adobe Illustrator using gradients to create the appearance of realistic textures and shadows. Because of the Game Boy design's uniform geometry and matte plastic finish, it required only 970 anchor points -- far fewer than some of my other technical drawings.

Lasers, lasers everywhere

To create the retro style of the illustration in Photoshop, I started with a holodeck-style grid of airbrushed green laser beams. I then added a saintly glow to the Game Boy and rays of a more powerful light emanating from the screen, to suggest a TRON-like drawing-in of the viewer. Clouds of smoke enhance the scene, giving the light something to reflect from. This type of intensity and exaggeration is characteristic of the time period when the Game Boy first entered the market, and it was my goal to capture that spirit for this piece.