Dick Bruna

I was excited to find this artist among the graphic designers because as a mother, I am always looking for new children’s art to explore with my daughter. A minimalist Dutch author, illustrator, artist and graphic designer, Bruna is best known for his character, Miffy, (a small rabbit). To this day, Dick Bruna has published over 120 children’s book titles, almost 30 of which are based on his popular children’s characters, the most recent being released in 2007. If you look through some of his work, you will see how some of his greatest influences were artists like Van Gogh, Matisse, and Rembrant. Interestingly, he was also influenced by the artwork of Walt Disney as well! I like that Bruna accepted many different forms of art and integrated them to create his own individual brand of graphic design.

One thing that I found to be especially interesting was that in the early 1990s, an image of Miffy concealing an adjustable spanner behind her back began to appear on flyers produced by people protesting against the UK’s government road building program. The use of Miffy was unauthorized, and her image began to pop up all over, eventually gaining notoriety for being a mascot for groups involved in radical ecological direct action. Less than a decade later, Miffy earned her own television series! What a paradox to go from a political mascot to a popular children’s television show.

Another thing that was really interesting about Dick Bruna is that often times, Miffy is mistaken to be one of Sanrio’s Hello Kitty characters. Bruna really was not happy about this resemblance, especially when it was brought to his attention that there was a similar character to his Miffy being featured. Bruna and Sanrio entered into a lawsuit, each fighting for the copyright and trademark to their designs. The lawsuit got put on hold after the March, 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan occurred. Admirably, the two sides agreed to put aside their differences and donate all further legal fees to the victims of the tsunami and earthquake.

Everyone should take a few minutes to visit the Miffy website at http://www.miffy.com/ to meet this well-loved character!