SoraNews24 —Japan News—

Bringing you yesterday's news from Japan and Asia, today.

RocketNews24 Japanese

Featured

Free ultra-low-res stock art website launched by former Nintendo designer

Free post-modern solutions for the digital world.

There are a number of royalty free stock image sites around the Internet in a variety of styles, covering everything from a cute drawing of a pufferfish vomiting water to a photo of a semi-nude muscular man riding through an inter-dimensional portal in a tiny cardboard box.

With all the competition around, these sites try to lure users in by offering the highest image resolutions around. But what if a stock image site dared to go the other way and offered pictures of various people and items at the lowest resolutions humanly possible?

Such a website has been born and is called Dotown.

Image: PR Times

Dotown is the brainchild of Maeda Design Room, a studio headed by former Nintendo art director Takashi Maeda. All images are done in a style Maeda refers to as “ara-dot” or “rough-dot” pixel art, in which the purpose is to try and convey the meaning of the image in as few pixels as possible.

▼ The devolution of pixel art to ara-dot

Image: PR Times

In that way, these sprites, which are available in png files with transparent backgrounds, resemble those found in very early NES era games, and only slightly above Atari-level graphics in terms of colors used. It’s a deceptively difficult art form, but the team at Maeda Design Room put together a growing array of around 700 impressive images.

All your favorites are there, such as:

▼ Poop

Image: Dotown

▼ Smelly Poop

Image: Dotown

▼ Poop-Man

Image: Dotown

▼ Poop-Man Pooping

Image: Dotown

▼ And the enchanting Poop-Dog

Image: Dotown

And if you happen to be one of those people not interested in poop, there’s a whole lot more on Dotown too, from office buildings to dried persimmons.

Image: PR Times

All of these images are free to use, for both private and commercial works. The website is also ad-free and Maeda Design Room hopes designers and non-designers alike can develop an interest in the art form and appreciate the core principles of design they embody while having fun.

▼ The images can be used to decorate poster layouts or as patterns for crafts like needlepoint or bead arrangements

Image: PR Times

It certainly worked for me, and inspired me to create my own ara-dot picture of Mr. Sato and his giant Starbucks coffee mug.

The rest of my Bored Sato Coffee Club NFTs should be up and running by spring.

Source: Dotown, PR Times, Hachima Kiko
Top image: PR Times
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

Like this:

Like Loading…

Related Stories

Trackbacks

  1. There are no trackbacks yet.
  2. Trackback URL

Trending Today

  1. Japan ends tax-free shopping system for foreign tourists, new refund request system now in effect
  2. Beautiful Ghibli diorama kits lets you build anime characters’ homes inside yours [Photos]
  3. Japan’s TeamLab digital art group is opening a permanent museum in America
  4. Japan’s mini Shikoku Pilgrimage walking tour left us feeling immensely satisfied
  5. This hot spring near Osaka’s Kansai Airport resolves the pick-two-out-of-three bathhouse dilemma
  6. Starbucks Japan invites us to par-tea with its new Earl Gray Frappuccino [Taste test]
  7. Family Mart releases 47 convenience store socks and stickers, one for every prefecture in Japan
  8. Tokyo Skytree set to offer breathtaking Diamond Fuji natural phenomenon view this month
  9. Shoplifting prevention guard arrested for shoplifting boot from store he was guarding
  10. This semi-secret, totally free footbath in downtown Tokyo is completely awesome

© SoraNews24 —Japan News— / SOCIO CORPORATION

Powered by WordPress VIP

%d