Stereohype has a button design contest for the creation of one-off or sets of 4 buttons for purchase and to give away with the sales of other items. The idea of designing something for four 1" buttons struck me as kind of kitschy, so I started thinking up idea along the lines of flamingos, garden gnomes, Hawaiian shirts, etc. However, it was when I started thinking about old toy robots that I ventured into the idea of old horror movies... mostly the cheesy ones.
I thought of antagonists from movies like They Live!, Prince of Space, and Robot Monster. There were a few more, but I chose the 4 that I felt I could best represent in Illustrator.
Thankfully, Stereohype has a Photoshop template available on their website and I was able to drop the artwork within the needed safe zone. You can tell I got a little more ambitious with my blends and gradients toward the last one. I really could've spent another day on these because I was having so much fun putting them together. The button size is 1", so I knew my images would have to be bright, simple, and noticeable, and I think each one of these could stand alone, or even be extended further... like I said, I had more sketches!