Contra
Gibbles the Niblet
A tiny pencil nib with a big appetite for messy ideas and half-doodled dreams. He chomps the scraps, coughs up brilliance, and reminds us that nothing is something.
TL;DR
- I created Gibbles the Niblet, an original character, for the Contra × Recraft mascot challenge.
- I wrote and designed an 8-page digital storybook.
- I made a 3D-printable designer toy file and a pencil-sharpener concept.
- Gibbles then became the mascot of girtonian.com.
The gist
The premise: A mascot challenge: invent a character and build the world he lives in.
The reality: "Gibbles was not designed. He just kind of happened." A half-sharpened pencil and a really bad drawing became a mascot, a storybook, a toy and a sharpener.
A tiny pencil nib with a big appetite for messy ideas and half-doodled dreams. He chomps the scraps, coughs up brilliance, and reminds us that nothing is something.
The fine print
- Role: Creator, solo: character, world, storybook (writing included), toy and sharpener concepts, and the music for the video
- Context: The Recraft × Contra mascot challenge, June 25 to July 2, 2026. Submitted June 30, 2026.
- Formats: Mascot system (done) · digital storybook (8 pages) · designer toy (a 3D-printable file) · pencil sharpener (concept)
- Tools: Recraft, MagicPath (storybook), Suno (music)
- Tags: Playground · Character design · Original IP · AI workflow
Where I sat
Gibbles is my character, start to finish. "I saw a partially sharpened pencil on my desk, and a really bad drawing and then there was Gibbles." I may or may not have based him on my six-year-old self, who had a problem with eating paper. I give credit to my kids, who are natural creativity boosters. They will always be truthful if something is fun or not, and Gibbles passed the test.
The frame
The challenge asked for a whole world, not just a character: "Invent a mascot with Recraft. Give it a name, look, personality, and build the world it lives in." That meant a system: a name and logo, a look, a personality and real applications.
Here's who Gibbles is:
- Who: a tiny pencil-nib goblin who lives in an art studio, survives on failed sketches and has absolutely no chill.
- Look: a carved wooden body, a graphite crown, ears the size of dinner plates, and a mouth that's always open, usually chewing something he should not be chewing.
- What he does: eats failed ideas and coughs up better ones.
- Sidekick: Scrub, a kneaded-eraser puppy who erases Gibbles' drawings by sitting on them. It's a whole thing.
- His message: you do not need the perfect tools. You just need the mess in front of you and a weird little goblin brain to do something with it.
What I made
A character whose body is the tool. Gibbles is a pencil, so every application had a reason to exist. A pencil character can become a pencil sharpener. A scrap-eater lives naturally in a story about making things from scraps. A chunky wooden goblin reads as a designer toy.
- Mascot system: the logo, a character sheet, a poster ("Great ideas are messy."), a sticker set with Scrub, a tee mockup, the boxed designer toy and the sharpener product sheet.
- Storybook: Gibbles the Niblet Makes Do: A Tale of Creative Scraps, eight pages in rhyme.
- Designer toy: taken as far as a 3D-printable file.
- Pencil sharpener: an industrial concept.
The friction
It all came pretty easy for me. The hardest part was knowing when to call it good enough and ship the submission.
What shipped
I submitted Gibbles on June 30, 2026, as "Meet Gibbles the Niblet: Your Creative Goblin Companion" on Contra: a full mascot system, an eight-page digital storybook, a 3D-printable toy file and a sharpener concept. The post drew 78 likes and 16 comments (as of October 2026). Gibbles then became the mascot of girtonian.com.
What I'd carry forward
You do not need the perfect tools. Use what you have. Make it strange. Make it clever. Nothing is something.
The full story
The storybook
I wrote a little storybook to go along with the submission. Gibbles finds scraps on the floor (a box, some string and a bent little drawer) and builds "a small rocket from somebody's dream" with a bottle-cap helmet, wrapper wings, a pencil for steering and paperclip springs. Its refrain is the whole philosophy:
"Nothing is something," said Gibbles with glee,
"Just look at the junk like it's waiting to be."
It closes: "Use what you have. Make it strange. Make it clever. / With imagination, scraps can become whatever."
The soundtrack
The music track in the submission video came from Suno, built from a little clip I recorded of myself humming randomly. Have a listen. Just go make things. It's that simple.
What people said
Comments on Contra included "love the storybook!", "Gibbles has so much personality", one person who now wanted a Gibbles plushie, and "For years I've been drawing with pencils and never once thought about making it into a character… Simple, memorable, and easy to recognize!"
Where he lives now
Gibbles is the recurring character on girtonian.com, with an entrance and idle loop in the hero and a tantrum in Selected Work.
Ask about this project
Questions about Gibbles the Niblet? Email connect@girtonian.com.