TAD RVA

The Child Psychology of Sesame Street

Sesame Street was a huge part of my childhood, as I’m sure it was for most people born during/after the 1970s. It was the first time I saw crazy monsters living in a city.

A neighborhood like mine.

With people like me.

I stayed glued to the TV every morning to catch the big yellow bird with the teddy bear, the green grouch that lived in a trashcan and the blue lunatic that devoured cookies upon cookies. When I found an interesting article about Sesame Street, I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to create something for it. The article was about how the Sesame Street characters feel so organic but were carefully shaped by a team of psychologists. When I thought of child psychology, I thought of how they use shapes and blocks as tools. Building blocks help with the developmental stage of children, including social skills and psychological health. I wanted to take these blocks and “shape” one of the sesame street characters with them. In this case, I chose Big Bird. The concept is the execution, specifically the color and shape. The juxtaposition of reality and imagination that Sesame Street has carried for decades is one that has crept back into my work recently…and I couldn’t be happier.