I started off by thinking of an MTA illustration by artist Marcos Chin. I've seen it on the train a bunch of times and I really enjoy it. You can check it out here. His use of lines to define all of the characters' contours is lovely and I wanted to play with that idea. But then I started listening to Radiolab and a story on the fight to conserve a bird called the Kirtland’s warbler and at some point I evidently thought of "The Red Balloon." There's also some 80's rock hairdo going on here. I went with it all.