What started as a whimsical post on YikYak quickly turned into a hot commodity backed by plenty of University of Wisconsin students. Grace Edwards, owner of GJE Art, is a junior at UW majoring in consumer behavior and marketplace studies. Edwards is the creator behind the mysterious yet highly respected “Badger Doodles” on Reddit.
It all started when Edwards wanted to create a design for a T-shirt contest for the School of Human Ecology, where her major is.
“What if people had merchandise for their major that wasn’t ugly and they would actually wear it?” Edwards said, referencing the notorious College Letters & Science shirt.
Edwards has been designing and creating drawings since she was 17, and has found Reddit to be a really friendly space to post things on the Internet without receiving backlash.
She has posted on Reddit before to get her art “out there” and found a strong community of people who appreciate her work.
“People are a lot more real with you when you’re on an anonymous platform,” Edwards said. “They’re more willing to tell you they like your work. Plus, a lot of students are on Reddit. UW-Madison subreddit (r/UWMadison) has thousands of students.”
After posting a few of her doodles, like an astronaut badger surrounded by stars for the Astronomy Department and a badger wearing a hard hat and clipboard for the Engineering Department, fans really saw potential in her work. Comments like “Journalism badger please” and “What about business or accounting?” began popping up on her page.
In fear of copyright issues, Edwards started to take posts down and remove the words “UW-Madison” from her doodles.
But this did not stop fans from supporting Edwards’ work. A post stating “people like the person making the badger major drawings are what make this app blessed sometimes” can be found on the UW-Madison Reddit feed.
Edwards draws everything on her iPad and she says the time varies for how long it takes to make each doodle. But surely, the demand to make everyone’s major into a Badger Doodle is increasing.
“It’s been really, really cool,” Edwards said. “I am very appreciative of the support.”
Edwards shared she has very distinct ideas for what she wants each doodle to look like, and strives to perfect each one.
