Puppet by Design: Mighty Mac vs. The Grocery Aisle is a design project that explores the puppet design and construction process for the purpose of creating branded materials. Mighty Mac, a hand puppet created by Izzy Gibson, is a caricature of Izzy’s own flawed digestive system. The puppet has features of culturally relevant puppets, such as Jim Henson’s muppets and combines those with cartoonish depictions of a stomach and small intestine. The character design is intended to look best in 2D materials, such as posters, tickets, and programs, while also being usable in 3D spaces, like puppet shows or film.
Mighty Mac was displayed at the Design Museum of Chicago on June 12, 2025, as a part of Case & Point, DePaul University’s CDM 2025 Showcase. In addition to the puppet, a poster, tickets, and a process book were produced.Showcase attendees were encouraged to flip through the process book to better understand what goes into the puppet construction process. Abstract type was created for the process book using photos of Mighty Mac’s “intestines.”Mac’s design considers the shapes of the digestive tract, with his head being the shape of a stomach and his body being a small intestine.The intestines were sewn using a Singer sewing machine and hand-sewing techniques. Each link was individually stuffed, sewn, and tied to another link over the course of three days. The end product was 7-feet long and consisted of 34 links.The intestines were then configured into a circular shape that wrapped around the puppet’s felt torso. This step was done prior to attaching the head and neck pieces to the body, which allowed for greater customization.