I’ve been using Bippy stickers in my iMessages for a long time now, and honestly, they’ve become part of my digital vocabulary. With over 400 stickers featuring the rotund frog, there’s a Bippy for every mood, every awkward conversation, and every moment when words just won’t do. So when I decided to reach out to Christina about collaborating on a website for bippyandfriends.com, I figured the worst she could say was no.
Reaching Out
There’s something beautifully unhinged about messaging someone whose work you admire purely because their cartoon frog makes you laugh. But that’s exactly what I did. I sent Christina a message explaining how much I loved using her stickers, how they’d become my go-to response for everything from “running late” to “existential dread at 3 AM,” and asked if she’d be interested in working together on a website.
The response was immediate and enthusiastic. Christina had been thinking about creating a proper home for Bippy and his friends online, a place that could showcase the character’s personality beyond the confines of the iMessage sticker pack. It was one of those rare moments when an idea finds its perfect timing.
Working together
Working with Christina in Figma was like watching someone translate their creative vision into pixels in real time. She came to the project with a clear understanding of Bippy’s world: the color palettes that would make him feel at home, the typography that matched his personality, and the overall vibe that would make visitors want to stick around.
We spent hours iterating on layouts, discussing how to balance Bippy’s playful nature with the functionality of a modern website. Christina’s background in design meant she understood not just what looked good, but what would work well for users navigating the site. She’d suggest a color adjustment here, a spacing tweak there, always with an eye toward making the experience feel cohesive with the character’s established aesthetic.
What struck me most was how Christina approached the design process. She wasn’t just thinking about individual pages or components, but about how someone would move through the site, how they’d discover new aspects of Bippy’s personality, and how the digital experience could feel as warm and welcoming as the stickers themselves.
Why Astro?
The technical implementation landed on Astro, which turned out to be the perfect choice for this project. Astro’s approach to static site generation meant we could create a fast, lightweight experience that would load quickly on any device. Given that many of Bippy’s fans are likely discovering the site through mobile devices, performance was crucial.
Astro’s component-based architecture also made it easy to maintain consistency across the site while allowing for the kind of playful interactions (like the fun two-frame animations when hover icons) that make Bippy’s world feel alive. The framework’s built-in optimization features ensured that images of Bippy and his friends would load crisp and clear without bogging down the user experience.
The Bigger Picture
Working on this project reminded me why I love collaborating with creative people who care deeply about their work. Christina’s attention to detail, her understanding of her audience, and her willingness to experiment made the entire process feel less like work and more like play. Which, when you think about it, is exactly what Bippy represents: finding joy in the small moments, expressing yourself without overthinking it, and connecting with others through shared silliness.
In a world that takes itself way too seriously most of the time, having a corner of the internet dedicated to a cheerful frog and his friends feels pretty necessary.
Sometimes the best projects come from the simplest impulses: you see something you love, you reach out, and you see what happens. The Internet can be such a wonderful place for creative people to find each other and make something new together.
See the website at bippyandfriends.com and follow Christina!
