Miffy is a small female rabbit featured in a series of picture books drawn and written by the late Dutch artist Dick Bruna, who passed away in 2017. The name Nijntje is a shortening of the Dutch word "konijntje," which means "little rabbit." Nijntje was created in 1955 after Dick Bruna had been telling his one-year-old son stories about a little rabbit they had seen earlier in the dunes. Nijntje is drawn in a graphic style with minimalist black lines. Bruna chose to use only black, white, the primary colors (red, yellow, and blue), green, and orange. This distinctive use of bright and intense simplistic colors makes the bunny instantly recognizable and popular.