Positioning groups of clones into specific shapes/patterns

I am brainstorming ways I can arrange objects so they are in a pattern (in this case only 2D, but I imagine 3D would be similar just taking Z into account).

For example, say I have X number of objects that are simply square sprites. I'd like to be able to define some patterns that I can arrange them into on a 10x10 2D grid so that I can uses these essentially as pixels to create a basic pattern (maybe a star shape, or a smiley face, or whatever).

My thoughts are that I could start with 10x10 pixel images that just use black and white values. White value, leave the space empty, black value place an object at that location. I would be able to paint these in Photoshop or whatever and import to the game and loop through each pixel/location and map that to a grid in my game to place objects at.

A practical example of this would be to project a small-sized image onto a simulation of, say, Lite-Brite.

Is this an appropriate method for building something like this or are there already existing proven ways to do this?