this post is created for the Willem de Kooning Art Academy Rotterdam project week ‘Little Fluffy Toys’, an introduction to Toy design or Character design.

There are two main categories of designer toys:
Urban Vinyl

- these are made made of plastics (vinyl), eg Scarygirl (Flying Cat Toys), QEE (Toy2R), Kubricks
Designer Plush
- these are made of cloth or knitwear, eg Friends With You, UglyDolls, Roadkill Plush

two quotes from the Pictoplasma book:

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“Its all about the power of reduced and abstract character visualization, and its usage as an global language.”*
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“…lovable icons as commercial branding tools”*
—

So you could say toy design strongly relates to the (graphic) design of icons and logo’s. But there are more worlds that designers of toys draw their inspiration from, for example:

1 - graphic work (illustration)

2 - animation, video-games

3 - street art

4 - dolls

5 - action figures

6 - fine art, sculptures

And it’s fair to say the inspiration works both ways, and partly due to it’s huge popularity, elements of toy design find their way back into these disciplines, so nowadays there is a lot of overlap between them.

Below some examples for the disciplines mentioned above, this list is by no means complete – it’s just the tip of the iceberg…

1- the classic Michelin mascot Bibendum, or mascottes for the Olympic Games, but also less commercial stuff from illustrators (for instance check Sauerkids from R’dam) that are not stricltly ’street’…

2 - Hello Kitty, Doreamon, Toy Story, Sonic the Hedgehog, and work from animation studios like Strangebeast, FuriFuri, Anima Boutique

3 - KAW’s, Futura, The London Police, Pete Fowler, Mr. Jago

4 - classic stuff like Barbie dolls and My Little Pony

5 - Superhero figurines like Gundam (JP) robots -Manga-, but also ‘collectibles’ from Marvell Comics (US). Action figures are usually taken from famous TV series or comics.

6 - Yoshitomo Nara, Dadara, Picasso, Keith Haring

There is lot’s going on in designer toy world, and to stand out from the mass, the characters concepts seem to get stranger all the time (eg Roadkill Plush). The simplified iconic shapes and figures seem to have all been done (skull, toad, bear etc), but who knows maybe there is some more brilliance out there!

Three main things you need to cover when starting your own brand of d-toy:
- a crazy concept
- original shape
- material

Secondly you may want to think of:
- diversification, create a whole family!
- packaging and or reselling concepts

_______

more examples? check out this huge online reseller:
http://www.taintedvisionsart.com

posted on www.buroduplex.com/blog

* quotes taken from the editorial in the Pictoplasma book.

I came across this inspirational simple idea. Why think ‘old media’ when dealing with music video’s? At a time when the music industry and it’s media output are at crisis with (and because of) the internet, the great band Arcade Fire commissioned an interactive music video.

check it out.

http://www.beonlineb.com/click_around.html

the next half of 2008 the Secret Cinema bandwagon will be all over Holland again. For these events i’ll be doing som new style flyers & posters again. We’re also working on a brand new website for S.C. since the old flash site has become slightly aged. So many good things coming up! Below a reject, though a pretty one.

Voor bevriende band AC Berkheimer heb ik de eer gehad om de hoes te ontwerpen. Dit ontwerp moet ik snel eens op mijn portfolio site zetten… de tijd de tijd.
Anyways, dit is wat mij betreft nu de beste band van Nederland, met muzikale referenties als My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth, Blonde Redhead is het right up my alley. Natuurlijk ben ik geheel objectief met deze waardering. De release van het album ‘In a series of Long Days’ is in Rotown (Rotterdam), en ze zitten inmiddels bij het Subroutine label. Dus checken deze shit… er bestaan bandjes in Nederland die echt de moeite waard zijn (en nee, Kane hoort daar niet bij…), dit is er een van!
Jammer dat al die Nederlandse radiostations daar trouwens niets mee doen. Met Kink.FM en geneuzel in de marge op 3voor12 (hoe geweldige dit initiatief ook is - hulde vpro) komen we er op de een of andere manier niet met die Nederlandse indie scene.
Dus dan maar live, stap op die fiets of in de trein en kom geheel GRATIS! deze geweldige band zien en beluisteren (vooral dat laatste, want ze nemen het ’shoegazen’ letterlijk). Neem meteen een paar eurootjes mee om meteen het album te kopen! In de Reload al getipt als HET debuut van 2008.

I’ve put the seven works online on a website called Dripbook. It’s a series of screenprints I created under the working title ‘Hardly Art, Hardly Garbage’. (taken from the brilliant song by the Thermals)

I was invited to use this application Dripbook by Chris Wright, a friend from New York, who’s involved in setting it all up. The Dripbook site combines the network idea with generating online portfolios. By now it is featuring high quality artwork and photography from artists from over 55 different countries, so have a look when your inspiration has run dry! www.dripbook.com

My custom ‘Katipalism Dazzle Kicks’ shoes published! British publisher Laurence King ltd is releasing a book on the art of sneaker customising. The book features sneakers customised by artists from all over the world, and also yours truly - with the ‘Katipalism Kicks’ featured earlier on this blog. The book is designed by Groningen based buro Maki.

The release date is now set to May. It’s already on pre-sale on Amazon and many other online stores. The launch event in Holland is planned on Saturday June 28 on the Spui square in Amsterdam.

The first of march I will exhibit all my ‘free’ projects and works that I’ve made from 2001 onwards, when I was leaving the Rotterdam Art Academy and exhibited at V!P’s gallery - then located at the Witte de With. The title of the exhibition is ironic, but on the other hand… it is a good time for me to reflect on projects like Stereo publication, City Structures, Katipalism, and other commissioned work. I did so by addressing old material for one more time. Deeming it useful or useless - the last meant the trashcan, so it was either ‘art’ or ‘garbage’. The result is seven new screenprints in a limited edition of 10. (two color prints on 300gr Somerset paper)

opening: 1st of March (during Museum nacht venue). Galerie V!P’s, Westelijk Handelsterrein, Rotterdam.

I made an illustration for the Rotterdam Climate Initiative Calendar 2008 - an initiative started by Bill Clinton and the city of Rotterdam - with the purpose to ask and stimulate inhabitants of Rotterdam to think about taking care of our planet and to act accordingly. My ‘month’ is september and shows it’s better to cook wisely (more info about the project here).

After starting the TEAMrecords label last year, techno-producer Jeroen Verheij is now boasting his activities as Secret Cinema. Together with Zeligman artist management a new series of parties will be held in 2008, kicking off 12th of januari in the Sugar Factory, Amsterdam. Also my Secret Cinema robot Character will be at the center of the development of the Secret Cinema brand. Below is a design I made for a series of banners to be hung in the clubs.