Keisuke Kishi creates these amazing 3D figures based on many themes including the Japan Edo period, Robots, Insects, Sea creatures and more. The Ministry of Mystic Machines theme, which includes the “Furin” - the wind-bell seller sculpt you see above, is my favorite of all the themes. Make sure you visit the Keisuke Kishi website and use the 360 VR View option to see the sculpts in all their glory. [link via Bibi’s Box]

Wow. I’m very happy to announce this news that I just received!!! Unkl brand has just released the news that they are having a contest that will let us be the designer for their Unipo line! They’ll choose the winner that they like the best and the winner will have their design produced and distributed to the world! Not only that, you’ll get a case of 20 to boot! Cool huh? Get your butts on over and download the template. Get your pens, paintbrushes, wacom tablets or whatever you use and create away! Most of all have fun!

Unipo Contest Template

post by Sandman

Oh no!  It seems Lou, one of the new Fashion Victim Tinpos has ended up in a lot of trouble.  He happens to be stuck in the Netherlands apparently wandering the streets after having been arrested.  According to the press, his clothing too closely resembles Louis Vuitton’s designs and thus he cannot be sold as is.  So there you are.  Poor Lou waiting to be rescued by someone friendly to take him home and take care of him!

post by Sandman

NOPATTERN / Chuck Anderson is one of the best freelance artist/designers I have come across. I first heard about NOPATTERN when he designed the cover for the Lupe Fiasco album cover (below). I love the creative use of colours in all his work and the way he makes an ordinary scene or location look magical. If you have not checked out the NOPATTERN website before then now is the perfect time as it have been completely redesigned and it is one of the neatest design portfolios on the web.

Art, Artists, Chuck Anderson, Design, NOPATTERN

Gavin Strange is a 24 year old professional graphic and web designer, street artist and toy customizer based in Bristol, United Kingdom. You may know Gavin Strange through his personal studio Jam Factory. Sandman got in touch with Gavin to ask a few questions…enjoy.

You’re a pretty young guy, at least in comparison to me, and it looks like you’re doing pretty good for yourself. Would you agree?

In the most modest way possible, year I’d have to agree. I still actually can’t believe I’ve done the stuff I’ve done, I’m a very very lucky boy indeed.

What is your ultimate goal in your career?

Oh man, that’s a tough one. I don’t have an ultimate goal at the moment, I think I’d just like to be able to continue doing this until I can’t use a computer or pick up a pen no more! I’d like to carry on and design / create / be a part of everything I’ve always wanted too!

How did you get started in the design field?

I was lucky, real lucky in fact. I did 2 years Graphic Design at college in my hometown of Leicester (Holla!) but I didn’t really have any interest in going to Uni, I just wanted to get out there and get involved. I was lucky enough to be offered a place working for a local Design Agency, which I gladly took. Not long after joining the firm I was offered the chance to be a Junior Web Designer as opposed to a Junior Graphic Designer. Having tinkered with the web a little bit in my own time, I said yes and that started it all!

In my spare time I doodled, drew, designed and just carried on the graphics side with the technical web side being learnt at the agency. 4 years later I plucked up the courage to go it alone and started JamFactory as my own company, being my own boss. 3 years later, I’m still here!

I love your bright, bold and many times, cute designs. I’ve been inspired by your work. Can you tell me what or who has influenced your style up to now?

Thanks man, very kind of you to say! Oh wow, influences… there’s so many! It ranges from people who I take a direct link of their style and people who I just think are incredible… My Bristol homeslices Mr Jago, Richt, Sums & Paris, Mister Cartoon, Estevan Oriol, TADO, Juice Foozle, Dist, Deseo One, David Lanham, Jeremy Fish, David Ellis, Will Barras, iso50, Jeff Soto, Mark Ryden, Miss Van, Pete Fowler, Rikcat, Tokidoki, WASTE, Christopher Lee, Chris Cunningham, David Fincher, Michel Gondry & Spike Jonze to my inspiration list!

There’s so many I’m forgetting. I just love it when I see anything awesome, I get so excited and feel proud that I’m ‘part’ of something, you know? It feels like there’s this whole subculture of artists, I love that, that’s inspirational itself!

You seem to have covered so many different “canvases” including skateboards and brick walls. What is your favorite surface to paint on?

Hmmm, another good one! I’m loving walls at the moment! Toys are awesome but they’s so fiddly and easy to mess up! Big flat smooth walls are really nice, Posca’s go on there so nice. I’m also a bit obsessed with doodling on windows, ever since the Rebelo show in Newcastle; I keep trying to convince different people to let me loose on their windows!

I’m all really new to this really though, it’s only within the last few years that I’ve had the opportunity to really do hands-on art stuff, as it’s previously been graphics and web stuff. I just kept my doodles as doodles, I only did my first canvas’s 3 or 4 years ago. I’m actually crap at proper painting. You give me a paint brush and tell me to paint you a ‘traditional’ painting and it’ll look pap, I leave that stuff to my brother - he’s the man with the proper skills!

Do you like doing stuff smaller, larger or does it matter?

It depends really, I don’t really have a preference! I love doing graphics stuff which gets printed big, thats always exciting! I did some graphics for Realmac Software a few months ago, 2 x 2 metres tall graphics for their booth at MacWorld and then a huge graphic for their new offices which spanned over 12 panes of glass, which is great feeling to have your stuff out there so big!

In terms of arty stuff I’m happy any size really although I reckon im more comfortable with a medium sized canvas or something 60 x 40cm or something like that! Saying that, give me anything any size and I’ll give it a go!

What is your favorite medium to work with?

The medium of dance, that’s always a good one.

ha-ha, not really. Ermmm I’d say I’m most comfortable on the computer, in Illustrator. I can work so much faster and smoother in that than anything else. But like I say, I’m so lucky to be doing different things, it feels ace to learn them all.

Pill Boy is such a cool character! I see from his flickr gallery that he’s very popular too. (added link for later in the post) What can you tell us about Pill Boy? How did you come up with him? What is his story?

Thanks! Yeah, I’m so so stoked with li’l PillBoy! He’s quite a trooper, he started out as a little idea I had in my sketchbook AGES ago, like years ago. I was flicking through it one day and thought ‘oh, i quite liked that idea’ and then started doodling again on that theme. I was at Duncan’s (Jago) flat at the time, just having a doodle session, and i remember being so inspired just being there, feeling creative with a hero of mine. I was really into it and thought I’d like to turn him into a vector creation.

That night I worked away and I’d not long fell in love with transparencies in Illy so that was my first real character which used shadows, which I was proud of. I’m not sure where or why I had the idea to open him up for download, I think I was just dead eager to be involved in the design community someway, so i thought I’d give it a go!

Well, 140+ customizations later, he’s still going strong! As far as I’m aware, there’s also a 2 foot vinyl sticker PillBoy on the wall of the I.D.E.A. Gallery in Los Angeles, courtesy of Pop Cling & Beautiful Decay! I’d also like to thank EVERYONE who’s ever took the time to create their own PillBoy, I heart you.

Who knows what’s next for him… I’d love to see him come to live in vinyl toy form… who knows!?

Well it looks like you’ve got a full plate right now, what can we look forward to in the next few weeks, months…. from you?

I have indeed got a full plate, which I love and am real grateful for. Expect websites, graphics, skateboards, clothing, shows and a couple more things i’ve got to keep under my hat but are very exciting too..

In closing, I want to thank you for taking time out of your seriously, umm how do you put it, “MAD busy”(?) schedule… to answer all of these questions. I am sure your fans will appreciate it and we definitely do at Urban Retro Lifestyle!

No, thank YOU for taking the time to ask me these questions, it’s been fun! Fans? Do I have fans? Surely not, im just a big kid that loves monsters and will scribble anything given half the chance, I’m more like an artistic parasite of sorts (a nice fluffy manga-looking parasite you understand).

Anyways, a massive thanks to you Matt, Urban Retro Lifestyle and everyone who’s took the time to read this shizzle, I love you all like a rap kid loves breaks.

Peas.

You can view more of Gavin Strange’s work at Jam Factory.

Interview by Sandman

We have just received a fresh batch of new Poketo Artist Wallets in our store. The designs are once again stunning and created by some of the best emerging modern artists and illustrators. The detail on the outside of the wallet is equally as good as the detail inside. Take a look at the Rama Hughes Wallet below as a perfect example. All wallets are priced at £14.95 and are numbers are limited.

View the full range of Poketo Artist Wallets

Art, Artists, Illustration, Poketo Wallets, Store News, Wallets

Project “Hello My Name Is…” is a cool project started by a toy collector in sunny California called Kris Butiong. After seeing the project and being insanely jealous I thought I would get in touch with the brains behind the project and asked why he started it. This is what he had to say;

“Basically.. this was based off the hmni dunny, and i thought how it would be a good idea to use these tags as my sketch book like a lot of people do. And i was unfortunate enough to go to comic con because i just started getting into this vinyl addiction a month afterwards. So i thought i would buy a bunch of these hello my name is tags and ask a lot of artists to help me out. I would simply private message people on the forums such as Huck Gee, Mad. As well as the local board artists Like Dok A, Squidboy, And Motorbot. I would also use myspace as another means of communication by messaging other artists myspaces. Also visited their websites getting contact information and just emailing them as well.”

“I was amazed on how many responses i have recieved for the project. There are still a few i havent gotten responses on but hopefully i will catch up to them at SDCC 07 with a handful of tags. I actually started this project a good month or two before i posted up the thread on kidrbot. After that i have recieved many private messages and posts of people that would also like to be involved with the project, which was something i was looking for. I’ve also moved this thread over to Vinyl Abuse and The Rotofugi forums. This was my actual first piece of “art” for my collection, first thing i’ve framed and put up in my room and so far im very happy of the outcome of this project. And hopefully continuing this for many years. I also really dont care if your a big name or not, anything from anyone would be great, different styles, art, technique is what i love about this project.”

I bet your thinking “why didn’t I do this” because that is exactly what I thought. There are some awesome looking stickers created so far by some top artists and I am sure the collection is going to get better and better. You can see the full collection of stickers so far here.

If you would like to be one of the artists creating a unique HMNI sticker get in touch with Kris through his myspace or blog.

How cool are these retro toy themed modern gadgets I found over at Notcot. First up is the Rubik Cube Mp3 Player designed by Hee Yong. This has got to be the only Mp3 player that makes the iPod nano look lame. Next up is the Subbuteo style USB drives designed by Marco Leone. These are very clever as I can imagine everyone in the office having their unique player and playing a quick game in between meetings.

Bob Dob has put up a little preview on his blog of his main painting for his first ever solo show at La Luz De Jesus in October. I can not wait to see what Bob Dob comes up with for he is show as he is one of the most exciting, talented and creative artists around.

Art, Artists, Bob Dob, Exhibition, Modern Art

I found a new post on the forums this morning from a girl in Italy that has a site called cloudsfactory where she sells her hand-made toys and polymer clay jewelry from. Very appropriate to the designer toy scene as you can see from the images. The biggest reason I’m posting is because I simply love the Furfolo designs! Both available in keychain form and plushies, they are hand sewn. Key chain is 3 inches, Plushies are 5. Each are, according to cloudsfactory, one of a kind designs.

post by Sandman