artist spotlight: unmask beijing

if you remember, i mentioned the incredible work of unmask from a gallery i stumbled into while in beijing earlier this year. well ––– i contacted them to see if they would be interested in doing a customized nookanooka, to which they enthusiastically agreed [which i am very excited about]! this led to a product swap of which the fotos above are what i received. pretty cool stuff for their commercial projects, and the art, though financially less accessible is even more impressive. learn more with the links below.

exhibition information for unmask.
online shop for one of the toys above.
images of unmask sculpture on artnet.
their website here.

nooka sighting: michael lau

i've been a big fan of michael lau since i first bought the complete tom kid collection many years ago! he's having a big show in kuala lampur at H-5, and their new gallery space called ZINC. if you're in or near malaysia, check it out. i think this link on hypebeast is the best place to learn about michael lau's work. the nooka zen-h looks great on him huh? get yours here.

nookanooka show preview: house of liu

we are planning an exhibition to launch the mini nookanooka for sometime in the fall in both NYC and tokyo. here is a preview of a piece you will see in that show by veggie something aka james liu.

from the artist: The general concept for my customs is sort of like House of Liu meets NookaNooka meets Game of Death meets a little sci-fi. But if you look closely enough, you'll also see a convergence and juxtaposition of opposites.

NookaNooka always seemed futuristic to me. This impression was futher ingrained when I removed the head from the body. I noticed that NookaNooka's body by itself seemed really tough and strong and reminded me of an organic robot that could really battle - sort of like Robocop and the likes. Visually, the form also seemed to fit the head of Di Di and Mei Mei from my House of Liu character line rather nicely.

With the help of some clay, wooden parts, and felt, I was able to attach the House of Liu heads to the NookaNooka bodies. I decided not to glue the heads to the bodies as I thought the customs would have more personality if the heads were articulated like the arms.

For the paint job, I decided to take away some of the cute factor by giving the bodies a slightly weathered look. This was a little tricky as I had to find a happy medium between making them look battle worn enough and still being able to compliment the cleaner paint job of the heads. I picked the colors of yellow and black for the bodies in order to give reverence to Bruce Lee and the Game of Death. I chose black and blue for the heads and blue spatters for the body to even things out.

Oh, some of the juxtapositions include... future vs. past (NookaNooka reminds me of the future and House of Liu took place in ancient times), worn vs. clean (the weathered body and the clean head paint jobs), and the usage of yellow (a happy color) and blue (a calm color) instead of red (an action color).

nooka is available at fine stores and here. join nooka and love nooka on facebook and nookaNOW on twitter.

Nooka is an official sponsor of The Juan Maclean US Tour happening now!

nookanooka soon in tokyo

i was told to customize a nookanooka for a character designer-related show in japan in june but that's all the information i have so far. i'm very excited to post photos of the piece i did, including 2 process shots that show my hand-drawn sketch [the hand painting is my designer paul here in the nooka studio]. as i designed the nookanooka myself, i found quite a mental block to design a "custom" version [how does one work on a collab with oneself!?] and went through 5 nookanookas before arriving at a design i think works!

my first sketches were very graphical, applying 2-D patterns to areas of the character [playing on the hyper-dimensional elements of the nookanooka story]. my second set was to play solely with texture and color, even as far as getting quotes from a taxidermist to cover one of the nookanookas with deer fur [to play with the shape-shifting elements of the story]! what i ended up with is what you see in the fotos: simply using the nookanooka as a canvas to bring a doodle to life, perhaps alluding to the various emotive states the character can display. my working title is Hello Killy [ハロー霧].

i will post again when i know more details on the show.

nooka is available at fine stores and here. join nooka and love nooka on facebook and nookaNOW on twitter.

Nooka is an official sponsor of The Juan Maclean US Tour this Spring.

nooka creative x-change: james liu

recognizing that creative people find inspiration from multiple sources, matthew waldman conducts mini interviews to hopefully gain insight into the creative processes of the artists he meets.

this installment is with james liu of veggiesomething! thanks james!

please provide a small bio on yourself?
Born in Pingtung, Taiwan and based out of Chicago, Illinois, Veggiesomething has loved art and design for as long as he can remember. His artworks have been seen throughout the world via numerous art shows and exhibits and have been featured in various publications and media outlets.

Thus far, Veggiesomething has created four character lines (FIZZIEFUZZIE, House of Liu, United by Destruction!, and Sugar Bandits) and one lifestyle concept label (Killerslayer). These creative endeavors often highlight his love for modular designs that are bold, clean, clear, and concise.

can you tell me what motivates you to create your products?
Like other designers, my initial motivation for creating a product is to solve a problem. The problem can be big, or it can be small. Regardless, there is usually at least a general purpose to what we do. And in the process of that problem solving, challenges will pop up. The potential of overcoming those challenges and seeing the final product in use are usually my biggest motivators.

what are some of your influences and inspirations?
I'm heavily influenced and inspired by everyday life. There are a lot of different "scenes" that I'm interested in, and I love to take elements of inspiration from one scene and apply them to another scene. For instance, I'm heavily influenced by the punk scene after having been involved in it via things like doing a zine, being in bands, etc. for so many years. I carried that punk DIY ethic and that energy into almost every design that I do. The influence may not be prominent due to the demands of the design, but it's always there.

what does nooka mean to you?
To me, Nooka means living the independent spirit. Everything from the design to the concept to the entrepreneurship of the watch exemplify that spirit. Every time that I look down at my Nooka watch, I'm reminded of that spirit and it makes me want to pursue it in my own way.

the nooka james is wearing in this foto available at fine stores and here. join "nooka" and "love nooka" on facebook. nooka_ on twitter.

tokyo toy report

as my apartment and office in nyc is full of stuff, every trip to tokyo i make an internal promise not to buy anymore toys. well...i bought just a few last week and i have a justification for each of them. here is a short summary:

1. rilakkuma hang toy: rilakkuma [a contraction of relax+kuma (kuma=bear)] is the latest hit character from san-x, the studio that brought the world my all-time fave, afro-ken. justification: design reference for the nookanooka™ project AND too cute not to spend ¥300 on it.

2. genevieve gauckler bearbrick 400% + 100% set: i love genevieve's work and medicom toy products. justification: found it on-sale for ¥1000 per set, so i bought 2!

3. anna sui bearbrick with mini strap: another in the series of fashion label bearbricks. justification: found it on sale for ¥315! so i bought 4 sets – makes good souvenirs.

4. CP coupling figure vol2: have no idea where this is from, but the box was so small and only ¥200. justification: curiosity. amazing detail in this tiny tiny figure.

5. tsuburaya soko gacha-box toy: original ultraman based toy. these are made by bandai so i knew the quality would be superb. i was lucky to get the totasu-go car. justification: affordable quality. great small display piece for my office desk.

6. ishimori pro X pansonworks collab figures: the cuteness of panson's robin meets the serious crime fighting world of kanmen rider. justification: an excellent example of how interesting a collaboration can go. very cute.

7. petite "minna de gohan" [let's eat together] series: the detail in these doll-house food/meal miniatures is amazing. justification: to study what can be done in terms of detail with a mold and deco for plastic goods.

8. 220 works chara-keshi [character eraser]: these are pencil eraser versions of a famous japanese comic series. justification: materials research.

9. ultraman X touma figure: friend and urban vinyl giant touma re-works classic ultraman characters – the result is amazing for a ¥500 figure. justification: it's good to support the work of your friends AND also an interesting study in collaborative process.

overall...a lot of fun and great design inspiration for me and the whole nooka studio.

nooka including noo spring colors are now available at fine stores and here. join "nooka" and "love nooka" on facebook. nooka_ on twitter.

comicon nyc 2009

friday afternoon, i took most of my staff to comicon thinking it'd be good research for our ongoing development of the nookanooka character. also, we wanted to meet-up with friend, jeremy of mad toy design as he was doing a signing. his space at my plastic heart was mobbed, so we didn't get to talk much, but it was nice running into some people i knew and also to catch up with the guys at giant robot who sell nooka at their shops. alex got to hug the ugly doll mascot, see foto.

i have to be honest, i find it difficult to accept a so-called trade show that charges so much money to get in and 99% of the booths are basically stores selling goods. it's like macy's charging an admission. it's cute though, and a cultural phenomenom that's best experienced in san diego for the much much bigger comicon there.

as we didn't get a chance to talk, i met up with jeremy for lunch on sunday. so overall, a comicon-themed weekend.

shin tanaka vinyl toy debuts

mutual admiration society member shin tanaka was very kind to send me a BEAUTIFULLY signed vinyl figure produced by play imagination from singapore. in terms of design process, it's very interesting to see this come full circle. re-cap: shin tanaka makes PAPER figures inspired by the popular urban vinyl phenomenon. this concept bring the joy of color and form to the masses without having to spend much money or even to leave your house – just print, cut, glue and there it is! the nature of cut/paste/bend/ with shin's great design sense produced a unique vocabulary of form evocative of the urban vinyl genre. now there is an actual vinyl version of the paper figure that has made him famous!

also, look how nice he signed the piece in the back. thanks mr. tanaka!

nooka nooka spotted!

this was caught on the surveillance camera in our stockroom!

the nooka nookanooka pre-launch blog buzz

i have always been a big fan of character design. i remember my favorite cereals as a kid were always the ones with well developed characters [NOT tony the tiger, he had no depth and frosted flakes tastes like crap]. the best example is 'the freakies' cereal from the 1970s. i collected all the magnets and toys and even made my own stuffed animals of the characters with felt and barley for home economics class [remember when boys had to take home-ec and girls took shop?] – ahhh, the "free to be you and me" era! unfortunately, not one of the freakies cereal toys remains in my collection and i'm kinda over the whole ebay thing...

i am also an armchair biologist. i devour research papers on evolutionary biology, comparative morphology, and try really hard to understand theoretical physics. many of these themes come together in my artwork with my fairy labor union project and to a lesser extent with the nooka time pieces. it's all about wonderful synergies!

the fairy labor union project is quite conceptual and hasn't really found it's stride yet [which is not to say i'm giving up on it], but i've put the same skill sets together to develop the mascot for nooka. hopefully this will broaden press coverage even deeper for design, sneaker, and urban pop culture magazines as well as bring joy to everyone [maybe usher in a new era of corporate mascots which i'll be hired to design?].

the nookanooka™ will first be available as a vinyl figure as a display for nooka watches in a few select markets and shops and then for sale to the general public.

here is the story:
there is a realm we can not see, can not hear, can not taste nor smell, yet from this realm comes everything perceived as real. within this higher dimensional place lives beings who call themselves what can only be transliterated as: nooka. Their physiology is transient, eternal in their world, ephemeral yet immortal in ours – beyond imagination yet real enough to feel. time is to them as carbohydrates are to us, and from this they poo carrots and kittens [or anything else you can request]. they pee gravity and what is the equivalent of light to them is dark matter in our universe.

all that aside, the similarities in names drew the nookas to nooka inc. and a trans-dimensional relationship was forged!

now the official mascot of nooka inc., the nookanooka™ can spread the cheer of wonder-through-design [wtd™] to the 4 corners of the earth.

so go on, take the nookanooka shopping, to your auntie's summer cottage, to paris france, or to work on “bring-your-extra-dimensional-being-to-work-day”. you can also use the nookanooka as a handy stand for your collection of nookas!

nookanooka design team:
matthew waldman
yumi asai
alexander yoo
karl-johan hjerling [1.0]
carl nordenskjöld [2.0]

ALSO: i'm looking to find digital animators who can work for nookas [or our low budgets] or even as an intern to develop animations for the nookanooka story.

the nooka nooka corporate mascot

Many of you may know Nooka from press and shops on planet earth, but did you know that the brand is developing quite a following in higher dimensions as well? Drawn to Nooka by the similar sound of their name, the Nookas, extra-dimensional beings, made themselves known to me. After top-secret negotiations, they agreed to let Nooka base a mascot on their likeness!

Produced in a limited edition of 333 pieces X 3 colors in luxurious vinyl, the Nooka Nooka will initially only be available to stores for display [as the ‘horns’ of the Nooka Nooka” are perfectly sized to display nooka watches]. Any leftovers will be available for sale signed by yours truly for hundreds of dollars each. Available in April 2008.

photo is a sneak preview...more to come closer to the release.