View from the Zoo

Ritzenhoff did a great job with my coffee cup design for their My Darling 2008 collection. This sunny lion is king of the Java Jungle in the morning with his brew. Notice how the cup and the packaging are related to form a complete character that looks really good in the store display. The challenge is not only to make the cup interesting on all sides but also to create a character that a coffee lover can relate to.

A bit of background
The design started out as a business card for a very small corner café (now closed unfortunately). The owner, Remo, is a Leo. I developed a number of lions in different café settings and this one was Remo’s favorite. It also became the poster for my first exhibition of animal art at the café called «Les rois animaux» (The Animal Kings). Later on I submitted a revised and adapted version to Ritzenhoff but I didn’t hear from them for quite awhile, and then, surprise, one morning they announced their intention to produce the cup for this season.

A couple of weeks ago I went to the zoo, not only to observe the fauna but also to browse the gift shop. I discovered a line of Australian wooden toys called Anamalz and I had to get more than one! My wife got the alligator, I got the panda and my parents are going to get the lion and tiger for Christmas - let’s hope they don’t read this post! Winner of an Australian International Design Award this year and awarded the top three-star rating by the Canadian Toy Testing Council for 2008, these environmentally friendly animals are conceived «through sketch drawings while drinking coffee and eating cake in Torquay, a little seaside town in Australia famous for surfing and surfclothing (Quicksilver and Rip Curl).» says Tim Scott, co-founder and business development manager. «We take the sketches and put them into technical drawings. I go to the lathe and turn the shapes, and attach the legs and materials according to the design. We then engage Darren Keating (Lion King 2) to do the illustrations of the faces and paintwork.» «We» refers to Tim and Louise Scott (who is at the origin of the concept and is the lead designer). Made from FSC maple wood, water based paints and fabrics made from recycled materials the toys are now being distributed by Russ Berrie. Congratulations, Anamalz!

PS : I would love to work around coffee and cake on the beach! Where is Torquay, anyway?

My friend Hugues took these pictures of my Coke glass in the gift shop in the Coca-Cola museum in Atlanta last week. There are only 2000 of this limited edition collector glass by Ritzenhoff. In all, four designs by four artists from Europe and North America are available. I was inspired by art toys and mascots when I did this design. The creature that looks like a fridge is actually a frog! I enjoyed placing the Coke logo in original ways as well. I also hand painted several boxes for a corporate gift which you can see in my portfolio. It’s aways fun when people say they saw your design in another country. Thanks, Hugues!