You Power in Japan has just launched their Fall catalogue this week. They have selected images from the Animal Kings, Kid Zoo and Modern Ark collections to create photo frames, photo albums, blackboards, wall art and cute little glass plates. Thanks to my agent, SCT, for being the matchmaker!
Once again, Ritzenhoff gave me a bear project. This time the brief was to customize a ceramic piggybank in the shape of a bear. I chose several approaches and this cool urban girl was picked. She’s dressed in jeans and a hoodie covered with hearts. All the Teddybanks come in this very fancy gift box that turns like a carousel to open. In the background you can see one of the eggcups (a robot) and a teacup (with bees) that I also designed for Ritzenhoff in the past.
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.
I love zebras. When I started looking at them closely I realized it was a wonder of nature how those stripes flow around the body without getting mixed up and how it is difficult to tell if the animal is black with white stripes or vice versa. I finally got to draw one – this is for the Tigerprint jigsaw puzzle competition which finishes at the end of July. You can see my other entries and those of other illustrators as well. So is the smile a stripe or really a smile?