Tommy Perez (see last post) blogged about his ultra cool Leroy C. Lil' Happy submission. Downloadable PDF (courtesy of Tommy) coming soon as well.
Filtering by Category: Toys,Film
We are very pleased to be contributing to EMP's new exhibit exploring the world of horror film and the human experience it produces. Can't Look Away: The Lure Of Horror Film features 19 of our illustrations, some truly amazing artifacts, interactive experiences, and information galore. We got a sneak peek at the show, and it's absolutely incredible! Do yourself a favor and check it out- open to the public October 2nd. And check out the portfolio for a more extensive look at the work!
The latest edition to the Leroy C. family is here. Cast in pearl grey vinyl highlighted by bronze and grey sprays. Heavy!
Leroy C. took a little trip to Arizona and came back with some new work, courtesy of the talented Asher Emerson.
Need a buddy that doubles as a nightlight? Done. We only have a few of these guys ...
Leroy C. has a new glowing suit for 
It's officially summer. At least that's what we've been told anyways. Join in the fun by grabbing our new Splash 'N Squirt and Happy Birthday Gift Cards. Many thanks to our awesome A.D.'s: Brian Holt, Ted Halbur & Aaron Muther!
We're honored that we could help out with Target's 7 cube win the other night at AIGA Minnesota's annual Design Show. Go Bullseye.
The IC toy elves have been busy. Meet this summer's dynamic duo: Salvatore and George - the lovable mascots we created for Sasquatch! Music Festival's 10 year anniversary. Salvatore stands 4" tall while George packs a TON of detail into an impressive 2". The two characters come as a set and will be available in person (along with a few limited-edition prints) on May 19th at Velocity Art & Design here in Seattle. Can't make it on the 19th? Don't fret - you can pre-order NOW. Sorry, you're on your own for miniature marshmallows.
Extra special thanks to our beloved clients Adam & Lynn for making this happen. And a round of applause for Frank at Super7 for bringing these guys to life.
A mighty big thanks to everyone who came out to our Full Circle show/Leroy C. launch party at Super7 on Saturday night. We had a blast. And as you can see above, Leroy did too.
If you find yourself in SF anytime soon, the show will be up for a few more weeks.
Photos courtesy of Zac Schwiet, Kaiju Chronicle and Toybot Studios.
Get him while you can ...
He's alive! Metallic silver, white and dark red spray on red vinyl. Available at 6PM on 4/23 at Super7 in conjunction with our Full Circle show. Come on out!
Available online the following Monday, 4/25.
We're excited to announce that we'll be showing a collection of work at the Super7 store in San Francisco, opening on April 23rd at 6PM. We'll also be debuting the first colorway of Leroy C., the newest member of the IC family! Super7 will have a limited amount on hand to take home.
We'll be sharing a collection of 20+ posters and prints, including a number of illustrations from our late grandfather, Alfred Paulsen. As someone who influenced our work tremendously and spent much of his young adult life in the bay area, we thought it would be fitting to include some of his work in the show.
We'll also have a few new limited Leroy C. prints available. Come out and say hi!
Here's a great little 
Awesome custom Leroy C. by D-Lux.
Well, he departs tomorrow AM. Big thanks to everyone who picked up an unpainted Leroy C. Adios!
We often get asked what our process is like. While we have multiple ways of conceptualizing and pitching ideas, the 3-step process that I'm going to outline below is pretty standard fare for us, as I'm sure it is with many illustrators. Sketch, sketch some more, sketch again, then on to final. 'Final' for us, usually means we hop into Illustrator and block out shapes. Once we have our shapes dialed and approved, we move on to lining and shading in Photoshop. There are many times when we start and finish in Photoshop as well, but a typical project like this will begin as vector art. I thought it might be fun to break down the evolution of an illustrated project, specifically a Gift Card for Target. Let us begin ...
With the majority of art direction already fleshed out by the wonderful team at Target, we're given the project and asked to create sketches based on their initial ideas. Since their initial ideas are always completely awesome, it's a joy to build off of them. The name of this particular card is 'Glow-In-The Dark Space Maze'. In this case, it's a card that doubles as a glow-in-the-dark space maze that doubles as a spaceship. Wait, is that triples as? ... Nevermind.
The first task is the game itself. The manufacturer needs to get started on producing these suckers, so the game dieline is first priority. After a few sketches, we dial it down and come up with our shape.
After the basic game shape is a wrap, we get to the fun part - figuring out the maze! After heading to the store to pick up a few similar maze games, we play, throw down to the floor and curse at said maze games. Once we think we know what we're doing, we start to sketch out our walls. To make it easier, we're given the ball diameter and wall thickness before we begin. After a zillion attempts, the sketch below is the winning configuration - which means anyone under the age of 5 can conquer the game in under 1 minute while the rest of us need about an hour.
After the sketch is approved (and tweaked a little), we move to final vector art for the manufacturer. Bada-bing:
After the game material is off being made, it's time to move into final art. With the nature of this card being glow-in-the-dark, the client asks that we use bright colors. Done. Here are a few colors we pitched:
... as well as this color scheme, which ultimately gets chosen.
So now that the game itself is done, time to start sketching the actual card backer - which is always a big chunk of the fun. We sent the client a few options, with this particular idea taking home the trophy ...
So now what's next? You guessed it. A few tweaks, then on to Illustrator. That's when we start blocking out shapes and finalizing color schemes. After a few rounds of small revisions, we have our final ready for shading ...
And there you have it ... a finished Gift Card. That was fun, right? Now it's your turn.
See it a bit larger in our portfolio. Now go grab one and keep the cursing to a minimum please.
Well, that was fast. Our unpainted Leroy C. figure sold out in 24 minutes. If you weren't able to grab one today, have no fear: we'll have plenty of the colored version in April. Thanks to everyone for grabbing them today.
Could there be more IC toys in the future? We'll have to wait and see ...
Meet Leroy C. He's 4.25" tall, extremely friendly, loves children and is 100% house trained. Before he arrives in full color, we've got 30 all-black prototype's ready for adoption. In the shop (complete with photos) on Monday, February 7th at 10:00PST. $30 + shipping.