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the cool kids So it sounds like you chose to follow your
own path from an early age. Did you get any
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sional in the art and design world shake their Anyway, when I was 19, I did indeed quit adver-
head at me (being told his version, not mine). tising at Art Center so that I could go work at a
local boutique toy shop to learn the ins and
So there was resistance. Luckily, I didn t care. outs of non-mass market toy distribution and
He wanted to be a photographer more than observe moms, dads, and kids buying toys in a
anything in the world, but went into advertising retail environment.
because it seemed more stable to him. Avoiding
your life passion out of fear is a no-no in my That job also got me into toy fair, and got me
book. deep into the side of toys I knew would prove to
be very important if I wanted to make my
over why I had so many toys Now I hear my father clips articles and such,
but from my early teens until well after we
(over 40 of them!) I would started Uglydoll, he told me toys and those
stuffed doo-dads were a waste.
ask him why science majors It s easy to get behind your kid when he s in the
had beakers and slides all paper, but with our daughter I want to be sure
around their room. He to be there for her during the process, not the
irrelevant outcome. I hope I can use my past
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i still draw the
stuff is always thrown in to test how dedicated
you are. I always say if someone from the fu-
ture travels back in time to tell you that your
same way i did when i life-long dream will fail 100%, and you still go
for it anyway, it will work.
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I use this now pretty How you generally feel inside and what
thoughts you generally carry in your head is
proven method by
tail, actually.
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I had one design-ish art job after graduating When we decided to start for real, I slept on my
from Parsons with my, now, wife and co-creator sisters floor for 9 months, eating not much
Sun-Min. It didn t last long. The first few weeks more than cereal, plain white bread, and salads,
were great and I had a lot of fun animating in and then moved to a tiny, illegally erected bed-
Flash until the boss told me to change a color room within an industrial building in the then
to purple, and that was it for me. very scary DUMBO, Brooklyn, surviving on a
daily menu of egg on a roll in the morning, a
Lesser paying jobs, be it retail stores or coffee bagel and coffee for lunch, and really good
houses, are great because you get so pissed off $3.00 chicken legs from a local corner stand at
that your dream work comes out no matter night.
what.
on a day I had to
I lived this way for the first 2 years of Uglydoll
when everyone was calling me a millionaire. One
guy called me just that [a millionaire] on a day I
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group, and its more like a family than a sales
force. They re the nicest people on the planet
and they drive the ship very straight and
steady.
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get as much input as you can, and then
don’t follow any of it
Did you ever go out and actively ask people Now you've been in the industry for several
for help and advice? years do you find it easier to call on your
creativity at will? Do you have any tips for
I realized when I was much younger, after calling being more creative more often?
up Gary Baseman for some very good advice,
I just make what comes out. For the Ugly Guide
that I was getting great advice on how to do
books, there s no sketches. I draw and write
things a way they had already been done.
with a pen. No eraser, so it s all a mistake. As
The best advice I can give is to get as much in- for how to be more creative more often, sit
put as you can, and then don t follow any of it. down and work. Done deal. Even if crap comes
out, sitting down and getting to work is what
Any other heroes? and have you had the matters. Read The War of Art by Steven
chance to learn from any of them? Pressfield. That will help with the procrastina-
tion, if that s the issue. That book was a great
Growing up, the designers at Ban Dai Japan and help and I am pretty sure the above is a quote
Tomy were my heroes. I had no idea who they from that book. It s ingrained into my brain, so
were, but I could see what they were doing and plagiarism not intended.
I learned a lot from them.
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How do you keep your energy up with all And your views on fitness?
the work required to make it in this busi-
ness? Mental fitness is just as important as physical.
Food is important. But what s most important is
Meditation. Avoid all drugs and late week nights monitoring your daily, almost hourly mindset. Do
out. Basically be what losers call a loser . Stay you carry Life is tough, life sucks in your head
home and make stuff for other people to go do. all day? Then it will be. Careful, because the
Avoid the scene and avoid hanging with the music, movies and games you repeat over and
top artists in them. over too often can keep you in a certain mind-
set, good or bad.
Scene-sters and others What about the rock and roll lifestyle of be-
keep each other in check If you re living a rock and roll life style, you get
your photos in the backs of magazines only you
and hold each other back, and your buddies read and not much else.
and they hate anyone who My title is : Nerdy Japanese robot collector and
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Ghost hunting aside, how often in your
creative work do you find yourself doing
things that you are afraid of?
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Isn't it a shame they don't teach that ap-
proach in school! One student said I was his
Math was my favorite art class at school. I used
best teacher ever, one
to fill in my test answers with UFO drawings.
I got an F, but was I wrong? If you get all A's in
hated me, and the rest
school, what does that mean? Good job little write from time to time.
Johnny, you memorized what we told you to and
A lot of university students tell us they are
filled in the blanks. Maybe it s better to fail. I
taught that art shouldn't be tainted by
want to send our daughter to a school where
commercialism. What are your thoughts on
they have a good balance of math, science, nu-
that?
trition, financial planning, no tests, and David
Icke. So basically home school.
Why do artists have to starve but it s OK for
Early on I taught a class, once a week, at Otis everyone else to suffer behind a desk doing
Art School for one year. It was supposed to be what you don t want to do for money? No
a flash animation class, but I turned it into a self thanks. Or do you mean fine artists doing fancy
help class. The class was called quit, get your designer bag collaborations and putting images
tuition back before the deadline, and use that on sneakers? Doesn t bother me any. We get
money to make your dreams come true, be- mad when kids paint on the walls outside but
cause this place is simply training you to work then we get mad when they paint on a bag or a
for someone else. shoe?
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first the bad news Now the good news
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